Page 64 of Betraying Korth

What was there to do other than eat and sleep? I had always known I would hang for my crimes, and the eternal nothingness that was my future hovered over me like a giant axe, waiting for my sentence before it fell to snuff out my life.

For two days, I barely moved. I slept as much as possible, desperate for any relief from the gnawing heartache that threatened to cleave me in two. But instead of respite, my dreams were filled of scenes from my time with Korth, mocking the temporary happiness I’d been allowed before it was so cruelly snatched away.

The pitiful meals were hardly tempting, and I ignored them more often than not. After the first day, Peter Pan must have grown bored with his game of trying to scoot my bowl of stew into his own cell or else took pity on me and hoped I would eat more if he left it. Twice, he tried to poke me with his makeshift hook that looked like spoons from our meals lashed together with bits of fabric ripped from his shirt sleeves. I irritablyswatted it away each time. What, did he expect that I would want to chat about the weather? How was I supposed to find a way to help the rebellion when I was trapped in a cell? The only way I could have communicated with Garrik, whose cell was around the corner from mine, would be to shout, and doing so would reveal any plan we concocted to all the guards.

Everything around me looked to be floating in a haze, slowly shifting in and out of focus. My parents would hear of my failure and subsequent imprisonment. They would carry on their life’s mission without me, and I would sit in this cell until I died.

I had no visitors, but Peter Pan did. Tess came to talk to him on the second day after Korth’s wedding. Seeing her only reminded me that she would never be my sister. She would have comforted Korth and listened to Odette tell her all of my sins.

The sound of their conversation drifted over to me, but I did my best to tune them out. I didn’t have the mental acuity to debate Peter’s twisted morals. A humorless snort flared my nostrils. Who was I to lecture anyone about twisted morals? I had committed a dozen crimes, all in the name of subjective justice.

“Dahlia? Dahlia!” Tess’s insistent voice finally punctuated my stupor, and I turned to stare at her shadowy silhouette in the ghostly, flickering dungeon light. “Peter said you aren’t eating very much.”

I couldn’t even work up the energy to shrug. “What’s the point? I don’t need a lot of energy to sleep, and I’m going to die here anyway.”

“Korth doesn’t want you to die.”

This time, a real laugh, albeit a choked and hoarse one, escaped from my dry throat. “He was the one who threw me in here.”

“But he doesn’t want you to die.”

“And you didn’t want Peter to die, either. So now he and I get to live out the rest of our miserable lives here.” Korth would never forgive me, and I couldn’t blame him. My attempt at making a difference in the world had failed, and now I had nothing else to do but wait for the end, no matter how desperately I wanted to escape. I wasn’t willing to corrupt Tess by trying to convince her to release me.

“I don’t know if she actually heard anything you said while she was over there feeling sorry for herself,” Peter’s sly voice contributed. I’d never been so thankful I didn’t have a younger brother until that moment. Teenage boys were the worst.

“I was just telling Peter that Korth and Odette didn’t get married after all.”

That got my attention. With a sudden surge of energy, I slid my legs off my wooden bunk and sat up. The world spun, but I narrowed my eyes and dug my nails into the heels of my hands, forcing myself to focus. “What?”

“He called off the wedding. I thought you’d want to know.”

My jaw hung slack. The tiniest flicker of hope flared in my chest. Had I somehow gotten through to him? Was it that he still loved me, somewhere in the deepest recesses of his heart?

“When?”

“Right before they were supposed to get married. Everyone was already sitting down and everything. Odette was really mad.”

“I bet she was. What did Korth say about it?”

“He said that there are too many things he isn’t sure of, but he won’t talk about you with anyone. Not even me.”

“What are they going to do now?”

“Korth’s taking Odette back to Ebora tomorrow. He said it was the least he could do, but I think he wants to see for himself what it’s like. That was one of the reasons he called off the wedding.”

If I’d had any more energy, I would have laughed out loud. Raquel knew how to put on a front. Any time a visiting dignitary came to call, he would send soldiers to clear the streets of the beggars. To anyone from the outside looking in, Ebora would appear to be the model of an industrious, prosperous kingdom, with a thriving economy and content citizens, even though nothing could be farther from the truth.

My vision spun faster. Odette was returning home, where my parents were, and Curdy knew all the identities of the others in the rebellion. He had likely already revealed all our names to Odette. Once she got back, she would…

I nearly blacked out.

My parents and everyone in the rebellion would be in grave danger when they realized our coup had failed. Odette would report everyone and have them brutally executed. I refused to believe that Korth—righteous, upstanding Korth—would stand idly by and watch such treatment, but even if he wanted to intervene, what could he do in a kingdom that wasn’t his own?

“He didn’t tell me,” I whispered. “I didn’t know they didn’t get married.”

“He was told he’s not allowed to see you anymore. His advisors said you would just lie to him again. Well, they said some other stuff too, but I don’t want to repeat it.” She tapped her foot nervously against the floor. “I don’t believe what they said.”

Peter spoke up and drew Tess’s attention back to himself. “Just like you didn’t listen when they told you to have me executed, and now we’re friends. I’m glad you think for yourself. What books did you bring today?”

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