Page 47 of Staff of Nightfall

Chapter 18

The sudden commandtook Adelaide aback. “What?”

Kirven bared his teeth. “I can’t take your power as my own, but I can still ensure your magic serves me.”

Serve...no.She remembered all too well how his mark burned. And he could torture her at any time. Take control of her body. He would force her to use her magic to harm.

She swallowed back her fear and straightened.Etiros, give me strength.“I’d sooner die.” Her voice shook, but she stared him down.

Kirven crouched in front of her. “Say you will serve me, or I will torture you again.”

“Because you never tortured Regulus whileheserved you? You’d torture me sooner or later.” Adelaide raised her chin, even though her lower lip trembled. “I know what you’re doing. You can’t put the mark on me unless I agree. I won’t.”

Before she could so much as flinch, Kirven placed the end of the staff on her stomach. Pain spread like ropes laced with sharp glass wrapping around her torso, then her arms, her legs, even her head. The invisible rope squeezed, and she felt like she should be bleeding everywhere. She fell to her side, writhing in mind-numbing agony. Her mouth was open, and she knew she was screaming, but she couldn’t hear herself. She thrashed against the ropes, against the pain. Kirven pulled the staff back and she curled into a ball. Sobs wracked her body. Fresh tears raced down her face and neck, soaking into her tunic.

Kirven grabbed the rope around her torso and hauled her to a sitting position. She was crying so hard her eyes wouldn’t focus on his face.

“Look at me!” He slapped her. She coughed, choking on her sobs. “Agree to serve me!”

Adelaide shook her head, even though she wanted to give in. A voice in her mind shouted to just say yes, it wasn’t worth it, do anything to prevent more pain now, sort the rest out later. But she pushed that voice away. There would be pain later, even if she agreed. He would have to give up eventually. She had already helped this monster too much. Never again.

He grabbed her face and leaned in close. “If you don’t agree to serve me, once I’m king, I’ll torture your entire family. Your father. Your mother. Any siblings you have. Hargreaves. The pain you’ve just experienced? I’ll make them feel it while you watch. Eventually, people can’t take it anymore, and their minds break, like shattered glass.”

A stifled cry shuddered through her. She pressed her eyes closed.Etiros, please, no!She couldn’t serve him. But how could she refuse?

Kirven’s fingernails dug into her face. “You will serve me, or you will watch your family suffer. And then you will suffer. Like this.”

Ice seemed to spread from his hand, freezing and burning at the same time. Adelaide shrieked and broke free of his grip. Released from the pain, she curled against the wall.

“Serve me, or my first act as king will be to summon your entire family to their slow and excruciating deaths while you watch.”

Adelaide cried silently.Etiros, help me.Kirven’s words replayed in her mind.“First act as king...while you watch.”To do that, he would have to leave her alive. If she lived, she would have a chance to escape and stop him. But she couldn’t stop him if she agreed to serve him like Nolan had. She shivered. She would never choose the same path as Nolan.

Kirven wrenched her chin up. “Swear to serve me.”

“No.” It was a near-silent whisper, but enough for him to hear. Kirven snarled and backhanded her face. Her teeth cut into the corner of her mouth, and she tasted blood.

“Mages!” He threw together a string of nonsensical curse words in Monparthian, Khast, and languages she didn’t know. He stopped short and looked at her, as if seeing her for the first time. “Mages...”

Kirven bent down and pulled a crimson handkerchief from his obsidian-accented belt. He dried her face, his expression calm. “I thought I had eradicated mages from Monparth, because no one knew of any.” He dabbed at the blood on her lips. “You’ve been hiding all your life. I was surprised how much magic I pulled from you. All that power, and you hid. Why?”

“Because you killed everyone like me!”

“Not everyone.” He smiled wickedly. “If I had killedeveryonelike you, I would have had to kill myself.”

She recoiled, but already pressed against the wall, there was nowhere for her to go. “I’m nothing like you.”

He dropped his hand and let the handkerchief fall. “I was you, once. A mage. Powerful, but clueless. Uneducated. Talented but without knowledge, just as you are. I couldn’t help I was born a mage. But because of something out of my control, they took my birthright from me. Because of a centuries-old treaty, I wasn’t allowed to be king.

“Mybrother,” he bit out the word and spittle flew on her face, “would get everything that was rightfullymine. My throne. My crown. I could be hisadvisor. My brother and I studied together under the best tutors in government, military strategy, history, geography...but my parents refused to give me a tutor in magic. I was forbidden from even trying to use my power, punished when it accidentally escaped. My oh-so-loving father thought if I didn’t know much about my power, I would be less of a threat.” He laughed bitterly. “He was wrong. It just made me angry. When my mother caught me practicing, they forged a magic-suppressing cuff around my wrist.”

New dismay contorted her face, but she shoved away the pinch of empathy. She wouldn’t pity this monster.

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