The Golden Chalice

✰✦✰ Chapter 40 ✰✦✰

✰✦✰ Chapter 40 ✰✦✰

" Put This Dagger In Me Then Removed It "

I FELT MOMENTARILY dead when I saw his face.

Jacks stood in front of me. And there was no mistaking it—Apheses had just called him over—he was working with the enemy.

"Jacks—" I breathed. Fresh, feverish holes poked my heart, reeking with the stench of betrayal.

Words failed me. Even as I searched and searched for what seemed like decades. My mouth couldn't comprehend the scene before me. My head was full of nothing. Of so much but nothing at the same time. This betrayal. . .it hurt so much more than I wanted to allow it to. It made me want to set my clothes on fire. Sell this horrid, haunted home and run for dear life.

It made me want to never open up again. I'd told him things not even Sarinne knew of. All because he knew things—he knew of my past, of so many things that the rest of us never had, it should've clicked. It should've occurred to me the moment Sarinne and I let him out of our cellar that he was a big warning sign. That he was a manipulative, untrustworthy son of a bitch that deserved nothing from us. But it hadn't.

And we'd let him in.

I'd let him in.

"Vilkov?" I croaked out.

"Oh, yes," Apheses unlocked the cell door and stepped out, holding it open. He rested a hand on Jacks's shoulder and beamed proudly. "This is Jacks Vilkov," he told me. "He's an exceptional actor, Scarlett. He never knew Zacrus, you see."

I tried to get Jacks to meet my eyes but his stayed glued on the wall behind me and moved whenever I initiated eye contact. He looked exhausted, even now. He looked like it hurt to move. That hurt me more than I should've let it.

He was never your friend. Get over it.

Except he had been. He'd been someone I'd trusted, someone who'd managed to break down my walls and waltzed right in. This man had laughed with me and made me feel like I could finally let strangers get to know me after so many years.

I had so many questions but they simply wouldn't escape me. They remained in my mind, heavy and hectic.

"If there's nothing left to discuss," Apheses released a sigh, "we should probably get going. We don't want to wait too long for the ceremony, do we?"

"Ceremony? Wha—"

"Vilkov," Apheses commanded. "Shut her up. She needs to be in the throne room in twenty minut—"

"And your wife? Does she know of this?"

"Of course she does," he replied, shrugging. "She's Fae, my dear. She wanted all of this. The fame, beauty, glamour and endless riches. But she's dead now. No more use to me." He laughed again. "She should've known better." Turning to Jacks again, he said, "I'm going back up now. Stay right behind me."

Jacks only nodded.

Apheses patted him on the shoulder and for a split second it actually looked like it pained Jacks to be there, but the moment vanished and so did Apheses, down the corridor with his steps growing more and more distant.

A silence ensnared us and I couldn't even tell what Jacks was thinking anymore. His expression was so empty. He might as well have been a corpse.

"Tell me you're some sort of fucked up double agent," I said. "Tell me you're going to help me out of here. Jacks. I need you to ans—"

"No."

"No, what?"

"No," he said calmly, his eyes on the wall behind me. "I'm not a double agent."

I swore I could hear my heart crack a little. "So you're working for the men that want me dead and gone once they've used me? For the men that tricked us and forced you to betray us—"

"I wasn't forced," he cut me off again. "I offered."

I felt like a dagger was being slid into me and then removed slowly. Agonisingly. My lips parted in and before I knew it, my hand flew to my mouth to stop the sobs that were going to escape. "No, you weren't."

A pause. "Yes, I was."

"Jacks—"

"We need to hurry, please."

My chest heaved, carrying the weight of news I never wanted to hear. "You can't. Is this why you knew so much?" I waited. "Was any of it true? Did you even have a sister? Did you care for Sarinne?" A breath. "For me?"

This was too much. This whole day. Night. Whatever time it was, it was too much. My body and mind and soul couldn't take feeling like I was being slapped by a hundred hands over and over again anymore. My parents were dead. Killed by Apheses. My sisters? Gone. Because of Apheses. My hope? Destroyed by Apheses. Freedom? Taken by Apheses. Trust? Demolished beyond recognition by a boy I'd considered a close friend.

I shook my head. Turned around because I simply couldn't take looking Jacks in the eye anymore. "How could you do this to me? I let you in. I told you about things that have haunted me since the day they happened—" My breath caught in my throat. "I can't—I can't understand why."

My head throbbed when I asked the question, "How did you know all of it? All of my past?"

Finally, I turned around. Jacks still wasn't looking at me.

"Damnit, look at me!" I screamed, my throat already sore from Apheses's powers.

Jacks didn't. Until he did; his pale green eyes suddenly so strange and foreign to me. No longer did the patriotic boy who was odd and also amusing exist. He'd been possessed by the stranger in front of me.

I questioned if I'd imagined our friendship. Had I been so desperate to start my life again that I'd lied to myself? Made myself believe that others could be trustworthy and warm?

It only caused me to cry even more. "How did you know?"

"Scarle—"

"You deserve prison!" I seethed.

He stood straighter. His eyes flashed briefly. Hope surged in me momentarily until he said—"Apheses is waiting for us. Are you done?"

I died inside.