In the Wake of the Wicked (Veridian Empire #1)

74. Rose

74

Rose

T he room went in and out of focus. Magic and blood heated in tandem beneath my skin, like coiling serpents ready to strike.

I killed them all .

He’d had me believe Branock Aris had murdered my father out of revenge, as a way to get back at Gayl by hurting anyone he had been close to. Gayl told me he’d tried to protect my father.

Lies. Everything from this man’s mouth had been a lie.

And those other men, the ones who had followed Gayl…the Sanguivex, my aunt had called them. All of whom died within a couple years of my father. Once again, I’d blamed Branock Aris, but it had been Gayl the entire time.

“Why?” was all I could force through my clenched teeth, around the cloying, bitter taste of rage.

“They knew too much. After all of our years together, all of the nights spent practicing blood magic and creating such spells, they knew it was I who caused the Somnivae curse twenty-seven years ago. They knew what it could do, what I longed for. And they were beginning to speak. I did what I had to do.”

“But…the night my father died, the Illusionist who killed him said ‘Branock Aris sends his lo ve.’”

“Hamilton and the others were the very ones who helped me develop the curse. In a way, they were part of the reason for Branock Aris’ downfall. That was merely the message I sent. Aris had no idea who Hamilton was, nor the rest of the Sanguivex.”

The truth crashed into me. The lie I had believed so whole-heartedly now seared as it warped and twisted at Gayl’s words.

He killed my father .

His voice grew fainter against the loud pounding of my heart. That night in his lair when I’d lost control of my magic had felt like an explosion inside my chest, like my very blood had burned, boiling to the surface and releasing in a shattering of energy.

But now I felt…something else entirely.

It wasn’t an eruption. There was no sudden burst of magic. It was as if a piece inside of me settled. A silent part clicking into place. A door opening.

“You murdered your own brother,” I said, barely a whisper. Looking down, I realized my hands had been balled into fists tight enough to pierce the cut on my palm from when I’d tried to curse Callum. Blood leaked from my flesh and dripped to the floor.

My neck snapped back up to Gayl. “ You murdered my father, ” I growled, louder this time.

Magic swirled angrily in my bones, eager for retribution. Eager to be set free. Taking a step toward him, I raised my blood-stained hand. Gayl’s body lifted from the ground, his fingers clawing at his neck as if he was choking.

I uttered no spell, but my magic seemed to have a mind of its own.

“You didn’t deserve to call him your brother.” With each word, I took another step, his body moving with me. I ignored the gasps from Rissa and Lark and the clambering of Gayl’s guards as they hesitated to come to his aid. “You didn’t deserve to have him stand by your side. You don’t deserve to speak his name ever again.”

His head slammed into the far wall, but when he opened his eyes, he was grinning .

“Look at you,” he said, wheezing. “More power than you have ever dreamed of. But it’s still not enough.”

With a wave of his hand, he fell to the ground and landed on his feet.

I expected him to retaliate, to execute me on the spot, but instead, he straightened his cloak and rolled his neck along his shoulders. As if this were child’s play. As if I was nothing . With a simple flick of his wrist, I was suddenly immobilized from the neck down, unable to move my limbs. I thrashed and tugged at the enchantment, desperation clawing at my throat, but it was no use. He had me at his mercy.

“You will never understand the things I had to sacrifice to keep this curse alive, Rose.”

My breath left me. “So the Somnivae curse wasn’t an accident? You meant to cast it?”

“It’s not just a curse, is it, Your Majesty?” Lark asked, breaking her silence.

He said nothing, examining us like insects under a magnifying glass. I twisted again within his magical grip, my arms aching to move, but I was stuck.

What did Lark mean? For all my knowledge of spells and herbs and curses, blood magic was a whole new world. A dark realm of possibilities was laid out before us.

“You don’t even want to get rid of it, do you?” I asked. Was that why he’d let Leo live all these years?

Gayl’s focus was solely on me. “Why would I want to get rid of it? The Somnivae curse is the pinnacle of my creations. It has given me everything .”

“What are you talking about?” I whispered.

He snapped his fingers and the guards dropped their hold on Rissa, Horace, and Lark, unshackling them from their cuffs. I watched in horror as my friends each grabbed a sword from the guards’ scabbards and, with foreign expressions of pure rage, turned to face one another.

Horace was the first to move.

He bolted to Rissa, raising his sword and striking hard and fast, leaving her hardly any time to block his attack. Lark came in from the side and brought Rissa to her knees with a swift kick to the hip. Swinging her sword down on Horace’s shoulder, Lark let out a battle cry.

Horace spun away just in time, using his momentum to swipe his blade across her stomach. She leapt backward, but not before a splatter of dark blood hit the floor. Stunned, she clutched at her middle.

“Stop!” I screamed. It was like they didn’t know what they were doing. They were completely savage, controlled by whatever mind games Gayl was playing. I tried to run toward them, but my legs wouldn’t move. A guttural shriek left my throat as I pushed and shoved with all my might, trying to break free of the spell.

“Make them stop, please !” I begged as Rissa narrowly avoided having her head cut clean off by Lark’s blade. My breaths were broken and wild. I couldn’t do this. If I had to watch them kill each other?—

In an instant, they stopped moving. Completely frozen, eyes glassy.

“I can do this without even a thought , Rose. While I pride myself on innate strength of magic, do you truly think there is any way I could be so powerful on my own?” Gayl asked, cocking his head. He was trying to lead me to the answer, guiding me along the way as he had during our lessons.

It had something to do with the curse. He said it had given him everything. How could it have given him his power? The curse didn’t affect him. It had taken all those people?—

I inhaled sharply. “The people. When they fall to the curse, what…what happens to their magic?” His eyes brightened in triumph at my question, the way they did when he helped me with my magic.

My blood ran cold.

“It—it goes to you, doesn’t it? ”

He didn’t have to say anything. His expression was confirmation enough.

The curse…it was how he had accumulated so much power. Every time someone became cursed, he got their power. Or at least, pieces of it.

For twenty-seven years. Thousands of people.

He was…invincible. How could he not be, with that much power? I couldn’t even begin to wrap my mind around the kind of magic he possessed, all at the expense of his empire. His people.

“That’s why Leo is still alive,” I said, trembling. “Not to protect him. Because you need him. If he died, your curse would end.” I glanced back at the wall where the portal had been. “Then why trap him there, if not for him to die? What was the point of all this?”

“I told you: to teach them a lesson.” His voice was still as quiet, still as captivating as ever, not even a hint of anger or worry that I was uncovering all of his secrets. A constant reminder that this had always been under his control. “To show your Sentinel friends that no matter how large their numbers grow, how pure of heart their goal is, it’s all futile. If I wanted to simply detain your Zareleon in my palace, I could have done so. But it’s much more meaningful this way, don’t you understand?” He took a step toward me. “I do not wish to rule by force alone. I want to see how far you are willing to go, how much you are willing to sacrifice, before I put an end to it.”

Gayl brandished an arm and the enchantment over my limbs broke. I stumbled as Horace, Rissa, and Lark fell to the ground at the same time, swords clattering against the hard floor. Lark held a hand to her stomach, her eyes widening when it pulled away red. Rissa rushed to her. Each of them looked confused and terrified, as if they didn’t remember what had happened.

This was all for show. He had no intention of letting us go. He had no intention of releasing Leo from his prison on the island.

Another question flashed before me. “How did you get Zareleon and Clarissa into the trial?”

“ I didn’t, niece.” Gayl steepled his hands in front of his face. “ You did.”

My mouth fell open. Rissa shot me a look, as if believing, if only for a moment, I’d done something to betray her.

“I don’t know what he’s talking about, Rissa, I swear,” I rushed out. Glaring at Gayl, I said, “I would never do that to them.”

With the snap of his finger, a white handkerchief and a small strip of cloth appeared in his grasp. Spots of red stained each of the fabrics.

I blinked. “Those…”

“Are yours. Yes, I know.”

The handkerchief was the one I’d used in the dress shop when Rissa cut herself on the pins of my dress. And the cloth…I had accidentally nicked Leo’s hand when cutting open the letter from Gayl that same night. The last time I had seen either of them was?—

“I asked you to retrieve them for me, and you delivered it the evening of our last lesson. I never did properly thank you,” Gayl said, inclining his head toward me in a mockery of a bow.

“How?” I breathed. I didn’t remember bringing them that night. I didn’t remember him ever asking. I never would have agreed to help him, to sneak him their blood , of all things.

“Blood is a powerful weapon,” was all he said.

It was never a straight answer with him. Always leading, always guiding. He wanted me to figure it out on my own. He reveled in seeing others realize how cunning he was, how he was multiple steps ahead at every turn.

I looked down at my friends, thinking of how he had taken over their minds and controlled their actions without them remembering a single moment. Had he done the same to me? Was that how I’d collected Rissa and Leo’s blood for him?

My eyes traveled back to Gayl, narrowing as my thoughts sped up. I was under the impression he needed someone’s blood before he could control them. He had access to these three now, of course, but when had he first gotten into my head? It must have been when the challengers had their physical exams, or when? —

I remembered. Our very first lesson after the second trial, when I cut my hand to cast a fire spell. He’d given me a handkerchief to stop the bleeding.

“You were using me from the beginning,” I whispered, hurt seeping into my voice. I didn’t want to feel hurt by this man. He was a monster, a power-hungry, selfish tyrant.

But for a moment, he had been my uncle.

His gaze flickered across my face, his wrinkled features softening a fraction. “That does not change anything I said. You could be great. And I was proud of you. This magic is our birthright, and I only desired to share that with you.”

“If that were true, you wouldn’t be doing any of this!” I cried. Perhaps there was still a remnant of that sentimental man, the one who told me of adventures with my father, who felt remorse for what he’d done. Some small part of him that could be reached.

Edging forward, I let the rest of the room fall away, hoping, praying, pleading that he would see reason. I didn’t need him to renounce his magic. I didn’t need him to hand the empire over to Rissa. Right now, in this moment, I only needed him to let us go. The rest would come—the Sentinels would regroup and Gayl would get what he deserved. I would do anything to get myself and the ones I loved out of this, even if it meant the world would suffer a bit longer.

“I remember when you told me you weren’t the monster I’d always believed. Please, uncle. If even a fraction of that is true, if my father or even I still mean anything to you, you’ll let the rebels go. Let Leo come back. We want the same thing—for him to stay alive.” I stepped closer. “I care about these people. I know they’ve betrayed you, but even you said you ask for your citizens to prove themselves. To take what’s theirs. Isn’t that what they’ve done? Punish them, banish them if you need to, but let them live.”

I could feel Rissa’s eyes shooting daggers at my back. I was practically handing over their surrender. But she would understand. If this got her brother back, she would forgive me .

Gayl blinked and I thought, for a moment, I had made him pause.

“I have no quarrel with your friends, nor your lover,” he said slowly. “But I cannot allow the one person with the ability to take what I have worked for to live.”

His right arm shot out to the side, and invisible strings dragged Rissa toward him. Without touching her, she rose straight into the air, flailing and cursing as his hold over her tightened.

A second later, her body went slack.

“No!” I shouted, flinging myself at them. “Please, uncle. I—I’ll stay with you,” I cried frantically. “I’ll be your heir. I’ll do whatever you want, but if you care about me at all, please don’t hurt her .”

His gaze drilled into mine. My heart stuttered as I waited, my promise dragging out between us.

“I do care about you, niece,” he said. “But the key to power is knowing what you’re willing to leave behind.”

His hand squeezed, and a terrifying gurgle escaped from Rissa’s throat.

“Now!” Lark yelled. Suddenly, shadows rippled from her in waves, her magic unlocked after Gayl had removed the cuffs earlier. Billowing darkness filled the room. Momentarily distracted, Gayl’s head whipped around. His other arm came out to restrain Lark when a flash of silver glinted through the air.

With a strangled cry, Gayl dropped his arms, and Rissa went crashing to the ground. He clutched at his wrist.

A small dagger was embedded in his left hand.

I watched in horror as slowly, painstakingly slowly, the dagger lifted itself from his flesh, controlled entirely by Gayl’s magic. Blood rolled down the blade as it rose.

Before I could blink, it twisted midair and fired back the way it came.

Straight into Horace’s eye.