A Usurper's Cause (Book #4)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Elouise caught herself against the wall and inhaled sharply. Though she ran, reaching this point felt like an eternity. Servants kept asking her if she needed anything, what they could do to ease her sorrows, but all she wanted was for everyone to—

"Leave me alone!" Elouise screamed.

They all stumbled away from her like she was a trollbie coming to bite them. She turned away and gritted her teeth.

"Your Majesty," a familiar voice addressed, but none that sounded like any servant or guard.

Elouise peered over her shoulders and found Haven standing there. Haven idly picked at a tear in her leather sleeve. She almost resembled someone who'd been scolded senselessly. It was... unlike her.

Elouise snarled at her. "How dare you show yourself here?"

Haven widened her eyes. "I don't—"

"All this time, you knew. You knew and you said nothing!" Elouise raised her hand and tossed Haven aside.

Haven slammed into the wall with a grunt and fell flat onto her front. Elouise stomped toward her, and Haven hurriedly picked herself up on her knees, gawking up at Elouise.

"What're you talking about?" she demanded. "I only came here to warn you about your—"

"Shut up!" Elouise shrieked, causing the paintings on the wall to rumble.

Haven gasped and crawled backwards.

"You and Udolf are monsters. You kept Eldon away from me!"

Haven lifted her eyebrows. "How do you know about that?"

"I saw him." Elouise dropped her arm and wrapped them both around her middle. "I went to the Outlands to see Udolf and he confessed everything to me. Then I saw Eldon for myself." Her heart nearly twisted as she recalled his face. The words he'd said to her. The hatred in his eyes.

Elouise wrinkled her nose. "What did you do to him?"

"I didn't do anything, Elouise," Haven promised. "You know who did that to him."

"How?"

"I don't know." Slowly, Haven picked herself off the floor, but she kept her back pressed against the wall. "Godwin used to talk about this potion he wanted to create. He said it would clear a person's head of all their memories. We never understood how he could even manage that. Knowing now who he truly is, though, I guess I'm not really surprised." She frowned and lowered her gaze to her hands. "But before that, he kept saying he wanted to use the potion on the guardian to turn him against the savior. Think whatever you want about me, but I was actually against it. I don't think anyone deserves to lose recollection of who they are. Really, I think the better punishment is letting them know exactly who they are and make them suffer through it." Her lips twitched.

"Guess that doesn't make me sound any better, does it? Anyway, that's why I warned Eldon about coming back to you. I knew that the moment the two of you got close enough, Godwin would manage something. If not that memory loss, something else. I never thought the former would be possible, but I was wrong." Haven met Elouise's gaze again and shrugged.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. Udolf and I kept quiet about Eldon because we thought we could fix him first. He found the vial Godwin had stored the potion in and I took it in hopes of replicating the potion and finding a cure for it. I haven't been successful yet, though. I've made potions before, but I've followed recipes. This one's all new. I have no idea what he could've used." She lowered her gaze and sighed. "We didn't want you to know what Godwin did to him. We... we didn't want you to get hurt if you interacted with Eldon when he was like that. Godwin had fed him a string of lies about you. He painted you as the enemy and as his torturer."