Page 69 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

“What do you think you are doing in here?” Prince Eadric hissed into my ear.

I locked eyes with Tallon and immediately wished I hadn’t. The look on his face told me everything I needed to know; we’d failed. I had failed. But I would rather fail my family a thousand times than die at the hands of the Coward Prince himself. I raised my chin and stood tall, refusing to shrink in on myself for this pittance of a man. “Are you asking that to be dramatic or are you truly so stupid that you have no idea?”

Tallon’s face paled, but it was his eyes flashing silver that truly made me regret not biting my tongue. He had been afraid that Eadric would use him against me already, and now I’d opened my mouth and all but ensured exactly that.

Eadric tutted and walked around the desk, sitting against it and looking at Tallon. “We had a bargain, you and I. Are you truly going to break it for some pretty little servant?”

“I’ve broken nothing between us, Eadric. And you know it.”

Eadric pushed off the desk and continued back around until he was behind me again. “What’s your name, girl?”

“You’d let me into your home, onto your staff, without ever knowing my name?” My voice was icy to my own ears and Tallon’s warning frown did little to tamp down the anger.

“You saw what I made him do to the other one who stole from me?” he asked, tugging on a lock of my hair.

I pushed down the flinch that threatened to erupt. I’d failed already—the treatment was out of reach—and while Tallon was likely safe from the prince’s ire, I wasn’t. I had nothing left to lose, and I’d been waiting for a long time to tell the Coward Prince what I truly thought of him. “Yes, I did. It was despicable.”

He paused, looking between Tallon and me before letting out a loud laugh. “Yes, he is that, isn’t he?”

I turned my head to look him dead in the eye. “I meant you.”

Now the prince froze, my words shocking him into a stupor. As the insult settled into the room, I vaguely heard Tallon’s hiss, but my focus was on the prince, watching as his face morphed into shock, and then outrage, and finally landing on utter fury. “You woulddare?—”

“I would. You are a horrible human being, manipulating everyone around you to control your people with fear, ignoring them as they die in the streets and Veressia drowns in their blood.” Stepping away from the desk, I faced Eadric with Tallon at my back. Anger thrummed through my veins, pulsing along the lines of my death marks. I’d never felt more powerful than in this state of calm rage. “You must resort to locking people inside with you to have anyone pay attention to you. You are pathetic.”

My heart soared as he spluttered, his face turning red and splotchy. The words had struck true, and for the first time, I was grateful for the years at the receiving end of Emyl’s sharp tongue. I’d learned from the best how to cut someone down with little more than words, and I had no reservations in turning my brother’s prized weapon on this coward in front of me.

“You insolent…” He reached down into one of the drawers that I hadn’t gotten to yet, and when his hand emerged, it was holding a gleaming silver knife. “I will show you what happens to those who think they know better than me. My father thought me weak and pathetic, too, and now look where he is. You will regret crossing me,servant, and so will Tallon.”

The knife glinted in the light as he thrust it towards me, coming in towards my side at waist level. Time slowed, and I heard Tallon shout, but my focus was on the bright silver blade. My body was frozen, and just as the knife should have impacted, should have dug into my flesh, Tallon’s body collided with mine. The wet sound of a blade entering flesh squelched in the room and pulled me from my almost trance-like state.

Tallon had his back to my front still, but I could see the crimson flowing from the wound in his side, spilling down his shirt and darkening the fabric as his hands clutched at his flesh, trying to keep the blood inside. My vision spotted and black danced around the edges. Only as the black grew more consuming did I realize what they were. My marks had come alive, just as Tallon’s had at Eadric’s command.

Prince Eadric, now pale and trembling, stumbled away from us, the knife clattering onto the floor as he dropped it. His eyes were wide and panicked, flitting about to my shadows that swirled around us, hovering over Tallon’s wound. “No, no, what did you do? Who are you? No, itcan’t be.”His eyes snapped to Tallon. “You told me she had no magic!”

Tallon grinned. “I lied.”

The darkness converged around Tallon and me, and I inhaled sharply, my own panic rising as I struggled with what to do next. I moved in front of Tallon, pressing my hands to his side as well. He let out a pained grunt, more blood gushing from the wound. I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing we were back in his room, that we’d never left in the first place. One moment of doubt—I could give myself that—and then I would get us out of here and back to safety.

“Odyssa,” he rasped.

I opened my eyes and nearly fell over. Only my grip on Tallon kept me upright as I took in our surroundings. The nightmare world, the Beyond, was in front of us now. The study, Eadric, all of that was gone, replaced by towering cliffs and jagged canyons.

“No, no, no, why are we here?” I asked, looking up at him. “Get us out of here, please, Tallon.”

“I did…not do this,” he panted. “You did… Imagine your destination… It will take us there.”

I tried, desperately picturing his room, but nothing happened. My marks still undulated around us, flickering irritably as I clenched my fists and tried again, hands sticky with Tallon’s blood. Panic began to well up, and I fought to control my breathing. “Tallon, it’s not working.”

He took a deep breath and pulled one hand away from his side, grasping loosely around my throat and settling his thumb into the hollow between my collarbones. “Odyssa,breathe.”

His grip grounded me in a way I hadn’t expected, my only focus on the heat and weight of his hand around my neck, the sticky wetness of his blood on my skin. My shadows flared, wrapping around us like a cocoon once more. I wantedout of here, but nothing was happening.

“Remember how you felt earlier in my room,” he murmured, stroking his thumb along my skin. The pain was still clear in his face and his voice, but his grip was firm even as his eyes fluttered shut. “Remember how it felt to be in my arms. Imagine what it will feel like when I’m holding you again. Take us back there, Odyssa.”

His words and his hand on my throat were enough to calm my panic, though they made my heart race in an entirely different way. It helped though, and on the next blink we were no longer in the Beyond but in a bedroom. But it was nothisbedroom. The layout, the decor, even the feeling of it, were all wrong. This room felt far more personal, and held far more traces of Tallon than the room I’d been in before.

“Do you have two rooms? Where are we?” I asked, feeling panic rise in my throat. Could Eadric follow us here?

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