Page 53 of Scourged
She’d spent the entire night reaching and grasping for it, sloughing through the trenches of her shattered soul.
Several hours later, and Mariah could finally summon enough light to give a faint glow to her skin. Just a single, delicate thread.
She watched that thread, a meager morsel trailing sluggishly around her finger. Tried to search for more from it—more spark, more fire, more warmth. Clawed into the oblivion of her mind for the six bridges of silver and gold that once existed there. Her bonds with her Armature felt like missing limbs she’d forgotten in the many weeks she’d been trapped in the miserable dark of this cell.
Lost in her thoughts, she almost missed the other light that began to grow at the end of the hallway. Was almost too slow at pulling back that paltry thread, hiding it back beneath her skin. Mariah buried her hands in her thin blanket, shielding her now-bare wrists from view.
She was beyond glad for her intuition as Shawth appeared in the hallway, his strides slow, face wearing his usual twisted, sour grin. He stopped in front of her cell, peering at her through the iron bars.
“Once again, I am shocked by your beauty, Mariah. Captivity truly does suit you.”
“To what do I owe this visit, Shawth?” Mariah kept her face expressionless as she leaned back against the wall, seeking its cold companionship.
Shawth regarded her with a thoughtful twist to his brow, just for a moment, before pulling a stool from the shadows of the hallway. He placed it in front of her cell, teetering himself on the wood as he rested hisallumelamp on the ground.
“I must admit.” He scratched his chin. “You are stronger than I’d thought.”
Mariah narrowed her eyes at him but said nothing.
Shawth sighed, leaning back on his stool. “At first, once we realized we couldn’t control you, we thought we could just kill you. Do it quickly and silently. Sure, we would have to wait another twenty-one years for a new queen, but what of it? Things would be as they should, without some bratty little slut snatching our power away.
“That Uroborus …” He heaved a sigh. “You have noideathe lengths we went to obtain one of those. And for you to justkillit, with nothing more than a simple dagger …” He scoffed, folding his arms over his chest. “It shouldn’t have been possible. That was when we changed tactics. If we could do something public, make it seem like the people had plotted and were rejecting you, we’d have more success.”
Mariah’s breath was caught in her throat.
None of this was a surprise to her; she’d always suspected the Royals were behind the attempts on her life.
But to hear him admit to it, so casually, as if discussing the weather …
“Cedoric,” she whispered, hands clenched as more threads of her magic were roused from their slumber. “You failed to kill me, but you killed a member of Queen Ryenne’s Armature. He was a good man.” Her voice rose from a whisper to a growl. “Aninnocentman.”
Shawth gave her a quizzical look. “You hardly knew him. Why do you care?”
She ground her teeth. “Icarebecause his death forced me into ruling far sooner than any of us wanted, you swine.”
“Oh, my dear.” Shawth chuckled, leaning back. “Don’t pretend that you weren’t looking for a way to grab control. Besides, there are no innocent losses in our quests for power. There are few sacrifices that are not worth it.
“Which is what led us to our new benefactor. He has shown us a new path. An easier path.” He grinned at her, yellow teethglowing in the light. “We learned your death would not be necessary for us to get what we want—at least, not yet. Rather, keeping you alive would be in our best interests. All we had to do was break you.”
Mariah’s blood chilled, before heating again on a rush of fire through her belly.
Her capture. Her abandonment in the darkness of the dungeons for six weeks.
The metal-tipped flog.
Anniliese and Andrian.
The drugged food. The hands on her skin.
“That’s truly what this has all been about? Breaking me?” Memories—brutal, painful, terrible memories—swam through her as she clung to her bravado with every shred of herself that she had left.
She’d been ripped apart, body and soul, but as she met Shawth’s pale blue gaze, she vowed thatnothingthese men could do would shake the light from her veins.
Shawth scoffed. “Well, there is a bit more to it, but for the most part, yes.” The stool creaked as he shifted. “We thought it would be easy. When we sent Andrian to collect you, we had six other guards go with him. Not because we thought he would need that much support; what could you do, unarmed and without magic?” He chuckled. “We wanted you to think that your Armature had turned against you.”
Mariah didn’t even flinch. She’d dwelled on this exact coincidence during the early days of her captivity as the madness of solitude crept in. Her captors were veiled and hooded, faces obscured from sight, but even in the darkness of her thoughts, she never truly believed them to be her Armature. She’d walked with their souls, and a piece of herself stayed with them.
“But you weren’t the least bit perturbed.” Shawth uncrossed his arms, leaning forward. “So, we turned to … other means.”