Page 109 of A Kingdom of Lies

The sky beyond was dark, Lockinge alight with terror as gryvern wreaked havoc. I had caused every pain and death beyond the castle’s walls. It should’ve made me feel guilt. If the humans within the city didn’t already hate the fey enough they would despise us even more now. Just like the humans in Ayvbury had when they had been senselessly attacked by the fey king’s creatures. The horror from this evening would snap the little hope of tolerance between both realms, a wound that might never heal.

Pushing all of those thoughts aside, I focused on the burning need thrumming through my blood. The need to survive. It made thinking about anything else impossible. One foot in front of the other, breathing harsh yet focused, I kept my attention on putting as much distance between myself and this place as I could.

“Robin Icethorn, where do you think you are going?”

Aldrick’s presence crept back into my mind like a vicious snake, constricting and hungry. I opened my mouth to cry out in warning until his command kept me quiet.

“Silent. Until I tell you to speak, you will listen.”

My body kept moving despite my wish for it to stop. I looked to Duncan’s back, wishing nothing more than to call out and tell him what was happening. Aldrick kept me compliant, his controlling, unseen strings tied tight around my body and mind once again.

“Did you truly believe I would simply let my two most valuable assets leave my castle so easily?”

I screamed back, voice filling my head. “It is too late.”

“It is not. Now, you are going to do what it is I tell you to do. Understand?”

“No.”

Aldrick’s laugh bounced across my skull. “Like a fly within a spider’s web, you have flown too close. I will not let my treasure slip so easily through my fingers. Come to me. All of you.”

I blinked as directions filled my head. Without being able to stop myself I called out, voice mimicking what Aldrick spoke within me, “If we leave now, we will only be picked off by the gryvern. Follow me.”

“Robin,” Duncan shouted as I turned, pulling Elinor with me. “What are you playing at? If we go back, we will only lose ourselves within Lockinge. We need to get outside to make sense of our direction.”

“Trust me,” Aldrick made me reply. Elinor was more trusting than Duncan, but even she noticed a shift in my behaviour.

I pleaded for her to comment about it. To say something, anything for me to reply and tell her what was happening within my mind.

“Why me?”I asked as my hurried footsteps lead us back into the heart of Lockinge, right towards Aldrick.

“Because your mind is wide open, and your will is weak. If you did not wish to be such an easy catch, then you should put up more of a fight like Duncan did. My, how he impressed me.”

There was nothing I could do or say to stop the inevitable from happening. That spark of hope that I’d clung to dissipated as I led Elinor, Duncan and Kayne, who still carried the king, towards Aldrick.

We were all flies, and this castle was an elaborate web that not even the king could have crawled out of. This was Aldrick’s domain now, we simply dwelled within it.

CHAPTER 38

There was nothing I could do to stop our group from being ambushed. As I pushed the door open, I knew what waited within. Aldrick told me so, showed me flashes of images; Duncan in chains; Elinor kneeling upon the ground, arms shaking as she fought to hold her bleeding body up.

Duncan had felt unsettled as I urged them towards the specific room. I screamed with my mind, my eyes, for him to listen to his gut and not me. But alas, he did as I said. His blind trust in me would be his end.

Like lambs to the slaughter, I led them all into a dark room where Aldrick waited with a body of Kingsmen. The silver-plated men and women rushed forward and Aldrick’s control on my mind did not waver; I couldn’t even cry out in warning or shock.

“Run!” Duncan screamed to the rest of our party as an iron cuff was snapped around his bulging neck. Like rain upon a fire, the crackling light across his skin fizzled out, the iron severing his new abilities.

Kayne handed the king to Elinor when Duncan cried his warning. Now she was struggling beneath his weight, throwing her off balance and dragging her to the ground. It was clear he feared Aldrick greatly; just his presence alone had him on his knees.

Kayne was backing away when a figure detached from the shadows of the hallway we had left and stopped him. The sole remaining Twin held one knife to Kayne’s throat and the other pressed above his spine; one wrong move and he’d suffer greatly.

“Well, well.” Aldrick limped towards me, wrapped a hand around my shoulder and placed a rough kiss upon my cheek. His touch made me sick. I couldn’t even move my hand to wipe the trail of spit from my cheek.

“If only it was that easy to simply leave through a back door and never return. What did you think would happen to you all? The streets beyond Lockinge castle are full of my Hunters. I would have given you hours before you were returned to me,” Aldrick boasted.

His control over my body and mind didn’t take away my choice to cry. Tears spilled from my wide eyes as I looked over the line of my companions. Duncan’s expression was as hard as stone, but the scar upon his face was not as deep as it usually was when he was livid; that small feathering of softness told me that he understood. My actions were not in fact mine.

“You will not succeed,” Duncan growled, trying to pull free from the three soldiers who held him down. They struggled as he fought, but he still could not break free; it didn’t deter him from shouting his thundering threats. “One moment of weakness and I will end you. That is all it takes.”

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