Page 26 of A Kingdom of Lies

My skin shivered, stomach twisting in disgust. “I’m not the only one with blood on my hands. I’ve witnessed your Hunters murder a fey, treat them like cattle for the slaughter. And the reasoning? Shall we compare and see whose conscience is less scarred by their actions?”

“General Rackley,” another Hunter interrupted, snatching the attention of the scarred man before me. “Shall I cuff this one?”

“No.” His deep voice rumbled with restrained fury. “This one ismine.”

General Rackley. That too was a name I’d heard, spoken from the Hunters in the camp before Erix arrived.

It was clear the scarred man was in charge here, evident from the subtle glances and nervous auras of those near him. They, like me, feared him.

“Master… Rackley,” I said, testing his name, trying to show a lick of respect in hopes it saved me.

“My name is Duncan,” he added, sweeping his eyes over me a final time.

“What does it matter what I call you?”

His smile crept over his lips, twisting my insides into a maelstrom of fear. “Because when you die, and you will die eventually, I think it’s important you take the name of your murderer to whatever realm you find yourself in next.”

His words and his name rang in my head as loud as unwanted bells during early morning. He snatched the strange shaped object from the Hunter’s hands and shoved the crossbow at him. Slowly, Duncan turned back to me, enigmatic smile plastered across his face, as he lifted the metal towards me. It took a moment to realise where I had last seen that iron collar, wrapped around the necks of the fey at the Hunter’s camp, the fey who held magic that required iron to subdue.

“That isn’t necessary. I won’t fight you.” I couldn’t fight the desire to step back as Duncan moved the contraption towards my neck. But he lashed out, firm hands gripping me and keeping me in place. “It is unnecessary for me to wear that. I wanted you to come here. This was all to get your attention. If I wanted you dead,” I snarled, “you already would be. I’mnotyour enemy.”

“You. Are. My. Enemy,” Duncan snarled, body stiff and lip curled. He struck forward, thrusting the cuff around my neck in an instant; it snapped shut with a click that set my nerves ablaze.

I reached up, fingers desperately pulling at the lip of the cuff that closed around my skin. The desperate need to get the cuff removed was so all-consuming that I hardly noticed the heavy and hollow cavern that my body had become – severed from my magic once again.

My mind caught up and I stopped my struggle. Duncan stepped backwards, a true and honest smile filling his devilish face.

“It suits you,” Duncan said as he turned his back on me. I was left to watch the wall of Hunters race towards me with outstretched hands. True to my word, I didn’t fight them as the Hunters grabbed and pulled at me. All I cared about was pleading for my friends, begging that they were spared, even though each word was wasted breath.

What have I done.

CHAPTER 9

I was pressed down on the floor of the cart, splinters of wood cutting deep into my palms. With each jolt of the screeching wheels, the cage rocked as we navigated over potholes in the road, forcing my back to slam into the iron bars.

There was nothing I could do to create comfort, not when a chain linked me to the iron bars from the cuff around my neck.

I was leashed like a dog. We all were.

If it wasn’t for the chain that connected Althea to the cage, she would’ve slumped to the ground. I sat opposite her, unable to do anything but watch as her eyes would flutter open and closed. Even in the dark night I could see the thick sheen of sweat that clung across her forehead. The wound on her thigh still oozed blood; it was close to impossible to ignore the tang of copper as it spread in a dark puddle beneath her leg. The bolt had been ripped carelessly from her thigh before the cart had moved. Because of the iron cuff around her neck, she hadn’t been able to heal. It was clear her body couldn’t handle the lack of power; unlike mine, it was not used to being severed from her natural abilities.

Gyah was not unconscious like Althea. She sat in the corner of the cage, watching me like a starved hawk sizing up a fleshy meal. Disdain pulsated from her, silent, taut anger so palpable I gave in to my guilt and refused to look her way.

Around the cage the Hunters rode upon the back of obsidian-coated mares. The cage was being pulled by many as well, the backs of tall Hunters all I could see ahead of us. Duncan was among them, but where, I wasn’t sure. There was something about him that conjured a kindling of fear in my gut. Every now and then I could feel the stinging of eyes across the back of my neck. I would turn to search for him, but never find him. I was still confident Duncan was among the throng, watching with the same hateful stare he’d given me as he held the crossbow between my eyes.

This wasn’t how I saw this ending. Being locked in a cage of iron was far from a possibility. I was so blinded by my desire to cause Oakstorm’s mad king pain that my mind had sugar-coated the idea of finding the Hunters and requesting them to take me to the Hand.

Becoming a prisoner was far from what I imagined, but it was now a painful reality. I put some hope in the knowledge that the Hand wanted an audience with me. But that hope came crashing down when my eyes settled back on Althea.

I dared to close my eyes for a moment of ignorant bliss. It was easier to give in to the darkness of my mind than fight to not look at Gyah, or ignore the army of Hunters and pretend that Althea was not suffering before of me.

Selfish little bird.A voice haunted my mind.You search for reprieve in the dark, but you deserve nothing but the reminder of what you have caused.

I couldn’t discern the voice. Was it my own? Something else? It echoed across my skull, impossible to ignore.

“Something troubling you, princeling?” Gyah spat, her tongue as sharp as a knife.

Reluctantly, I opened my eyes to regard her. The moon above flickered beyond the bars. It was not full, but its silvered glow danced across Gyah’s dark skin like dawn’s light across a still lake’s surface.

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