After the Walls

Chapter 26

Ruben's grip tightens around my arms as he shoves me into step, steering me blindly through the dungeon hallway. His boots reverberate off the stone walls as he marches me forward, up, up, up the stairs, and into the main halls of the palace. Even though I'm blinded by the black hood over my head, I can tell we are in the lower levels of the palace by the chatter of servants around us, their hurried footsteps, the hiss of a pot on a stove, and the sweet and savory smell of pumpkin soup. He directs me up yet another staircase, and we spiral higher and higher until my head spins.

"Must you dig your nails into my skin?" I hiss at Ruben as he keeps directing me onward.

"You will try to escape," he says in a hollow voice that makes me wonder if it is really him.

"I'm handcuffed, idiot." I jerk my arms out of his grasp, earning a grunt from him. "Just don't let me smack into a wall."

My mind spins, and my stomach twists with a sense of foreboding. Like my body senses that there is something wrong with Ruben. Well, other than the fact he's betrayed me for his psychopathic brother. But it doesn't add up. Ruben just about despises Edward. Maybe he has a sliver of instinctive interest in him, but I can't imagine he'd work with him willingly.

At last, warm air curls around me and the crackle of a fireplace sputters from somewhere in the room. Ruben guides me with rough hands into a chair. He yanks off the black hood and I blink. Edward sits behind his grand marble desk and his lips stretch into a sneer and I jump. Flickering candlelight gilds his face, lighting up his green eyes.

"You scurried up here quickly," I say, shifting in the seat, sitting taller. "Scared I might have wrenched myself free from Ruben and come for your throat?"

He lets out a braying laugh and spins the feather quill that he plucks from the inkpot. "I wouldn't put it past you. But I imagine you would like to take Ruben out, too."

I spot the hilt of my sword resting against the side of his desk. "I don't understand," I say, voice sharp as Ruben flanks my side. I can't even stand to look at him. "I thought the Red Movement wanted your head on a stick."

He leans forward, tapping his four fingers on a sheet of parchment on his desk. "They did," he says. "I did abandon them. But I wrote back to them and promised they could live I the city. In our exchanges, we made an agreement. They could live in the city as long as they promised to serve me. I have also promised to heal them, as my redemption to them for using them as lab rats in the Red Movement building."

"With the shadowteeth blood?" I raise my brows. Anger creeps into my mind, forming a haze across my vision. "You are going to make an army of immortals?"

"A sworn-to-loyalty family," he says with a shrug, running a hand through his white-blond hair. "You have proven to not be loyal, no matter how much you promise. Your words are shallow when you are still in love with my brother."

My hands clench as I grind my teeth and scarlet bursts into my face. "I never broke my loyalty to you. I did everything you said. Stuck by your side even when you deserved to be alone; when you should have had no one."

His eyes flash, and he dips the quill into the inkpot, swiping the excess against the side. "But how could you be entirely loyal when he has your heart?"

Ruben doesn't even flinch and doesn't make a sound. I finally allow myself to look at him. He stands straight, shoulders back, hands clasped behind his back. A hollow look in his eyes.

"What have you done to him?" I ask Edward, narrowing my eyes.

His lips curl into an amused sneer as he scribbles something on the parchment. The double doors seem to fly open on a phantom wind as Theseus marches in, hands also behind his back. "Your grace, have you signed the treaty?" he asks, stopping next to me.