“I alone, I was the only one preparing, as in war, to onward-march and bear the agony that thought will now unfailingly relate.”
―Dante Alighieri, The Devine Comedy
I heard voices, whispers all around me, but my head felt so heavy. Slightly dis-oriented at first, I forced myself to sit up. It took me a few moments to realise that I wasn’t in my own flat. My thoughts were spinning too fast. I shut my eyes again and eased onto my back, trying to steady my breathing as panic sliced through my belly.
The space around me looked a lot like a prison cell, and that could only mean one thing. The magic I attempted to use against the prince failed and I got myself in a hell of a lot of trouble.
I remembered walking straight into Arthur’s private quarters. That horrible con-versation with the prince himself invaded my sleep-hazed consciousness once again.
Arthur stood in front of me overwhelmed with emotions. His skin was slowly turn-ing sallow. A vein bulged along his throat.
I kept reminding myself that whatever happened I had to stay calm. The future king had no idea that his only daughter was a mongrel, that her DNA had an imprint of demonic abilities. And if I wanted to stay on earth, I had to keep my mouth shut. Rodriguez would have the power to execute me on the spot if he knew that I gave birth to a royal child in secret, putting the prince and the whole of hell at risk of full exposure.
The letter revealing the birth of our child had fallen from Arthur’s hands and lay on the floor between us. I stood in front of the man that I loved, unable to form a proper sentence. I had sacrificed everything for him so he could go on and have his perfect life with Natalie. It was the most difficult and complicated decision that I ev-er had to make, and yet he thought that I was the one without a heart.
“Where is my child, Max? Do I have a son or a daughter? I swear to God I’ll de-stroy you if you won’t tell me what the hell happened two years ago,” he demand-ed, clenching his fists and taking a step towards me.
I swallowed hard, and my stomach twisted deep inside me, filling up with heavy bricks. It was too late to try covering this whole thing up. Alexis was already out there, probably going after Matilda. On top of that, Ricky was dying, and he was still in Gjöll. I felt torn between what was right and wrong, guilty that I left him there and chose to come here instead.
“It’s a girl, and her name is Summer,” I blurted out, experiencing the events from two years ago all over again. It was like a thousand small razors were stabbing me in the gut. Matilda had written to me regularly, telling me how things were going and that Summer was developing well. Yes, I came back to London to attempt to start over, but I’d thought about her every single day since then.
His face fell, but his eyes flickered with excitement, slowly turning into disappoint-ment. I could see Arthur felt wounded so badly that he couldn’t even tell me what he was expecting from me. His lashing emotions were weakening my energy. I couldn’t keep standing in front of him and pretending that Summer was safe. Alexis had an advantage and I needed to leave urgently to send a message to Matilda.
“A baby girl. I have a daughter?” he whispered, the tears in his eyes breaking me to tiny pieces. There were so many things I wanted to tell him.
I nodded, waving off the anger. Every minute was precious, but I couldn’t just leave him in that state. Sooner or later the news would spread, and I didn’t need to guess what would happen to me once the head of the faction learned the truth. Ar-thur had to be protected.
“Yes, Arthur, we have a child together, but you need to understand that no one can know. There would be a scandal, the royals—”
“Stop talking, Maxine. You have no idea what I’m going through right now. You lied to me for almost two years. Were you ever planning on telling me the truth?”
Then he was beside me, his hands on my arms and shaking me. “Tell me that you didn’t give her away for adoption, that you didn’t make such an important deci-sion behind my back.”
I pushed him away, trying to get some space to think. There was no point lying to him, but what other choice did I have? There was so much at stake. Summer was a precious little creature who had done nothing wrong. And it was I that put her in danger.
“It doesn’t matter what’s happened to her, Arthur,” I shouted back.
“Maxine, tell me right now where she is or you’ll see what I’m capable of. She’s my daughter and I have every right to see her,” he roared, completely losing con-trol. He was ready to fight with me. I hadn’t realised that he would take this so hard. Arthur had always wanted to have a family, but royals would have never ac-cepted a bastard child.
My body pulsed with magical energy. I had to make him forget that this conversa-tion had ever taken place. I had no other choice.
“And then what? Have you even thought about it? You can’t claim her. It’s the same as it was with our relationship,” I said, louder than I intended, thinking about the spell that could take care of this situation. I didn’t have time to stand here and explain myself. I had to let Matilda know that she had to relocate quickly. “She’s gone, Arthur. I gave her up for adoption and you could never find her.”
It was cruel and maybe I was killing whatever feelings he ever had for me, but this was necessary. Arthur would fall in love with her instantly, and then he would claim her as his. Then the faction would step in, and we would lose her forever.
His face went pale in an instant and I prepared myself for the worst.
“No, no…impossible. She’s my daughter. I’ll get my lawyers involved, hire the best people in order to get her back. You won’t win!”
I took a few steps back and concentrated on my power. Maybe in the past compul-sion had never worked on Arthur, but I had to try. Everything had turned against me. Arthur was delusional; this child could put him into an early grave. Lucifer would think that I’d been conspiring against the faction, trying to turn royals against him.
The waves of energy soared through me. I lifted my arms while Arthur was still talking. The air changed its consistency, and the smell of burning coal wafted through the air all of a sudden.
I closed my eyes releasing the energy through my skin. The moment I stepped into the palace I told myself that I would never tamper with Arthur’s mind. Now I was breaking that promise.
He was still talking and it pained me that I was forced to do this. Alexis wanted to see me suffer. She’d made Nameless post the letter to Arthur. She was breaking me slowly, going after my daughter.
The waves of energy shifted through the air as my magic slipped inside his head. My whole body went rigid with overbearing emotions. Arthur’s mind was in des-pair. In the past two years I had to tell so many lies and now it came to this.
“I loved you for so long. I believed in you. If I had known, maybe everything would have been different,” he said, slurring his words. The energy was working as my magic was absorbed in his cells. A second later he had this absent look on his face. The guilt shattered me. I detested myself for making it happen. His thoughts were devastating, and I knew that he was telling me the truth. Every hair on my body rose, as my magic flew over, connecting with his nervous system, shifting his memo-ries and feelings.
I could permanently damage him, and he would never be the same. It was a risk that I was willing to take.
“No, you don’t!” another voice shouted, and a split second later my head explod-ed with pain.
“You’re awake. Good. Now we can talk.”
The voice brought me back to reality. I looked around, dazed, still sitting on the bunk bed in my dark prison cell. The vivid images from Arthur’s quarters began fading away quickly. I rubbed my eyes and saw Zach sanding in front of the bars, with his hands in his pockets. He was wearing casual clothes and looked as handsome as always. His expression was serious and my demonic senses told me his thoughts were calm. I attempted to smooth my tangled hair, probably looking like someone had dragged me through the hedge backwards.
“How did I get in here?” I asked, aware that my magic was turning me into a real monster. Arthur was immune to my demonic magic—that was the only logical explanation. I failed to make him forget, failed to protect my daughter too.
“Your Prince Charming’s entourage brought you in here. I overheard Rodriguez. Apparently you were trying to use magic to play with Arthur’s head or some-thing like that,” Zach explained, folding his strong arms over his chest.
I started pacing around the cell, thinking about my options. I didn’t remember passing out, and I was certain that I was alone with Arthur in his quarters. Ro-driguez had probably set up protective wards around the prince and when I used my magic the old demon must have sensed my power.
“When did they bring me in here?” I asked. I’d left Ricky behind and who knew what kind of condition he was in? I shouldn’t have run to the palace when he was fighting for his life. Arthur would never have forgiven me anyway.
“Twenty-four hours,” Zach said, sounding annoyed. “Rodriguez must have hit you with some strong spells because you were out for a day. Anyway, don’t ask me how. I’m not supposed to know anything, right?”
Of course. How could I be so stupid?
I was trying to use my magic in the palace against the prince, with the head of the faction downstairs. How could I have thought this would work? Rodriguez had always thought I couldn’t be trusted. Now he had a perfect opportunity to punish me accordingly.
“What’s happened to Arthur?” I asked, knowing that Zach was most likely going to joke about it, but he stared at me with mixture of admiration and shock.
“He told me everything, Max. I know about the kid,” he said.
Shock rendered me speechless for a moment. I got up and moved closer to the metal bars, staring at him in utter disbelief. No, this was impossible. Arthur hat-ed Zach, so why on earth would he reveal such a secret to him? This didn’t make any sense.
For about a minute we stared at each other in complete silence. My pulse was speeding and I had no idea what I was supposed to say next. My secret was out, and I could only hope that Zach was the only other person that knew about it.
“He told you everything? I don’t understand,” I said.
“You had a child with him and you hid her away from him,” he said, but in his tone of voice there wasn’t even a hint of accusation. He simply stated the fact. A bunch of ice cubes cascaded into my stomach. I hoped that Rodriguez didn’t know, that Arthur had some sense of decency and kept this secret to himself.
“Save it, Detective. I don’t need a lecture. It was my choice. I was only trying to protect him. Right now, I need to get out of here. Ricky is dying thanks to me, and my enemy is chasing my daughter. I don’t have time to explain anything,” I said bitterly, grabbing the cold metal bars of the cell. I sensed that Zach was feel-ing sorry for me, but he didn’t need to. I made that decision two years ago, so now it was time to face the consequences.
“Fine, whatever, but you don’t have to deal with this on your own. Despite your lies, I want to help you, Flower. Your Prince Charming wants to track down the baby. He asked for my help, probably thinking that I would pity him,” Zach said, scratching his head, like he was questioning the prince’s sanity. Zach should have been the last person Arthur asked for help.
I shook the bars, losing control for a second. The energy filled the space, and the warmth of my hands indicated that I hadn’t fully recovered from my encounter with Rodriguez. Arthur must have insisted on bringing me here. If so, Rodri-guez’s hands were tied—he couldn’t punish me like he wanted to; he needed to obey the prince. Arthur knew the truth and I didn’t expect him to just sit around waiting for something to happen.
“If you want to help me, then get me out of here,” I said, worried that I wasted a full twenty-four hours. Alexis was out there, ready for anything just to save her demonic soul.
“I would love to, but Rodriguez’s people are waiting for you outside. A few of my guys saw them watching the doors. You’re screwed, dear, so you should ac-cept that you need my help.”
