CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CARDEN
Guards filled the corridors, spilling out of every door behind us. We ran, the green hat Arabella had come back with spilling off her head and landing somewhere in the chaos. “There’s a door ahead!” she yelled. We pushed harder and ground to a stop just in time to pull it open and duck inside. I grabbed a wooden chair and jammed it against the door handle. The action was futile; we knew a guard would beat it down and splinter the damn thing to get to us.
Bewildered at the wild pace of events, I asked Arabella, “What did you do?”
“I met Rule’s heartmate,” she answered, equally breathless.
“So, Coeur sent you to her,” I deduced. “Then why is she so angry?” Remembering the deafening roar we heard, I assumed it must have been the panther. “And why is Rule mad?”
“The Queen didn’t want him to know where she was sending me, because apparently, she’s tried to hunt his heartmate down before. However, his heartmate makes hats, and she sent me back wearing one so he’d know where I’d been.”
I watched the door. There were no noises on the other side. The knob wasn’t being turned. No one was beating on it.
“I think we’re okay,” she quavered, but I knew she didn’t mean it. We were in deep trouble, and needed to take this opportunity to catch our breath and plan for the inevitable. Coeur was going to kill us. I was surprised the guards hadn’t already dragged us into the throne room.
I looked down at the plush burgundy carpet. My toes sank into it as I turned in a circle.
“This room is amazing,” she marveled, staring upward at the walls. Books were everywhere, lining every space, even stretching across the ceiling. No doubt they were held up by fae power.
My ears picked up the sounds of her muttering about the game under her breath. “Well, I’d rather be here than face being eaten by some beast… Not you, of course. Not the beast you become, I mean,” she stammered. “Damn it. I’m sorry, Carden.” Her shoulders fell and she shot me an apologetic look.
“It’s fine. I know what you mean, and I’d place me in that category when I change, too.” I felt the need to make her understand what it was like for me during the shift. “It’s different now. When I change.”
“How so?”
Marshaling my thoughts, I began, “At first, I was still me. I could hear my thoughts and knew what was happening, including where you were at all times. I could always feel the tether between us. And even though Coeur hated it, there was a part of me that would never let the beast hurt you.”
She walked around a leather-upholstered couch. “And now?”
“Now, me and the beast aren’t the same creature. When I’m him, I’m not me. When I’m still me, right before he takes over, I feel him rumbling, but can’t control the change anymore. I used to be able to hold him off, at least for a while. Now, I lose control. And when I’m him, I don’t feel you. I don’t think I even know you. It’s like his tether isn’t to you.”
Arabella had a puzzled look on her face, and then comprehension dawned on her features. “Maybe he has no tether. He’s part of you, but an absolute creation of Coeur’s twisted mind. That or his tether is to her.” She shook her head in frustration. “Maybe that’s how she’ll end it,” Arabella mused. “You’ll become the beast. You won’t recognize me and I won’t recognize you, and we won’t be able to finish the game together—that, or you’ll eat me and then she’ll kill you.”
I cringed. Coeur was cruel enough to do either one, and Rule was evil enough to let her. He’d probably stab his mother in the back while she watched the ending of her little show of horrors.
Arabella moved to the wall and scanned the books, letting her hands drift over their spines. I walked over to stand next to her and did the same. “Look –” she noticed, “none of them have a title.”
“That’s strange,” I remarked, pulling out a golden-bound book. Taking special care as I handled its brittle pages, I was stunned to realize all the pages were blank. I flipped through them, letting them fan out so I could see if anything was inside. There was nothing.
Arabella did the same. “They’re all empty!” she exclaimed. “Why would someone go through all the trouble of having an enormous room full of empty books?”
I suggested, “Maybe you have to be fae to read them?”
She frowned. “Such a waste.” Placing the book back onto the shelf, she stared at the door. “Where did the guards go? If she sent them after us, why did they stop searching before they got to this room?”
“Why does she do anything she does?” I scoffed. “Maybe your visit to Rule’s heartmate was part of her plan all along. Maybe she wanted to rile her son, and you were just the pawn she used to do it.”
“Maybe…”
She didn’t believe it any more than I did.
I watched her in my periphery. “You like to read?”
A smile crept over her face. “I loved to when I was younger, but I haven’t done it in a long time.”
“Then you realize this room is intended for you, right?”
She cringed. “I guess so. And now that she’s mad, that’s kind of terrifying.” Her eyes caught on something behind us. “Was that there a minute ago?”
Sitting in the center of the room was a large, rectangular desk. Beneath it was a matching chair. Flickering light from a dozen candles sent wavering light across its surface and onto the book laying open on it. A quill and a well full of fresh ink sat to the left of the book. “Are you left-handed?”
She nodded once and slowly made her way to the desk and sat in the chair. “What do you think she wants me to write?” She looked up at me as if I had the answer. I wasn’t sure those existed in this place, and certainly didn’t have them if they did.
“I’m not sure. Maybe just print your name and see what happens?”
Arabella dipped the quill and glided the tip across the page. Her handwriting was beautiful; artful with swoops and swirls, indicating a fine education. I knew her family used to have money, but wasn’t sure when her mother had taken off with it all, leaving her and Oryn behind. I shook my head, still unable to wrap my head around her decision. Fathers sometimes abandoned their wives. They sometimes abandoned their children. But women? For the most part, a mother would rather die than leave her babies behind.
Thunder cracked outside. From within the wall of books, two large windows suddenly appeared. Tree branches thrashed against them as the first of the rain began to fall.
“Whoa…” Arabella watched as the book answered her. The words began to fill the page from left to right and top to bottom.
Arabella, she’d written. The book supplied:
Daughter of a liar. Daughter of a glutton. Sister of a murderer. Harlot…
She gasped, watching as the word Harlot was written in black across her chest. “Why is it on my skin?” she panicked, rubbing her fingers across her flesh. “It won’t come off.”
On the opposite page, new words appeared:
Prince Carden of Tierney. Son of a shadow. Son of a tyrant. Brother of a King. Coward…
As a burning sensation crossed my chest, I knew what I’d find if I looked down. The Queen was branding us with the labels she knew we would loathe. But how was Arabella a harlot? Was it because Rule was interested in her and Coeur wanted to drive them apart?
Another deafening roar echoed through the room, and then the earth began to tremble. This was it. The end of the game.
Lightning struck the tree outside the window. With a splintering boom, part of it crashed through the window. Shards of glass, swirling leaves, ragged branches, and stinging rain blew across the room.
“We have to get out of here!” I yelled over the wind.
Arabella looked stunned for a second but snapped out of it quickly, taking my hand. Together… we ran toward the door.
She jerked on the handle. “It’s locked.”
Rain was blowing sideways into the room, soaking our faces and hair. “There has to be another way out!” I glanced around the room, seeing a tapestry hanging on the wall that wasn’t there earlier. “Let’s look for a door behind the tapestry.”
Books began to rain down from the walls and ceiling as we ran for it, bruising our bodies where they hit. “Almost there!” I encouraged.
Arabella cried out when a book with sharp corners hit her shoulder. I saw the gash on her arm, which was the last thing I remembered before the coppery tang of her blood stirred the beast within.