Page 57 of Terragnata and the Heir of the Earth

I didn’t reply and Olea fell silent, dressing me in the gold satin shift once more, and wiping my face clean. She braided my long hair in twin plaits that touched my mid-back. I then bid her to take me to Gia’s room, for she had not been present at the banquet, and along with Fayzien’s absence, I noted it. I wouldn’t be able to rest without checking on her.

When I arrived, Gia was already asleep, and I crawled into bed with her, sending the maids away. I told Olea to fetch me in the morning. Gia mumbled upon feeling my presence, as if she had expected it. I tried to relax into her steady breathing, my eyes fixed on the sliver of moonlight that shone through the window.

But I could not sleep, for the Dragon scale continued to pull at me from my hip bone. The overwhelming feeling radiated into my low belly, and it oscillated between a pulsing and a slow burn. I let the moon travel lower in the window, waiting for the almost dusk hour when I knew most of the revelers wouldeither be in bed or too drunk to remember if they encountered a wanderer in the halls. Once late enough, I slipped out through the door, clicking it shut behind me.

I yawned next to the guard stationed by the door, feigning exhaustion. “Even the soft snoring of a woman keeps me up,” I said groggily.

“Will you need an escort back to your room, miss?” the guard asked.

I shook my head. “I know the way. Thank you for the kind offer.”

I ambled at first, making sure I rounded several corners before I took off in a silent run. My Fae sight let me pick up on the cracks and markings I had noted before. And within a few minutes, I peered around a wall, looking down at the main staircase. There must have been another less conspicuous way to get down, but it would have likely been a passage used by the servants, and I was in no position to wander through servant quarters without being noticed.

But as luck would have it, I found the foyer empty. If any guests still reveled, they had moved to private quarters. I crept down the staircase, mustering all the stealth I could. Only four more passageways, five turns total, until I reached the entrance to the dungeons. I hurried forward, planning my distraction of the guards. When I began to take my last turn, the sound of a familiar voice reached my ears, and I froze.

Fayzien—with a companion I could not identify. They spoke in drunken, hushed tones.

“Well, now that Cas knows he’s bound to the bitch, we can’t hurt him. At least not physically. But in a way, mental torture is that much more deliciousssss,” Fayzien slurred. “And Cas is perfectly supportive of that.” His cackle raised the fine hairs on my arms.

“And how do you do it, then?” the unknown male voice asked, probing.

“Ezren doesn’t know Cas lets me see him. So I describe in detail what I’m going to do to the bitch now that he’s locked up. I tell him that by the time he’s let out of the cell, I will have made her scream my name so many times she will have forgotten his. I don’t know if he fully buys it, but the image hurts him all the same.” Fayzien snickered.

I vibrated with rage, for myself, for my family, for Ezren. And though I directed the bulk of my anger towards the vile Fae-Witch I’d overheard, I couldn’t help but think of Cas, too. How could he cooperate with such a monster? I cursed myself for not having a blade, for I would have given anything to shove a dagger into Fayzien’s sickened throat.

A small part of me remembered how it felt when I’d thought he’d died. How the grief hadn’t budged an inch.

“I heard you killed the collaborators, as well—the ones that sailed for Panderen,” Fayzien’s companion said, their voices growing nearer. My heart at once sunk with pain and got swept up in a fresh wave of fury. I was close to doing something stupid. But I darted two hallways back, hiding myself in the shadows of an alcove. I waited for them to pass, hoping the ale that clearly lingered in their veins would dull their Fae senses.

Fayzien laughed with a darkness that made me cringe. “I made the North Sea swallow that ship whole. What happened to its passengers, I neither know nor care.”

They continued their walk, their conversation turning to a dull recounting of the night’s festivities. “I am going to kill you, Fayzien of Nebbiolo.” I breathed the death vow when they were well out of earshot.For Sanah, Leuffen, Leiya, Danson, Javis. Father. And Mother. Not. One. More.

My whispered words hung in the air, burning with more hate than I’d known I could feel.

When they were gone,and I’d composed myself from the trembling shudders that wracked my body, I restarted my journey. To my relief, only one sentry guarded the dungeon door, lounging against the wall. I snuck into the hall and pressed my body into the side of another alcove just a few yards from where the guard stood. I needed to neutralize him without him recognizing me, or registering who disarmed him. I made a small bird noise, a sound I learned to create when we hunted grouse in the forest. He started at that, looking for the source of the call. He walked right past the alcove where I lay in wait.

I jumped on him from behind, covering his mouth with one hand and placing his neck in the crook of my other arm. He struggled for his sword, but given my legs wrapped around his midsection, he failed to reach his weapon. I tightened my grip, pressing my forearm harder into his air pipe. It only took a few moments before his body softened. I placed my feet on the ground once more and lowered him into the alcove I had jumped out from. He would wake up in a few minutes if I did nothing else, so I hit him on the head with the hilt of his dagger. And then I took the key ring from his belt and scurried down the wet stairs.

In moments I reached the T again, and I veered my jog right. In less time than that, I reached Ezren’s cell. He sat in the corner, eyes closed, his head tilted back to rest on the stone wall. I stood there a moment, just watching him, knowing I had approached in silence. Eventually, he would get a whiff of my scent, but I no longer rushed.

He jumped to his feet, easy and smooth, the warrior in him showing. Anger and feelings of betrayal coursed through myveins, combining with desire and the discomfort I had from seeing him this way. Filth covered every inch of him, but the bulges of his abdomen, the sloping lines of tension in his arms, remained visible. It took me right back to that day in the Adimon mountains, blinded by the image of light and flowers and his hands all over me.

“Terra,” he said, waking me from the memory.

I snapped my gaze back to his. Dull no longer, his eyes blazed into me in the same way they had when I first looked into them, him hovering over me in the Argen forest. I entered the cell, walking over to him. And then, with a silent prayer, I slipped the smallest key from the ring into his chains. I almost cried out in relief when I heard the click, and I undid the balance of his chains. He remained still as the last of them fell to the floor. His eyes landed on the ring I’d neglected to remove from my left hand.

“It seems you have accepted the prince’s betrothal offering,” Ezren said, his voice stiff and unreadable.

“I’m not here to discuss the prince, Ezren,” I replied coolly.

He flinched almost imperceptibly at the use of his name. “Then what would you like to discuss?”

“Why?” The same question from before, yet unanswered. “Why didn’t you tell me about my mom, my title, and Cas?” I whispered. “Why lie?”

“I didn’t lie, Terra. I just couldn’t tell you. I wanted to—many of us did—but we couldn’t.”

“Why!” I demanded, choking back tears. A sudden realization hit me like a slap. “My memories. Jana didn’t free all of them, did she?” I breathed. “She withheld them from me on purpose. Why?”

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