Page 56 of Captive of the Stolen Empire

Each accusation stiffened the muscles in my body, drawing me tight as a bowstring. Words rose to the tip of my tongue and died there.

“That’s what I thought. The choice was yours,” she continued. “Every day we have the choice to do what is right and good, to help others or to harm them. You know what you decided.”

“It’s not that simple.” She didn’t understand. How could she?

“It is.” She turned away in a flash of dark hair.

“He’s my emperor. He took me in, raised me, made me all that I am. How could I go against his direct orders? I pushed it far enough talking him down from something more severe.” When she didn’t speak, I continued. “Would you go against your mother? Ignore her direct orders or subvert her wishes?”

“I did,” she whispered. “You were there.”

At the throne room in Sorrena, when she’d begged for her sister to remain there. I ached to cross the space to her, to kiss her hair, wrap my arms around her, and pretend recent days never happened. But they had. The memory of her sister, clasped in the arms of her father when we took their city, brought to mind another child. The boy’s face and the mark on his arm had haunted me all day.

“Tell me about the boy,” I asked.

Ilya glanced over one shoulder. Her hair hid all but the bare profile of her face, illuminated by the light of the moons filtering through the window. “You don’t deserve to know. Or rather, if you really want to know, why not ask Gabriel? It seems your magic has sufficiently pried into his mind.”

The words struck me like a blow.

Something coiled tight within me, demanding what I couldn’t have—not now. Her words had been daggers, or a brutal defense, but she didn’t turn away again. “You didn’t wear the bangle I gave you,” I said softly.

“I did. But then I slipped it onto Elin, just in case.” She’d taken it back at some point, an act that warmed my heart through her current aura of cold indifference.

What wouldn’t the woman do for those she cared about? But I couldn’t let it go. “We had a deal. No speaking of the bracelet’s abilities.”

Her jaw worked in her mouth before she gritted her teeth. “I didn’t tell her. She hid her face anyway, so she’ll never know she couldn’t see the magic. Hearing their cries was hard enough. Do you really wish her more pain?”

Another blow. One that nearly took the wind from my lungs. I almost lost the fight against my better judgment. “You saw the other child, the one in the illusion,” I said, ignoring her plea. “Gabriel’s nephew? The boy called for an uncle.”

She turned back to the narrow window. A dismissal if ever there was one. “Go away, Lucien.”

The day further unraveled whatever tentative bond had formed between us. She was right—it had been my choices, my doing, even if I’d had no other option but to carry out the emperor’s orders.

I’d fix this.

But not tonight.

The weight of my actions pressed on my shoulders as I stood, careful not to stir Ilya’s anger further. She’d yet to turn around as I slipped from the room with one last, longing look at the beauty shrouded in sorrow.

Chapter25

Ilya

Gabriel and Fernand did not attend breakfast the next day, though Elin had overheard a guard mention they’d been returned to their quarters sometime the night before. They’d be watched now, more carefully than ever, but still I yearned to speak with them. If nothing else, I needed to assure myself that Lucien’s magic had not permanently affected them. Or if it had, to steel my heart against him.

How foolish I’d been to think I saw anything other than the monster he was. I’d have to be careful. I couldn’t abandon my plan—it was the best one I had after all—but I couldn’t slip up and let down my defenses again.

Elin and a few other guests played a game of rolling round balls across the yellowing grass. At least some of the horror from yesterday had burned off in their minds in the light of day. A smile here. A small laugh there. It was more than I expected, though I couldn’t will myself to join in their activity.

A commotion to my left drew my attention. Two nearby guards broke off their conversation. I gasped as I spied Gabriel and Fernand. Clean hair and clothes disguised the events of the day before. If you didn’t know better, one would have no idea what they’d suffered.

Unless you looked in their eyes.

Those showed what nothing else did, especially when neither would look at me in return.

I ran to them across the open courtyard. “Gabriel! Fernand!” Their attention flitted to me, then away, but I pressed on undeterred, especially as the guards near them backed away. “Are you…”Okaywould not be the right word. They weren’t. I knew that.

“We’ve had better days,” Gabriel muttered. Fernand said nothing. He wouldn’t even look at me as he trailed off to an isolated section of the courtyard beyond waist-high, thorny hedges. Two guards wandered not far behind, keeping him in their sights. Gabriel hissed, clenching his hands at his sides.

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