Page 92 of The Realm That Falls to Her

I don’t respond, frozen by apprehension, until I see Ruskin stop and look into a cell at the far end. He turns to me and smiles, beckoning me closer. My heart leaps, and I all but sprint after them, catching myself against the bars of the cell that holds my father—alive.

Alive, but not well. He’s seated on the edge of a dirty cot, staring at the wall. He hasn’t noticed us, because of the spell, naturally, and I have a moment to take him in. He’s always been thin, but he’s worryingly so now, his shoulder blades make visible bumps in his thin shirt, and his face is gaunt. He’s not been starved—I suspect Ruskin’s charm prevented Albrecht from harming Dad outright by denying him all food—but it seems they’ve given him as little as they could before the protection magic was triggered.

I wrap my power around the cell’s lock, opening it. Ruskin must have lifted the diversion spell on Dad, because he suddenly turns to look at us with confusion in his eyes.

“Nora?” he asks, and I feel a desperate relief that even with my altered face, he recognizes me.

“It’s me, Dad.” I fling myself down on the cot beside him, pulling him into an embrace. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve come sooner. But we’re here now.”

Despite his thinness, Dad grips me back with encouraging strength. “Don’t fret about it, Nora. I’m all right,” he insists, though his tone is hardly convincing.

“Eleanor.” Destan and the Sunshards remain by the doorway, but Ruskin stands opposite the cot, his eyes on the walls of the room.

It’s now that I see what he does. Dark stains, splatters of rusty-red, cover the walls, trailing down onto the floor. The stains aren’t fresh, so I hadn’t noticed the smell at first, but now I catch its metallic tang.

“Dad,” I say, searching him for signs of injuries. “What did they do to you?”

“It’s not what they did to me, my dear,” Dad says, and something in his voice stops me short. I look into his eyes and see that they’re not the same as they were before. There’s a haunted quality to his stare.

“What do you mean?”

“Whatever magic Blackcoat worked stopped the king from harming me. But he wanted information about you, badly, so he tried to find a workaround. He couldn’t torture me, but…” Dad’s stare passes over my shoulder, looking far away into the distance. “He made me watch as they hurt others. Innocent people, some of them even from our village. He did awful things to them, Nora.” His eyes brighten with tears. “Terrible. He told me he’d stop if I told him what he wanted to know. But what could I tell him? I didn’t know anything really. He’d already guessed you were with Blackcoat.”

“Oh Dad.” I take his hands in mine, my own eyes filling.

“I couldn’t save them,” he says, as if begging me to understand. “There was nothing I could say to make Albrecht believe me.”

“It’s not your fault,” I say. Dad wipes his face with the back of his hand, his expression growing calmer.

“Eventually he realized he wasn’t getting anywhere and stopped. But he left the evidence to remind me.” Dad points a shaking finger at the wall.

“You did everything you could,” I say.

“Did I?” he asks, and it seems like he’s directing the question to himself.

“Come on,” I say, wanting to be out of this horrible, blood-stained place that houses so many demons. “Let’s go.”

Dad raises his eyebrows when we stroll past the guards on our way out without anyone even glancing our way, but he says nothing, just sliding a thoughtful look towards Ruskin.

“You look different,” he says to me at last, as we climb the stairs.

“A lot has changed,” I say, not knowing where to start. “Because of Faerie, I have some magic now, and it’s altered me in other ways.” Dad studies me, and I worry he’s going to bombard me with questions. Yet to my surprise, he doesn’t ask anything, but simply nods like he’s satisfied.

“You’ll have to tell me all about it soon,” he says, and I give him a grateful smile.

“Do you know where the king’s quarters are?” General Sunshard asks me as we reach the top of the stairs. “He’s not likely to be elsewhere at this hour.”

She’s right, night is drawing in, and it’s past dinnertime.

“I have a vague idea, yes,” I say, taking us up two more flights and along a corridor.

“We have to find Albrecht first,” I explain to Dad, although he hasn’t spoken again. I wonder if he’s too exhausted to do anything more than follow along. “You’ll be safe, I promise, but we have questions to ask him.”

We don’t need to search long, the increasing numbers of guards giving us a clue that we’ve reached the royal wing. The rooms are opulent, but like all the luxury in the castle, it feels gaudy and artificial to me now. I suppose that’s to be expected now I’ve lived in a palace decorated with blooming flowers, or the rugged beauty of minerals like in the Unseelie Court.

But Albrecht isn’t anywhere to be found. When Destan finds a hallway leading to a smaller set of quarters, there’s only one person there.

“The king’s child?” General Sunshard guesses, as the young man sits reading in the bay window, oblivious to us watching him.

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