Page 99 of Captive of the Stolen Empire

No.Not after today.

He’d meant more to me than he ever should, and still I’d betrayed him—all for a foolish hope that I could make a difference and achieve my goals.

All for Sorrena.

Oh, I’d given it all. More than I thought I had to give. All but my very life, and even that might be slipping away.

The harsh, empty way he’d regarded me in Ryszard’s audience chamber haunted me more than the dark, the cold, or my memories of Sorrena’s fall. I’d watched men I knew bleed and die. I’d seen flames lick and burn as buildings whose halls I’d walked many times crumbled and fell. I’d been forced to bend the knee to a tyrant and submit to his captivity.

Yet all those things paled in comparison to the empty ache I felt now, the one that threatened to swallow me up in the darkness and hide me from the sun forever.

Time dripped by.

Lucien never came.

Chapter45

Ilya

Drizzling rain splattered onto my face as the troop of guards led Fernand and I from the castle the next morning. The dark skies blocked out much of the sun, as if the Gods and Goddesses themselves were displeased with the day’s events.

Gooseflesh rose over my skin as a cold wind whipped straight through the damp and dirty dress hanging about my form. I wouldn’t look like the heiress of Sorrena today, not with dirt from the cell marring my clothes and skin. I couldn’t begin to imagine the mess of my hair, especially as another breeze whipped strands across my face.

Fernand managed to look worse, with his slumped shoulders and head hung in defeat. Did he have no pride left at all?

“Hurry it up,” the woman in charge ordered. “They await us already.”

With the sun missing, time was near impossible to distinguish, but our destination was not. We’d left through a low, back gate leading to the outer yard. Yellowed stalks of grass fluttered along the worn pathways as we advanced toward the same arena where Ryszard punished Gabriel and Fernand before. But unlike then, I’d be the center of attention.

Would Lucien dole out punishment to me as well? Would he mock me about how he’d drag my sister here to Zhine as further punishment for breaking my oath to him? The thought stole the last of my warmth and sent my teeth chattering despite myself. His bangle still ringed my upper arm—an oversight, surely, one that wouldn’t last if he was involved. What would his magic show me? How could any fear be worse than the present?

Figures moved in the stands as we approached, taking their places around the central box, the only section fully shielded from the elements with a covering. Beyond, colorful trees relinquished their leaves to the biting wind and rain.

Each step advanced us toward a destiny I could no longer avoid.

Guards bound my wrists to a metal ring sticking up from the ground in one half of the arena, the one Gabriel had occupied weeks ago. All the while, I searched for the faces I needed to see. They were easy enough to find—so different from the soldiers who occupied most of the stands and the few nobles who crowded near Ryszard within his box, poorly sheltered from the rain.

Reyna and Elin sat side by side, their faces etched with sorrow. Gabriel occupied the space on Elin’s other side. His arm wrapped around her for support was likely the only thing preventing a teary collapse. Even Derrin, the smug bastard whose city-state had willingly joined the empire and who always seemed to enjoy his time residing in Zhine, bore a deep frown where he sat between the twins, Theo and Titus, an arm around each one, holding them tight.

The guards retreated as the shackles locked me into place, the twin of Fernand, who’d been similarly leashed on the opposite end of the oval. They hadn’t bothered with the ring of fire on this miserable day.

The crowd grew quiet as Ryszard stood. His voice pierced the wind, droning on and on about the world he hoped to create and how terrible we were for disrupting his peace and shunning his hospitality. Another vulgar attempt to show his power and rally those who still followed him.

The words vanished from my mind as soon as they entered. Instead, I focused on the faces in the crowd—all those except for Orson and Kasida, who stood sentinel in front of Ryszard’s box. Other captains hovered in my periphery, but not the one the fragments of my traitorous heart still hoped to see.

“Lies! All of it lies!”

The ragged shout pulled me back to the moment. My head whipped to the side just in time to see Fernand jerk at his bonds and spit in the direction of the emperor’s box.

“He’s a great deceiver. A joke of an emperor who conquers for his own entertainment.”

Gasps and murmurs floated on the wind, but none bold enough to drown out his tirade.

Stop. Please stop.Didn’t he know his words would do no good? Not here.

“Nothing will be enough to satiate his lusts. Not the next city nor the one after that. How many will die for his pride? Are you all willing to die for him? For nothing?”

Flames licked up in a circle around Fernand. A warning. Steam rose from the fire as it battled against the rain. Metal rang clear through the air as Orson drew a sword and advanced. Kasida freed her twin short swords and slid into a pose resembling a cat ready to pounce.

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