“It was those you call Descenters. Our supporters,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “There was no order given to attack the Rite, however.”
“You really expect me to believe the thing the Descenters follow didn’t order them to attack the Rite?”
“Just because they follow the Dark One, doesn’t mean they are led by him,” he answered. “Many of the Descenters act on their own. They know the truth. They no longer want to live in fear of their children being made into monsters or stolen to feed another. I had nothing to do with Vikter’s death.”
I shivered, believing what he said about his involvement and unsure why. But whether the Dark One actively led the Descenters or not, he was still the cause of Vikter’s death. They’d picked up his cause and acted upon it.
“But the others you claim. You killed them. Owning it doesn’t change it.”
“It had to happen.” His chin moved from my cheek, and then he said, “Just like you need to understand that there is no way out of this. You belong to me.”
My heart turned over slowly. “Don’t you mean I belong to the Dark One?”
“I meant what I said, Princess.”
“I don’t belong to anyone.”
“If you believe that, then you are a fool,” he taunted, pressing his head to mine before I could lash out. “Or you’re lying to yourself. You belonged to the Ascended. You know that. It’s one of the things you hated. They kept you in a cage.”
I never should’ve said anything to him. “At least that cage was more comfortable than this one.”
“True,” he murmured, and a heartbeat passed. “But you’ve never been free.”
“True or not.” And it was painfully true. “That doesn’t mean I’ll stop fighting you,” I warned. “I won’t submit.”
“I know.” There was an odd tone to his voice, one that sounded like…admiration. But that didn’t make sense.
“And you’re still a monster,” I told him.
“I am, but I wasn’t born that way. I was made this way. You asked about the scar on my thigh. Did you look at it closely, or were you too busy staring at my co—”
“Shut up,” I screamed.
“You should’ve noticed that it was the Royal Crest branded on my skin,” he said, and I gasped. It had looked like the Royal Crest. “Do you want to know how I have such intimate knowledge of what happens during your fucking Ascension, Poppy? How I know what you don’t? Because I was held in one of those Temples for five decades, and I was sliced and cut and fed upon. My blood was poured into golden chalices that the second sons and daughters drank after being drained by the Queen or the King or another Ascended. I was the godsdamn cattle.”
No.
I couldn’t believe this.
“And I wasn’t just used for food. I provided all sorts of entertainment. I know exactly what it’s like to not have a choice,” he continued, and horror followed his words. “It was your Queen who branded me, and if it hadn’t been for the foolish bravery of another, I would still be there. That is how I got that scar.”
Without any warning, his hands slipped off mine, and he pulled away. Trembling, I didn’t move. Not for several long moments. When I turned around, he was already outside the cell.
If what he said was true…
No. It couldn’t be. Gods, it could not be.
Suddenly unbearably cold, I folded my arms around myself, crossing the chains.
Hawke stared at me through the bars. “Neither the prince nor I want to see you harmed. As I’ve said, we need you alive.”
“Why?” I whispered. “Why am I so important?”
“Because they have the true heir to the kingdom. They captured him when he freed me.”
I thought that the Dark One was the only heir to the Atlantian throne. If what Hawke said was true, it could only mean…“The Dark One has a brother?”
He nodded. “You are the Queen’s favorite. You’re important to her and to the kingdom. I don’t know why. Maybe it has something to do with your gift. Perhaps it doesn’t. But we will release you back to them if they release Prince Malik.”
All of what he’d just said slowly seeped into my brain. “You plan to use me as ransom.”
“That’s better than sending you back in pieces, isn’t it?”
Disbelief thundered through me, quickly followed by that pulsing pain that came from my chest. “You just spent all this time telling me that the Queen, the Ascended, and my brother, are all evil vamprys who feed on mortals, and you’re just going to send me back to them once you free the Dark One’s brother?”
Hawke said nothing.
A broken, too-wet-sounding laugh left me. If what he said was true, it confirmed what was already becoming evident.
He didn’t care for my safety or well-being beyond making sure I was breathing when the time came to make the exchange.
I lifted my hand to my chest to ease the throb as another laugh crept up on me.
Hawke’s jaw flexed. “A more comfortable sleeping arrangement will be made.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, but he surely wasn’t getting a thank you from me.
His chin lifted. “You can choose not to believe anything I’ve said, but you should so that what I’m about to say doesn’t come as such a shock to you. I will be leaving shortly to meet up with King Da’Neer of Atlantia to tell him that I have you.”
My head jerked upright.
“Yes. The King lives. So does Queen Eloana. The parents of the one you call the Dark One and Prince Malik.”
Shocked, I couldn’t move as he turned to leave, but he stopped.
And Hawke didn’t look back as he said, “Not everything was a lie, Poppy. Not everything.”
CHAPTER 37
Not everything was a lie.
Which part?
The story about Hawke’s brother? The rest of his family? Farming his lands, and the caverns he used to explore as a child? That he’d been in love before and had lost? Or all the things he’d said about me?
Whatever he said that was true didn’t matter. It shouldn’t as I paced as far as the chains would allow, which was not very far at all.
After he’d left, I’d sat on the mattress and tried to sort truth from fiction, which had felt impossible. Somehow, even more improbable, I had drifted off to sleep. My mind hadn’t shut down, but my body had simply given out on me. I’d slept until the nightmares drove me awake, my screams echoing off the stone walls.
It had been so long since the memory of the night of my parents’ deaths had found me in sleep. That it would find me here was not at all surprising.
I brushed several loose strands of hair back from my face as I turned, careful to not tangle myself in the chains.
Maybe…maybe the Ascended were vamprys, created accidentally by the Atlantians. I could believe that. It seemed too much of an elaborate lie to not be real. And I could believe that Lord Mazeen had been the cause of Malessa’s death. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t capable of such cruelty.
And gods, I believed what Hawke had said about how he’d gotten the brand. Maybe not the part where the Queen had been the one to deliver it, nor what he’d been held for, but the rawness in his voice couldn’t be forced. He’d been held against his will, and he’d been used in ways even I couldn’t comprehend.
Believing that didn’t mean everything else he claimed was true. That the Ascended were feeding off mortals, sequestering them in temples and stealing into homes in the middle of the night to create Craven out of the ones they didn’t completely drain dry. How in the world would they have been able to keep that a secret? People would find out.
People could’ve found out already.
That is if that knowledge is what drove the Descenters to support the fallen kingdom of Atlantia.
I shook my head.
But that would mean that every Ascended was aware of what was happening. That not a single one had refused the Ascension once learning what it would cost. Not even my brother.
Our mother, though, she had refused the Ascension.
My heart tripped over itself.
She’d refused because she’d loved my father. Not because she’d learned the truth and had passed on it. She’d refused because of love, and the Dark One had still killed her.
Unless…unless the Duchess had lied about that. But why? Why would she have lied? The Dark One, Prince Casteel, controlled the Craven.
Except did the Craven appear as if they were controlled by anything but hunger? Never once had I seen them stop in the middle of an attack or display any true level of cognitive thinking.
But if that wasn’t true, if the Dark One couldn’t control them, then did that mean the Ascended were using them to control the populace? To stop them from asking too many questions, and make them willing to hand over their children so the gods wouldn’t become displeased, exposing their cities to a Craven attack?
It almost felt like I’d be struck down for even questioning that. Because Hawke was right. It was a religion.
I started pacing again.
How did the Craven make it to a town that hadn’t seen an attack in decades the moment I arrived with my family unless the Dark One had sent them?