"How long have you been working as a spy?"
My stare drills holes into the middle-aged man with three point stars on his shoulders. "I am innocent."
Master Sebastian releases a frustrated growl from where he stands over the interrogator's shoulder. We've been at this for hours. All day. The chains at my wrists and ankles have chewed through skin, metal rusting with my blood.
My left eye is swollen shut and I can taste iron in my mouth. In the far corner, Thane's ghostly figure flickers in and out, his brows furrowed deep with worry. "You look one blow away from the grave, girl."
I glare at him with my one good eye. "Whose bloody fault is that?"
"Who are you speaking to?"
Glancing forward, I find both men looking at me like I have only just managed to convince them that I've lost my mind. I don't respond, returning my gaze to the window.
I look away.
"What is your real name?"
"Innocent."
"Was Eldric Ironfang a spy?"
Silence.
"How did you kill fourteen of the General's elite by yourself? Do you carry the Ebonheart curse? Or have their beasts infected claimed you?" the interrogator presses, arms bunching on the desk.
In a couple of months, I will come to understand his questions, but in the moment, it sounds like garbled nonsense.
"I didn't kill anyone."
"Did you have help?" His tone grows more vicious. "Is House Griffin behind this? You have been seen with Bryn--"
"I've also been seen with the Quartermaster," I snap. I look to Master Sebastian and give him a grin. "Maybe you're my partner in this. Oh, but let's not forget the stable boy. Maybe even the kitchen girl who handed me a bread roll last week. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
Sebastian roars, slamming his palm into the desk. The metal screeches and crashes against the wall, leaving the air shaking. "I will flay your flesh off your bones if you do not start cooperating, boy."
I wish I have it in me to be frightened. "How is the prince?"
He sneers at me. "So eager to see if you succeeded in your plans?"
I swallow down the worry that has been twisting it's way through me all day, even with what seems like an evitable death looks over me, and raise my chin. "The Prince happens to be the only who can prove my innocence, so yes, I am very invested in knowing if I succeeded in saving his life. Or not."
Thane sighs. "Your words aren't helping, Valka."
"Shut up, old man!"
Master Sebastian looks at the space where Thane rests against the wall, and obviously, he can't see him and thinks I'm a nutcase.
I'm beginning to wonder myself if having a guardian comes with any other perks asides getting in trouble.
"You aren't privy to any knowledge regarding the Prince." He draws closer and leans forward, staring me down his nose. "Come tomorrow, you will be executed for your crimes and your body will be hung on the gates as a warning to the rest of your kind."
He spits on the ground beside my feet and leaves, the officer following behind him.
Left alone, I let my lips quiver and the tears that sting the back of my eyes fall.
Men do not cry.
But I am no man.
"Is it written in my future that I die a boorish unjust death?" I whisper to Thane, voice breaking.
Thane waves, like I'm being excessively emotional. It's not like he can understand what I'm feeling. He's not even a living being. "You are not going to die. If you have never trusted me before, I ask that you do now."
I turn away from Thane. "As you like it."
****
People say in those moments before you die, your life flashes before your eyes.
I do not understand what they mean. Or perhaps, it is the fact that I haven't even lived enough to have those memories. All I have known and loved is gone. My life has always been out of control and there is nothing I could've done to divert the course of it.
In one way or the other, I would have ended up in chains. Imaginary or real. Had I let Beta Axel take me, something in me would have died. A slow death, maybe, but death is death, all the same.
Maybe this is a better way out. An easier one.
They drag me out at dawn.
The courtyard is already packed with soldiers, guards, recruit and men in golden, more polished armour than I recognise. They come to witness the death of a traitor.
Stones are hurled at me. Spittle flies into my face. They curse me. I keep my gaze on the skies, heavy with dark clouds. Banners flutter stiffly against the windless morning. The chill stings every inch of wounded skin and I wince as my bare feet slams into rocks.
Atop the block, I stumble. My legs don't want to move anymore.
My executioner stands tall, a massive blade gleaming.
Thane walks beside me, a phantom only I can see, his steps silent, his voice barely a breath in my mind. "You're not supposed to die here, Val."
"I'm not supposed to be here at all," I whisper.
But no one hears me.
I'm shoved to my knees before the block. Chains clink. Cold stone bites through my slacks, tearing my knees. I keep my eyes closed, trying to conjure up an image to keep me strong, so I do not balk and beg for my life.
I hear Sebastian step forward, hear him unroll to he scroll.
"The traitor named Valerian Ironfang. You are charged with espionage, attempted regicide, and the murder of the General's elite. Do you have any last words?"
"I didn't do it," I rasp.
"Then you shall not only die a traitor. You die a liar."
I hear the sword lift. And for a brief moment, clarity sinks in like stone and I realize that I wish I had lived more freely.
The thought makes laughter slip from me.
Blade begins slicing the air and I exhale my last breath--
"Stop." The voice is hoarse, panting but bright as it slices through the courtyard, forcing me to snap my eyes open.
There, at the edge of the square, the prince limps, his torso covered in bandages, black slacks rippling with every difficult step. His face is pale as death, hair unkempt, jaw clench. Oh, but his eyes are livid. "What the fuck are you doing?"
Alive. He's alive.
Tears flood my eyes and something in my chest cracks open.
"You can't be out of bed, Rafe!" Astrea yells, running after him, but he ignores her, the entire weight of his fury directed at Master Sebastian. "Well?"
The Quartermaster goes still, face paling. "He attacked Your High--"
"He saved my life," the Prince hisses, the crowd parting for him as he beelines for us. "I owe him my life. Do you understand me?"
Lips part in disbelief and I do not know if the tears running down my face are in relief that he isn't dead or I am not about to die anymore.
The blade close to my neck lifts and I suddenly can't breathe as Prince Rafe's sparkling grey eyes meet mine. "Get those shackles off him right now."
The guards obey and in seconds, I am escorted off the chopping block and towards the Prince.
"You're alive," I whisper.
Prince Rafe does the unexpected, then. He grabs my wrist and pulls me away. My eyes widen as we move past soldier after soldier, stunned face after the next. For a second, Astrea's stare finds mine and I see the way they flick to where Prince Rafe fingers burn around my skin, and back to my face with disturbing suspicion.
But soon, we are through the doors of the tower and upon taking the first stair, the prince's knees buckle.
"Rafe!" Astrea and I yell at the same time.
I reach to grab him but Astrea pushes me out of the way harshly enough that my still healing arm rams into the wall and I fall on my backside. "Get away from him, peasant!"
"Rafe," she cries, cradling him gently, fingers brushing his temple as he falls unconscious in her arms.
"Is he alright?"
There are tears in her eyes as she all but screams at me, "Get out! You are not welcome here! This is all your fault!"
And though, every single cell in my body wants me to stay, I turn on my heel and walk away, wiping the tear that runs down my cheeks.