Page 4 of Bound in Violet Ink
Something about Kane is haunting me, and I don’t know what to do.
The leaking dripof the storm breaches our stone walls.
It will be time to leave soon. Gather the collected followers and liberate those improperly sent to live on this island. It’s the way with any damn dynasty—they grow too large and the first time true opposition approaches, paranoia grips their hearts like a fucking vice until cells overflow with the souls of the damned.
Souls I canreap.
Chaos always brings an opening for opportunity.Manywill gladly join my side who are stuck here, and then it will be time to return to my court and fortify before thechangeoccurs.
The Seelie will be culled. Those here will see to it. My freedom this time will unhinge the High Lord of these lands.Heradoptive father.
I grind my teeth.
They imprisoned her, too.
The metal chalice in my hands, one I stole from another when I first arrived, nearly bends as I stare blankly at the wall ahead. The thought ofherinside those walls, being sent to marry herself to another—something they will force soon—given the need to solidify alliances…
Keeping her from my mind is proving to be more challenging than stomaching the gruel they call food here. And yet I have to consider her. The ramifications. How can I allow her to rot away in that tower like a forgotten delicacy?
My gaze focuses on the rows of bookshelves that surround me, old and broken in many places. She’s a distraction when I should be honing my mind and searching for the answers we need in this fucking monstrosity of a library.
It doesn’t change that I’m a slave to waiting forherletter to appear, should she have ignored my words?—
My breathing stills when Osman enters my vision, the sound of stiff wheels echoing against the slate floor as he begins his task of returning books to their shelves. The Carrows is vast and houses upward to five thousand prisoners, rotating the libraries between each wing. Because the powerful and rich tend to search for vicious members within these walls, they permit learning and training of the body; a prison encampment designed to grind out the weak so the strong may be chosen. Freedom from here is earned through being bought to serve on an agreed-upon task.
If I were to be bought now, then the duskborn bred and born to serve these halls would hunt me down until they could drag me back.
Although notme… I could leave if I so wanted.
But I’m in here for a reason.
And while I have many of my own men with me here, we keep separated. Independent. I’ve made it clear that we act truly imprisoned until it is time?—
I smell a female approaching.
Human.
Glancing her way, she keeps her dirtied head down and sits across the table, strands of brown hair parting in clumps from lack of washing.
“You’re Kane…”
Only silence answers her.
She fidgets, dirty fingers with grime-filled nails touching each other as she keeps her gaze down. “Please. I’ve been waiting for you to appear at this hour for over a week. I’m willing to offer my body in return for your protection. Especially if the rumors are true...”
There are many things one can say. I see the sad situation for what it is, but she isn’t speaking to a savior of a benevolent kind. I’ve lived through atrocities that have numbed me to the pains of this world. Survival within the wastes that the Unseelie have been forced to live within has evolved us into something ruthless.
I’m here to reclaim our fucking throne, not save everyone.
“No.”
I also don’t appreciate her speaking openly of the rumors that Idoplan to escape. The guards of the Carrows were easy enough to sway once I knew what to offer…
Her breathing quickens, and I know speaking a word to her is only inviting further noise. “One of your men, then.”
“We don’t openly use bodies as payments. Flesh becomes addicted to flesh too easily, and loyalties are swiftly corrupted.”
Her cracked lips wordlessly open, wiping the greasy hair out of her face that may have once been pleasant to look at. “Please, I thought—I thoughtsurely… I mean,thank you, for answering me, first of all. I don’t want to appear ungrateful—I just don’t trust the others…youdon’t hurt the innocent.”
