The Blood of Darkness

Chapter 18

The Lost Prince

I haven't spoken a word in a year.

I haven't slept a full night either. Or smiled. Or laughed.

What have I done then?

Remembered. Mined. Tortured. Killed. Frozen innocent men's blood until they dropped dead. Some were even men that I knew, before things went to hell. Men that the boy I loved led.

Oh, how I wish I were dead.

I don't know what was worse. Being imprisoned in Rurik's horrid, cursed Lychnus mines, in the middle of a brutal kingdom that was not my own, or being carted back to Nieves after nearly a year of solitude and suffering, just to become the Dark King's Torturer.

Maybe the worst thing was seeing the hopeless looks in my people's eyes. Or suffering through flashbacks so vivid I felt as if I were reliving my friends' and family's deaths all over again.

Or it might be feeling so helpless all the time, trapped by Lychnus chains that are only released when the Dark King has me torture someone.

Yes, I'm ashamed to be alive.

But I cannot give up. I will fight to free Nieves with my dying breath. It's the only way to avenge my parents. My sister. Zeke and Val, who sacrificed their lives for mine.

I thought we'd have more time.

When Val jumped in front of me, when that deadly dart buried itself in her neck, when she fell to the ground, something inside me just....broke. Something essential, something important. Everyone I loved was dead. And I was, and still am, alone.

My mother once told me that my spirit was my greatest strength. That my bones could be broken, but never my spirit. That it was the one thing that could never be taken from me.

Now, I am not so sure her words were true.

I have lost hope. For no one is coming for me, because there is no one left.

People would whisper about Coryza, Zeke, and I. That we were born to make history, to change the world. We were foolish enough to believe it. To hope. To dream. To wish.

Liars. All of them. There is no point to life, it seems, beyond suffering and hate. Acquiring power, only to abuse it.

I tell myself that I cannot give up. But really, I already have. I have no strength left. No fight in me. No spirit.

I'm a failure.

I still hear whispers sometimes, usually when I break down in the middle of the night, yanking against my chains, sobbing, until I hit the ground and don't get up. The voices tell me that there is still time for me to change the world. To fix things.

But I don't want to do it without my sister. My parents. My love. My best friend.

We deserved better.

"Torturer." One of the Dark King's fire-haired advisors stands before me, and I step away from my post next to the throne. "The King requests your presence in the Southern Tower."

I nod dully, leaving the throne room and ascending the tall spiral staircase. I keep my eyes low to the ground, for the stairway is filled with windows, and looking at my lost, beaten kingdom is too much to bear. And sometimes, when I stare at the castle gates long enough, I can still see Coryza's swinging body....

Reaching the top of the staircase, I stop and knock on the door that leads into a circular lookout room.

Val and I spent hours in this room, stargazing. Coryza and I would have sleepovers up here. In this room, Zeke and I shared our first kiss.