Page 61 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

Slamming the door shut behind me, I leaned against it. Only for a heartbeat, and then I was moving again, towards the center of the room as I tore the shroud from my body, followed by the dress until I was naked, only my swath of death marks upon my skin. The mirror against the wall mocked me, showing me the truth: that I had becomeexactlywhat my mother had been afraid of.

While Tallon’s marks were more extensive, I couldn’t deny the familiarity in them even as he sent Talyssa to her death. Could I do that? I shut my eyes tightly against the rapid influx of memories, both of myself and my mother as we choked on our own blood.

He’d been the cause of that. He controlled the plague.

My breath came in pants as I approached the mirror, falling to my knees in front of it and frantically tugging and scratching at the skin adorned by blackness, as if I could rub it off or tear it off. But it remained, stark against my pale skin and mocking me. Tallon had cursed me with the plague for whatever reason, and now I was like him.

Whatever he was.

He’d tricked me, and now I would have nothing left. My brothers would die because he had made them sick, and I could not count on him to get the cure to the disease of his own making.

An abrupt knock on the door pulled me from the battle with my reflection. Scratches covered my neck once more, but I tore my gaze away and scrambled for the robe I’d left across my bed. I’d only just pulled it tight around my waist when the door opened.

I’d been right—no lock would keep Tallon out if he wanted in.

“That was locked.” My voice shook only slightly, but the hoarseness made it all too obvious that my emotions had yet again gotten the better of me. I couldn’t bring myself to care, though, since he certainly didn’t. “And I didn’t invite you in.”

“I didn’t think I needed an invitation,” he said with a careful step forward. He was still in his costume, the mask across his cheekbones and his marks back on his forearms, still and steady. “I wanted to explain.”

I scoffed, anger replacing the disgust and self-loathing. “There is nothing I want to hear from you, Tallon. Youkilledher. You killed them all. You nearly killedme.”

He flinched and bowed his head, his shoulders slumping as he tucked his hands into his pockets. “I am sorry, Odyssa.”

“Why should I listen to your apologies? They will only be more lies.”

“I need you to understand,” he said, raising his head. The gray of his eyes had come alive, shining like molten silver and framed by the dark mask. “Please, let me explain.”

“Take off the mask,” I demanded, crossing my arms. If he was going to beg for my understanding, he would do it as Tallon, not as the prince’s pawn, though that’s exactly what he was.

Without hesitation, he yanked it off, and it clattered to the floor. Neither of us looked to see where it fell. He took a tentative step forward, and then another, and before I could react, he was in front of me, reaching out to touch me.

“No,” I said, yanking my arm out of his reach. “Explanations do not require you to touch me. Tell me why. Why are you here? Clearly you’re working for the prince, so why don’t you just kill me now and get it over with?”

His fingers flexed into the open space where my body had been, but he let his hand fall back to his side. “Will you take off your mask as well?”

“I’m not wearing one.” I was, though, and I hated that he could see it so plainly. But if I let my own mask fall, let him see how much what he’d done had truly hurt me, it would only be another weapon for him to wield against me later.

He cocked his head, and for the first time since we’d met, I saw only curiosity in his gaze. No teasing or hidden meanings. “Are you not?”

“This is not about me,” I argued.

“This is about both of us, Odyssa.” He stepped closer. I retreated the same. “Please, let me explain?”

I looked at him, trying to find any sign of lies in his face, but it was open, more earnest than I’d seen before. While I wanted nothing more than to scream at him, to beat at his chest with my fists and slam the door in his face, I wanted answers too. I wanted to know why he’d done this, why he was working for the prince when he so clearly hated it. Why he had sought out my company. “Fine, I will hear your explanation.”

“Can we sit?” He nodded towards the bed. “It’s quite a long story.”

There was no reason for me to disagree, and my legs were already trembling with exhaustion and shock. Yet the mention of the bed brought my near nakedness back to the forefront of my mind and my cheeks flushed. I hurried over, settling on the far side, barely on the edge of the bed, as Tallon sat similarly on the other side.

It felt like an ocean between us, though one made of fabric rather than water.

“As I told you before, I was friends with King Gavriel. I suppose my explanation starts there.” He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “All I wanted was to experience humanity, Odyssa. To know what it was like tolive.” He shook his head. “I am from the Beyond, a herald of Kalyx. And yet, despite all the power and comfort in the world, I did not know what living was like, and I wanted it. I wanted to know what it was like outside the Beyond.”

I sucked in a breath but bit my tongue to keep from making a noise. In some way I’d known he was not human, but to hear him admit it was something else. And the Beyond… Gods, it was a real place?

My mind flickered back to my nightmares, the hallucinations I’d had while I was sick, and the places I’d seen when he carried me to his room.

“I’ve been to the Beyond, haven’t I?”

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