Blood Heir

41

The first thing she felt was the cold. And then came scent: the unmistakably musty smell of damp stone and stale air.

Ana shifted a hand and felt a cool, hard surface beneath her. Her head spun, and her body felt sluggish, as though she had just woken from a deep sleep. Her muscles were stiff, but she could feel the effects of the paralysis potion fading already.

She opened her eyes. The darkness was absolute, but she recognized this place. There was nowhere else in this world that carried such a strong stench of hopelessness and taste of absolute fear. Papa had always told her that this was a place full of demons.

But Ana had learned that demons were not the creatures to be feared the most. Humans were.

She drew a deep breath and shifted her focus to her Affinity. It leapt to her command and the room lit up: the walls and floors riddled with specks and splatters of blood, old and new layers superimposed like coats of paint.

She wriggled her fingers and toes. Nobody had bothered to shackle her, or inject her with Deys’voshk… because she was supposed to be dead.

And Luka. Luka was gone.

Despite what she told herself—that she needed a plan, that she needed to get out of here, that she needed to save Ramson and find Linn—the tears came. It was as though her sorrow were a flood, crashing through her strongest will and iron strength, pouring out. She lay on a table in the cold, dark dungeon, clamping both hands on her mouth to stay silent as she cried. With each long, drawn-out sob, she curled into herself like she would never breathe again.

She was pathetic. Luka had survived a year of Morganya’s torture, of being slowly drained of life, and even toward the very end he had been able to resist her in his own way.

Get up, brat, he’d say to her right now. Our empire needs you.

Her empire needed her. She had no right to grief, not now.

Ana clenched her jaw and curled her fists. Her body still shuddered with silent sobs, but her mind cleared.

Promise me.

Somewhere far off, a door clanged. Footsteps reverberated through the deserted corridors. Ana suppressed a shudder and lay frozen in place. Those sounds evoked an unspeakable fear in her: the anticipation of thin white fingers curling around prison bars, a sadistic smile on a sallow face, and the promise of Deys’voshk against her lips.

Holding her breath, she reached out with her Affinity. Someone had entered the dungeons and was heading her way. He walked briskly but calmly—the measured steps of a person familiar with these dungeons. He slowly drew closer, his blood glowing brighter like a candle.

A soft murmur. Someone was saying her name. The voice was so familiar, she thought she was hallucinating.

A figure stepped before her cell, the far-off torchlight illuminating the silvers and whites that peppered his hair. By the time the cell door clicked open, she had scrambled to her feet.

Ana fell into her kapitan’s firm embrace. Through her tears, she breathed in the scent of his shaving cream and armor metal.

“Kolst…” Markov’s deep voice cracked; he couldn’t finish the word as he sank to his knees and drew a circle over his chest. A salute; a show of respect.

Ana held back tears as she drew him back up, touching her fingers to his weathered face, tracing tears from the lines that had deepened around his eyes. Kapitan Markov had been like a second father to her, after Papa had turned from her. “I’ve missed you so much, Kapitan.”

More footsteps sounded sharply down the hall again, and Ana tensed, grasping for her Affinity.

Two men rounded the corner, throwing bright torchlight into her cell. For a moment, Ana could only stare at them.

Lieutenant Henryk saluted. Shame heated his cheeks—their thoughts both inevitably turned to when he had tried to arrest her earlier in the evening—but he kept his gaze firmly on hers.

And next to him… next to him was—

“Hello, Witch,” Ramson said softly. His face was bruising in various places, and his shirt was torn open at the collar. Someone had hastily bandaged his chest, but blood was already soaking through the gauze.

She remembered the Throneroom, the way he had burst in, the devastation on his face. The shadow of that grief still clouded his eyes. He looked so fragile.

Ana’s throat ached, but she forced herself to stay where she was. “Hello, con man,” she whispered.

Ramson looked as though he were about to say something else, but Kapitan Markov cut across him. “You’ll address her as Empress,” the old guard said sternly.

Ana noticed that Ramson stood a bit straighter. “Yes, sir.”

Among them, there was one person still missing. “Linn,” Ana said, looking at Ramson. “Where is she?”

“She was fighting the Whitecloaks when I left her,” Ramson said. “She gave me a pouch and told me to hand it to you—said it was evidence. Kapitan, did you happen to take any prisoners from last night?”

Desperation twined around Ana when the kapitan slowly shook his head. “Please, Kapitan,” Ana whispered. “She’s my friend. Will you ask your guards to search for a Kemeiran girl?”

“I will, Kolst Imperatorya,” Markov said gravely, “but I do not think you can stay here for the results of my search.”

The implication of his words left her breathless with dread. “Morganya,” Ana said quietly. “What happened? What has the Imperial Council decided?”

Markov hesitated. “There is no… Imperial Council anymore,” he said at last. “Morganya has seized complete control of the Court and dismissed the Council. The remaining Councilmembers have pledged their loyalties to her.”

The inevitable truth loomed like a shadow. Ana was back where she had started, with no army, no power, and no title. “I’ve lost.” The words numbed her lips.

“No, Kolst Imperatorya!” Henryk’s fists were clenched. “A few of the Councilmembers believe Morganya committed treason and usurped the throne. You need to go back. Announce that you are alive, sentence Morganya, and take back the Court.”

“Do you really think that matters?” Ramson spoke suddenly, his anger a quiet undercurrent. “If Ana goes back now, she’ll be killed. Pardon me,” he added. “The Princess. The Heir. The Empress. Whatever you want to call her—it doesn’t matter. This is a coup, and Morganya has solidified her power already; the majority of the Cyrilian Court sides with her. We’ve been outmaneuvered. But there is one advantage we hold over her— everyone believes Ana is dead.”

He was right, Ana realized. This was a war that Ana could not win with brazenness and the strength of her Affinity. This was a long game, and Ana needed to outscheme, outwit, and outmaneuver Morganya.

Ana held a hand up, and the three men fell silent, their attention on her. “I must leave,” Ana said. “But I will not disappear. Morganya plans mass murder and a reign of terror. She must be stopped.” Yuri’s defiant face appeared in her mind’s eye, his hair as bright as fire. “I have a small group of allies in the south of the Empire. I will travel there and begin my campaign. I will gather support; I will gather an army. And once I am ready to prove to this empire—to this world—that I am worthy of being heir… I will return.”

Markov gave a slow nod. “How you have grown, Little Tigress,” he murmured.

“Kapitan, Lieutenant,” Ana continued. “If you support me, then I need you to stay here. If I am to win, and if I am to return, then I need allies close to my enemy. I need you to be my eyes and ears within the Palace, within the Imperial Court. Can you do that?”

Henryk gave her a sharp salute. There were tears in his eyes. “We will not fail you, Kolst Imperatorya.”

“You must go,” Markov said, and Ana could tell how much of an effort it took for him to say those words to her.

Ana met his eyes. “I will return, Kapitan,” she whispered. “And I will see you again.”

Guided by Henryk’s torchlight, they made their way to the secret passageway in the back of the dungeons. The narrow cell door stood ajar from their earlier entry.

Markov took Ana’s hand and squeezed. “Deys blesya ty, Kolst Imperatorya.”

“Deys blesya ty,” she replied.

A grating sound reverberated throughout the dungeons. With a grunt, Henryk straightened. The door to the passageway gaped from the wall, darkness beyond.

Ramson tapped two fingers to his forehead in a sharp salute and slipped in. Ana followed, placing a hand on the entrance to steady herself.

She glanced back. Markov and Henryk stood behind her, the torch flickering like a beacon in the darkness. Only one year ago, she had run through this door, afraid and alone and completely lost. Ahead of her lay darkness, uncertainty, and a long, long path she’d have to fight her way through. Behind was a crumbling empire, a people in peril, and a world divided.

Promise me.

Ana turned and slipped into the darkness that welcomed her like an old friend.