Page 90 of Of Serpents and Ruins
Blinking, I scrubbed the tears away. The oppression of this cell wore upon me even though I had barely been here five minutes. Three lancet windows with arched tops lined one wall. The rain beat its insistent pattern outside, and heavy water marks showed that someone had crawled on their hands and knees over the ledge.
Someone?
Me.
"I climbed in through the window?"
He nodded. "You climbed in like a lizard, but you did it without shifting. We’re facing the sea on this side too. Had you fallen… Well, I don’t recommend you go out the way you came." He tilted his head. "You’re wearing your ring. Maybe it changed your hands or your stomach. Regardless, terrifying and impressive, my love." He winked at me as if this wasn't utterly appalling.
My stomach somersaulted. Those gorgeous ruby-red eyes smoldered with an otherworldly fire. All I wanted was to flee into the shelter of those powerful arms, but the shackles held him there so cruelly, and I didn't want to make things worse by touching him.
"You’re all right?" He studied me, his furrowed brow softening with concern.
I gave a small nod. "I think so." I tried to stuff down the shame that threatened to choke me.
"What happened?" he prompted. "I'm guessing the Gola Resh?"
"You don't even sound a little surprised."
"I'm not. Besides, she has been the reason for most things going wrong," he said with the faintest hint of a smile. "So what did she do? Or say?"
"She said she would let me have a taste of what you're going through, and she said…" I hugged myself, my gaze dropping back to the scuffed stone floor before I scanned the room.
This was where my beloved…slept? Except there was no place to sleep. The cell itself was a bedroom that had been cleared out of everything but the wardrobe and a couple tables as well as a wash table with a basin and pitcher. Chains and shackles hung from black anchor rings drilled deep into the wall. They held him fast without even the slack to scratch his nose.
"What did she say?" He leaned forward as much as he could. The chains clanked. His shadow shifted on the wall.
The words almost rose to my lips before I could stop them. She wanted me to kill him, and what would he say? He’d tell me to do it.
I swallowed them down and shook my head. "She does what she does to torment us, to show me what you experience." There was one part of that he should know. "And…the curse will onlytake you eight more times. If you don't kill me before then, you'll lose your mind forever."
"What?" His eyebrows rose.
I took a deep breath before speaking again, my voice trembling. "The Gola Resh told me that the curse seizing you will only happen ten more times. After that, if you haven't..." I trailed off, unable to speak further.
The weight of her words pressed in upon me. I struggled to breathe. Tears burned the backs of my eyes and choked me.
He looked like I slapped him.
My shoulders shook as I drew in on myself. The thought of him going mad without any chance of aid or healing destroyed me.
He scoffed, his voice low. "I always assumed…" He shook his head. "Well, that was foolish of me." His gaze tilted as he gazed at me. "What else?"
I bit the inside of my lip. "Who says there’s anything else?" I whispered.
"You don’t lie particularly well, Stella. Never have. You always bite the inside of your lip when you’re confused or hiding something. We both know you’re hiding something."
Thrusting my hand over my mouth, I rubbed it briskly as if I could scrub the words away, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t deny him.
"She said if I killed you, then she’d spare me and one person of my choice. Then she touched my forehead, and I went mad."
The silence hung between us, heavy and smothering. Chills crept over my body.
"She wants us to know her loss," Brandt said quietly. "As if she and her so-called beloved didn’t visit loss upon hundreds, not even considering those who are yet to come."
"I refused her offer," I said sharply. "I will not kill you, Brandt. I don’t know how we’re going to stop her, but we will."
He nodded as his gaze drifted over me. "Good thing we have a plan. Did she offer to free Sepeazia as well if you killed me?"
