Of Whispers and Daggers ✓ [TLRQ #2]

Chapter 20.2 - Idyne

We start off again, my legs protesting. Despite that, I try to keep our pace even and confident. Though no one should be out of the coronation yet, I would hate to be stopped and questioned.

After a minute, the boy asks, "Why did you get me out of there?"

Shades, he's grateful. I frown. I wasn't betting on any nice-guy types being in the dungeons.

"It wasn't personal." I infuse my words with ice. "You were just there."

He hesitates. "Then what are we doing now?"

"You agreed to do what I told you. I didn't agree to explain to you what that was."

He stops walking, clearly unsettled.

"Now," I say, "this castle is under lock-down, if you haven't heard. Kadranians at the doorstep."

He winces at their name and nods.

"That means you have nowhere to run. And if you don't do what I ask, then run is what you'll want to do because I will give your position up to the guards in a heartbeat."

His lips tighten, that same fear-of-death look in his eyes from earlier.

Remorse tugs at the back of my mind, but I swallow and shove it away. He was in the dungeons. He can't be a decent person or else he wouldn't have been down there. I'm going through with the plan. I pin him with a gaze.

"Fine."

"Good." I smile. "Then come on."

The fool actually stayed. The thought keeps ringing in my head as I lead him to the abandoned halls and stop in front of my secret room. I push the stone to open it. The little crystals that I left on set the tiny space aglow.

I glance at the prisoner. His heel bounces, but he doesn't try to leave.

Regret twinges in my chest, and I realize some small part of me had hoped he would be smart enough to try to escape. As it is, he's a harmless fly that I ventured out to find and brought back, ensnared, to my web. And the fool actually stayed.

I push him into the room. He stumbles forward, but makes no move to respond.

If he'd even tried to get away from me, then I could be without remorse. Then I could feel justified in tracking him down and dragging him back and doing to him no more than the Captain surely would have if he'd stayed in the dungeons. Then I could be without remorse.

What a fool! Anger burns deep in my chest, but I force my expression neutral as he turns to face me. I slip in and close the door. Nerves spike in my stomach at what must come next, simultaneously dreading the idea of him fighting back and hoping he does.

"So what now?" he asks, voice deceptively solid against the constant shifting of his eyes.

I don't know how long it will take the amulet to overpower him once I put it on, and I don't want to chance anything untoward happening in the meantime. No, that won't be the first step.