Page 130 of A Storm in Every Heart
“I don’t want to marry him either,” Lyra says flatly.
“That’s irrelevant,” Magnus snaps. “You’ll marry whomever I tell you to, especially if it means elevating this family. Your job was to secure our position in the royal family, but obviously you’ve failed.”
“I told you, I?—”
Magnus cuts her off, standing from his chair and pacing across the room. “If Kastian won’t see reason, perhaps he can be useful in another way.”
“What do you mean?”
Magnus reaches the window and stares out at the grounds, his back to Lyra. “We kill Kastian and blame it on the girl. Or her family, perhaps. Either would work as I have it on good authority that her cousin is the bastard son of King Florian.”
“What?” Lyra asks, incredulous.
Her shocked tone echoes the wave of horror washing over me.Kill Kastian. Blame my family…
Magnus carries on as if Lyra didn’t speak. “Yes…this could work. With the right evidence, we can have Vernallis declared an enemy of the state. The people will demand retribution and it will push Hydratta into an expensive and unwinnable war—King Sebastian will be destabilized by the war and the loss of his heir, and eventually it will create enough unrest that we’ll be able to stage a coup.”
Lyra’s breath hitches. “You’d start awarover this? You never said?—”
“I’d do whatever is necessary to secure the line of succession. Our line,” Magnus says, and there’s something almost tender in that last word.
“Wait!” Lyra snaps, sounding afraid now. “I didn’t agree to this. Marriage is one thing, but I never wanted to kill anyone. A war is going too far.”
Magnus turns to her, and it’s only luck—and his focus on Lyra—that keeps him from seeing me under the desk. My skinhas gone clammy and cold. If they see me now it’s not going to be merely a humiliation. They’ll kill me.
“I’m doing this for you,” Magnus says almost kindly. “Don’t you understand? This is the only way to get what we’re owed.”
Lyra makes a noise of derision in the back of her throat. “You don’t care about me. You never have. You only want the throne.”
“Of course I care about you, who else could I trust to help me with this?”
“No,” she says. “I’m not doing it.”
Magnus’s face twists with anger. “You are. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you what will happen if you disobey me.”
There’s a long silence where I desperately wish I could see Lyra’s face because after a moment, Magnus smiles. “Good. We’ll have to move quickly to make the plan work. It will have to happen tonight.”
“Tonight?” Lyra asks, her voice trembling slightly.
“Yes, we’ll kill Kastian tonight at the ball, and by tomorrow the plan will be set in motion. Mark my words, a century from now our family will sit on the throne and no one will even remember King Sebastian or Prince Kastian.”
ODESSA, PRESENT
My ass hurts, my wrists burn and my head pounds. At the same time my thoughts are racing, my heart aches, and I’m shaking so much my teeth chatter.
Every single part of me feels like it’s going to break, both emotionally and physically.
I’m seated on the back of a horse with my wrists bound in front of me, a blindfold over my eyes and another strip of fabric shoved in my mouth. My horse is being led by one of the Hydrattan soldiers, and I have no way of knowing where we are or how much longer it will take to reach Magnus’s castle.
If I focus, I can hear Kastian breathing somewhere to my left.
Before they put my blindfold on, I got a glimpse of the arrow wound on Kastian’s shoulder. I hadn’t realized he’d been magically healing himself while the soldiers closed in on us, but he must have, because the wound looks nearly cured.Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like he was able to purify the sedative poison because he’s still out cold.
None of that matters though, as long as he’s alive.
I keep reminding myself that Kastian isn’t dead and neither am I. As long we’re alive, everything will be fine.
I repeat that in my head over and over, trying to believe it, but the longer we ride, the harder it is to remain optimistic. My thoughts become more frantic and question after question occurs to me.
