The massive circular chamber was still in a state of disarray from the prior night’s celebrations. Servants came to a complete standstill as we entered—dozens of them.
“Everyone out,” Tavius barked. “Now.”
No one hesitated. They scurried from the Hall in a flurry of starched white tunics and blouses. My gaze collided with one. Her. The young girl who’d been in the room where the guards had been lying in wait. Her blue eyes were wide as she quickly looked away, casting her gaze to the floor.
Tavius strode down the wide steps onto the main floor, and my gaze traveled to what he walked toward. The statue of the Primal of Life. Breathtaking detail had been given to Primal Kolis. The heavy-soled caligae and armored plating shielding his legs looked real, as did the knee-length tunic and the chainmail covering his chest and torso, all carved from the palest marble. He held a spear in one hand and a shield in the other. The warrior. The protector. The King of the Primals, gods, and mortals. Even the bones in his hands and the curl to his hair had been captured in astonishing detail. But his face was nothing but smooth stone.
The lack of features always unnerved me, just as it did whenever I saw the rare renderings of the Primal of Death.
Tavius looked up at the statue. “This would work.” He turned to me, that smirk fixed upon his lips. “A rather fitting place for you, I think.”
Breathe in. I had no idea what he was up to or what my punishment would be as the Royal Guards forced me down the steps. Spilled liquid dampened the soles of my feet. Hold. White petals crumbled under my steps. I glanced up at Kolis’s stone, feature-less face, fighting the tremble starting in my legs. I forced my muscles to lock as footsteps entered the Hall from behind. Breathe out.
“Ah, perfect timing.” Tavius clapped his hands together. “Bind her and put her on her knees.”
Breathe in. I felt the edge of the arrow poking me in the back. I went down stiffly to my knees, at the feet of the Primal King. The Royal Guards brought my wrists together, and the guard who had been waiting outside my chamber at the end of the hall was suddenly beside me, wrapping one end of a rope around my wrists. I showed no reaction to the tight pull against my skin as he jerked the bindings around the statue’s arm, forcing my arms above my head. Hold. My lungs burned as the guards backed away. The breath I’d dragged in hadn’t been deep enough. I exhaled a thin stream of air. What was happening? What was—? Tavius moved out of my line of sight. I cranked my head to the side to see what he was doing—
Air cracked with a thin whistle, turning my skin to ice. No. No, he wouldn’t. My heart started racing as I pulled at the bonds, my stomach twisting. I knew that sound. I’d heard it when I walked into the barn that night as he’d whipped his horse for throwing him. There was no—
“You’ve always reminded me of a wild horse. Too stubborn. Too temperamental. Too proud despite your numerous failures,” Tavius drawled, drawing closer. I heard him dragging the leather lash over his palm. “There’s only one way to get a steed to respect its master. You have to break it.” Tavius knelt beside me. Nothing about his eyes was warm. There was nothing humane. “Just like you should’ve been broken the night you failed the entire kingdom. But you’ll learn today.”
I stared at him, my heart slowing. I wasn’t there. I didn’t feel the cool tile under my knees or the too-tight, rough rope around my wrists. I donned the veil. I retreated into myself, but I didn’t fade to nothing. I wasn’t an empty vessel. The canvas wasn’t blank. Something dark and tremendous sparked inside me, like a violent strike against flint. An icy fire was birthed in the center of my chest. It poured through my body, filling all those hollow places. My blood hummed, and the center of my chest throbbed. I tasted shadow and death in the back of my throat as that icy fire burned through me. I lifted my eyes to Tavius’s, the corners of my lips curling up.
I heard words pass my lips, sentences full of smoke. “I’m going to kill you.” I barely recognized the voice as mine. “I will slice the hands from your body and then carve your heart from your chest before setting it on fire. I will watch you burn.”
Tavius’s pupils expanded. “You…you stupid bitch.”
I laughed. I didn’t even know where the laugh had come from, but it felt ancient and endless. And it wasn’t mine. I thought Tavius heard it. For a second, I swore I saw fear in his eyes. Doubt. For just a second, and then his lips curled into a sneer.
“You won’t be doing anything, sister. I doubt you’ll be able to even speak your name by the time I’m through with you. You’ll be broken,” he swore. “You will respect me.”
“Never,” I whispered and then looked away, focusing on the stone hand holding the hilt of the spear.
Seconds ticked by as Tavius remained kneeling beside me, his chest rising and falling rapidly. I stayed in that faraway place where nothing but icy fire filled my insides, leaving no room for dread or fear or anything else. When Tavius rose, I felt nothing but the kiss of promised retribution. When he walked behind me, I held my chin high. When he roughly tossed my braid over my shoulder, exposing my back, I didn’t move. When the air cracked again, I didn’t flinch.
The snapping pain streaked across my back, from my shoulders to my waist, sudden and intense. A harsh breath punched out of me. That was the only sound in the Great Hall. The Royal Guards remained silent. Tavius didn’t even speak. I forced myself to breathe through the pain.
The whistle of the whip was the only warning. I braced myself, but there was no way to prepare. No breathing exercise to ease what was to come. Fiery pain erupted as my entire body jerked forward and then fell back as far as the ropes would allow. I shuddered, telling myself that I could handle this. Tavius wasn’t strong enough to break skin.
He was the weak one.
The night rail slipped down my arms, gaping in the front as I slowly rightened myself. As soon as I could, I would carry out my promise. I would cut off his hands and feed that whip to him until he choked on it. I would carve out his heart and then watch him burn.
“Look at you.” There was a thickness to Tavius’s voice. He snapped the whip off the tile, and my entire body flinched. He laughed. “Still so defiant, but it’s an act. You’re afraid. Weak. Would you like me to stop? You know what to say.”
I turned my head to the side, seeing him through the strands of hair that had slipped free. He was standing behind me. “Tavius,” I said between gritted teeth. “Please…kindly go fuck yourself.”
Someone inhaled sharply—one of the Royal Guards. I heard boots shuffling, but Tavius laughed again, cursing me. I could make out him lifting the whip, and I closed my eyes.
“What in the gods’ name are you doing, Tavius?” My mother’s voice suddenly rang out through the Great Hall. My eyes flew open to see them both garbed in the white of mourning. She gasped. “Dear gods—”
“Have you lost your senses?” Ezra. That was her. The flare of stinging pain along my back faded as I saw her standing next to my mother. “My gods, what is wrong with you?”
“First off, neither of you two addressed me appropriately. But given the shock of the last several hours, I will let it slide,” Tavius stated calmly, unbothered by their reaction. “As for what I’m doing, it is what should’ve been done—” He staggered to the side, eyes widening as he stared at the floor. “What the…?”
Ezra had come to a stop on the steps. A blur of plum and gold poured in through the open doors of the Great Hall as Royal Guards arrived, and under me, the petals vibrated as the floor trembled. Thin fissures formed in the tile and ran across the carved caligae enclosing Kolis’s feet. I watched as the tiny splinters traveled up the stone legs. Confused, I lifted my head. What in the world…?