Rhea groaned noisily as she came to. Her hand went to her head, and she felt the nasty lump where Captain Merrick had dropped his sword against her skull.

What an idiot she’d been to think that she’d be safe when Cyrene left. To think that they wouldn’t come for her. Sure, she might have been doing good work for the kingdom, but that didn’t mean anything now.

She sat up in the dungeon cell and let her eyes adjust to the dim lighting. The stone cell itself was tiny with nothing more than a pot to do her business. Iron bars took up the one other wall, and she rattled them until her shoulders ached but to no avail.

Finally, she sat back on her heels and waited. Surely, someone would come back for her. Right?

It wasn’t until a few more hours of utter solitude when she heard crying from the cell next to her.

“Hello?” Rhea called. “Who is there?”

“I’m…I’m not alone?” the voice said.

Rhea grinned when she recognized the voice and then immediately frowned. “Elea?”

“Rhea?” she whimpered.

“What are you doing down here?”

“Cyrene, Cyrene…she…she did horrible things,” Elea whispered. “And, now, we’re to be punished for it.”

Rhea frowned. “What kind of horrible things?”

“You won’t believe me.”

“Try me.”

Elea peeked her head against the bars, and Rhea could barely make out her face.

“She…she used some kind of magic to fight Prince Kael. They both have the curse. They blocked off the ballroom of my Presenting ball, so no one could get out. Cyrene threw Kael thirty feet into the wall before we could all get away.”

Rhea sighed. She had known it would only be a matter of time before everyone knew that magic existed. She had come to terms with it a year ago when Cyrene told her. But performing it in front of the entire ballroom? That was suicide.

“What happened to Cyrene?”

Elea shook her head and sniffled. “I don’t know. It all happened so fast.”

Rhea breathed a sigh of relief. That meant that Cyrene could have gotten away after all. There was still hope.

“How long do you think they’ll keep us down here?” Elea asked, her voice trembling.

Rhea took a deep breath. She didn’t want to give Elea false hope. “A while. Long enough.”

“But I didn’t do anything!”

Rhea shrugged even though she knew that Elea couldn’t see it. “Doesn’t seem to matter.”

Elea grew quiet from then on. Rhea didn’t know what she was thinking, but she could hear her soft sobs from the other side of the wall. She understood how Elea felt. They had been close before she went through her own Presenting. And, now, the day she was to become an Affiliate, everything had been ripped from her. Worse than what Rhea had felt when she was placed into Second Class. Elea was imprisoned just for being related to Cyrene. She’d lost her parents, her sister, her status, and her freedom, all in one week.

It was a long couple of hours before anyone else ventured down to the dungeons. Elea must have fallen asleep somehow because Rhea hadn’t heard a peep from her in some time. Not even any of her muffled tears.

Rough footsteps scraping on the floor made Rhea jump to attention. She stuck her head out to see who was approaching, but the light from the lantern blinded her in the darkness. She had to blink spots from her vision before she was able to see that it was not one but four people.

They stopped before Elea’s cell, and a gruff voice said, “Get up, girl.”

Rhea heard that voice in her nightmares. She shuddered as he came into view.

Merrick.

The king’s Captain of the Royal Guard.

His interest in her work had been…unstoppable.

In fact, he’d had interest in more than just her work. If she hadn’t had Kael as her ally, she wasn’t sure where exactly she would be. Not that she was exactly singing Kael’s praises at this moment. He had manipulated her as thoroughly as anyone to get what he wanted—bombs of his very own. But at least he hadn’t tried to put his hands on her. Not like Merrick.

“I said, get up,” he snarled.

Elea sniveled, and then Rhea heard her easing onto her feet.

“What…what do you want with me?”

“We need information.”

“What kind of information?”

“On Cyrene. Everything she told you before she left. Everything she might have hinted at. We need you to recall every little detail. Did she seem off? Did she seem distant? Had she been planning anything?”

“I…I don’t know.” Elea hedged. “We got into an argument. I didn’t really talk to her.”

“But did she say anything about planning something?”

“You mean, about the magic?”

Merrick shot his hand through the bars and grabbed Elea by the neck. “Do not use that word in this kingdom!”

Elea broke down into sobs, and Rhea couldn’t take it.

“Leave her alone!”

Merrick’s eyes shot to her, and he dropped Elea. “Hello, Rhea.”

She took a step back at that voice. “She doesn’t know anything.”

“How would you know that?”

“Because Cyrene isolated herself completely while here. I only saw her twice, and from what I gathered, she was with Prince Kael the entire time. Maybe you should question him,” she told him.

“We intend to,” a second voice added.

Rhea startled when she saw King Edric step into view. “Your Majesty.”

Elea blubbered from the other side of the wall as their attention turned to Rhea. “Please, please, let me out of here. I didn’t do anything! I didn’t know my sister had magic. I didn’t know she was going to go insane! Please, I’m not at fault here. I’m an Affiliate. You gave me my pin. I shouldn’t be treated like this.”

Edric turned back to face Elea. His expression was dark and haunted. “You say you know nothing. Yet your brother has disappeared from the premises as well.”

“Reeve?”

“That means you must have all been plotting together.”

“But I’m still here! I didn’t try to run! I came back to my rooms. I was in fear for my life after what I saw. Please, I will do anything. Anything you ask.”

“Shut up, Elea,” Rhea snapped.

Merrick hadn’t taken his focus off of Rhea through Elea’s tirade. “I think we’ll have better luck with this one. The young girl seems to be clueless.”

“Still,” King Edric said with a shrug, as if he didn’t much care if Elea rotted down here, “she might know something.”

“I don’t! I don’t!” Elea cried.

“Tell us what you know,” Merrick said to Rhea. “Or I can make this very unpleasant.”

Rhea glared back at him and remained silent. Elea might dissolve into a sniveling idiot at the first provocation, but Rhea wasn’t about to divulge what she knew. And she knew a lot more than Elea ever did.

“Open her door,” Merrick snapped at the other guards who were guarding the king. “I will take great pleasure in peeling off each of your fingernails. To start. We’ll see how long you last.”

She raised her chin. The horrors that awaited her were hers to bear. She would not give up her information about Cyrene without a fight. If Merrick wanted to have one, then she would steel herself for the challenge.

“Do you think these bars can hold me?” came a voice from the cell to Rhea’s right.

All heads whipped to the side as a maniacal laugh came from the dungeon. Rhea shivered at the sound. No one moved.

“Bars can’t hold me. Nothing can hold me.”

Rhea gasped as she realized who was in the next cell.

“Brother,” King Edric said, stepping past Rhea.

“Well met,” Prince Kael said. He leaned into the bars with his arms dangling forward.

“I didn’t think the bars could hold you.”

“Yet I am behind them.”

“I wanted to know where you would be if…when you awoke,” the king said. He hadn’t stepped within reach of the prince though. He was smart enough for that.

“And here I am,” Prince Kael said with arms spreading wide.

“You have been keeping a many good things from me, it seems.”

“Only as many secrets as I could.”

“We have a lot to discuss.”

“Do we?” Prince Kael asked.

Rhea could see his sharp grin at the king’s arrogance.

“I believe we can work together,” the king offered, dangling the carrot before him.

Rhea thought he would laugh it off. After all, if he did have magic, what use would the king be to him?

“What’s in it for me?” Prince Kael asked instead.

King Edric smiled, but it was bitter and angry around the edges. “I never thought you had any interest in ruling.”

“And now that I do?”

Rhea couldn’t believe he had said that. What he’d said was treason!

“I believe we can do this together. We’ll get her back and break everyone who has ever stood in our way,” King Edric said with vehemence in his voice.

“I’m listening,” the prince crooned.

“I want to start with the backstabbing murderers…Eleysia.”

“What did you have in mind?”

King Edric grinned like a madman. “I want to raze them to the ground.”