I gasped and channeled all my fury into my bees. They flowed from me, swirling around us both. I tried to ask them to lift the cage. Please try, I thought. Please try.
I was searching for my other bees in my mind – for any clue of how things had gone for my siblings – Oska who had been stabbed, Alect with that slash to his leg, Abghar who must have reached the rest by now. Osprey... any of them. I saw nothing.
“I made sure there were no locks that bees could open this time. They can’t help you now. They can only sting, and I don’t mind your little stings. They remind me I’m alive.”
“My bees do more than sting. They’re what patched you up.”
He ignored my jab.
“I felt it the moment that my brother was no longer tied to me,” Juste said, hissing in my face. His snake materialized around his shoulders and then slid out around mine, tugging me closer to him. I tried to fight it, pushing and shoving at the snake, my breath coming too fast as I fought, but I couldn’t budge those spirit coils. “Did you know that by cutting the tie you have elevated me? That was you wasn’t it? I thought I smelled honey.”
“What do you want me to say?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“I want you to prove to me what the Hissan said – that you are useful and should be kept close.”
“And why would I do that?”
He tilted his head and smiled slightly.
“Because if you don’t, I’ll kill your brother.” He nodded his head and the Claw beside the door opened it. Two others dragged in a slumped figure. Blood trailed behind him leaving a red streak on the white marble floor. “After all, you took mine. It’s only fitting that I take yours.”
“Abghar,” I gasped.
He twitched as if he was trying to move his head but stayed slumped between the Claws. I couldn’t see his face – couldn’t see if he was so badly beaten that he couldn’t survive.
Panic welled up inside me, making my breathing turn raw and harsh. They’d found him somehow. And they’d beaten him.
“Now, be a good girl and do something useful – tell me something to show me that you know more than what is right before your eyes. Give me some kind of insight into what that snake showed you.”
“I saw trails that lead underground.”
His eyes grew dark and he spat to the side. “I said something valuable. I have no need of trails under the ground.”
There was nothing I had learned from the Hissan that could help him. Not that I knew of. I paused, trying to think and he nodded to the Claws. One of them slugged Abghar in the torso and he groaned.
“Wait! Stop.”
“Tell me something interesting and they will stop.”
“I watched Ixtap slay the Emperor.” The words seemed to tumble out but now I had his full attention. He lifted a hand to stop his Claws from striking again and gazed into my eyes. “He strode into the throne room and claimed the Winged Empire in your name. This morning.”
“So soon,” he whispered, but he sounded pleased. “So soon, and it is already done. But I feel nothing.”
His hand reached up to his chest where his shirt surely held his own feather. He pursed his lips, thinking, and then seemed to notice Abghar suddenly. He flicked a finger.
“Take that thing away.”
“No,” I pled, “please, he’s so hurt.”
Tears filled my eyes and Juste smiled. “You took my brother from me without letting me say a proper goodbye. It’s only fair that the same should happen to you, don’t you think?”
“Please.”
“Tell me, did he forgive you when he lay dying? Did he call you brave for cutting out his feather? I could have warned you that trying to free him would kill him. It was one of the little traps my father laid in that bond. But I think I will be more sorry that you killed him than you will. After all, you got to marry the real prince. You get to be the real empress.”
“Please.” Abghar’s blood was making a trail across the white marble floor.
“We’ll need to make you ready for the coronation.”
The Claws were nearly to the door.
“Abghar,” I called, my voice trembling. “I love you.”
He gasped, but he didn’t speak, and I still couldn’t see his face. I willed my bees – my useless bees – to go with him and heal him but I couldn’t tell if they’d obeyed. My eyes were blurry with tears and my swarm buzzed uselessly around me, unable to bring me out of the cage or defend me in any way.
“I will send a dress for you to wear,” Juste said, releasing his grip on me. The snake slithered from my shoulders and back to his. It tangled around his shoulders and neck like a scarf. “When it arrives, you will wear it, or your brother will know true pain.”
He struck a dramatic pose as he watched me, as if I was a mirror he was looking into and not a person.
“You don’t need him.” I’d been so strong standing up to Juste before. So why did I feel so weak now? Why did I feel as if my knees were about to buckle?
“He’s a dangerous rebel,” Juste said, watching me as if looking for a reaction. “Someone Wing Essena calls ‘the Single Wing.’ She says they bear tattoos – which should make them easy to find. It’s one of the few good pieces of information that she offered. I already have my Claws scouring the population for the markings. Executions will begin tomorrow. Be sure you’re dressed for them.”
He strode toward the door and then stopped.
“Oh. I forgot,” he turned back and strode to my cage, carefully flicking a piece of lint off his jacket as if he wasn’t even paying attention to me.
I tried to back up to the other side of the cage, but he flicked two fingers out and his snake spiraled toward me. It grabbed me tightly around the waist and dragged me forward as my feet slid across the floor of the cage.
“It’s better not to fight it,” he said, his eyes cold and hard. As soon as I was close, he reached for me. I knocked his hand aside, but the snake struck fast – coiling round and round me until my arms couldn’t move.
He shook his head. “I don’t know why you bother. It’s a waste of energy.”
He ripped my jacket aside, revealing my feather, and laid a hand over it. I gritted my teeth at his unwanted touch. Something pulsed over my heart and his snake seemed stronger somehow.
“I could get used to that,” he said slipping his hand away. His snake disappeared and I gasped, clutching the bars for support and baring my teeth at him. “The marriage binding gives me access to some of your strength. Which should help with the insect problem.”
I realized, blearily, that my bees had winked out – all but one of them.
He spun on his heel and strode out of the room and his guards went with him, leaving me alone in the cage.
Chapter Seventeen
I SLUMPED TO THE FLOOR of the cage, all my injuries from the last days and weeks crashing in on me as if it had been the bees that had dulled their edge and sped their healing. Maybe it had been. I could feel where I’d been stabbed by Osprey in that snake cathedral when he’d sprung to Juste’s defense. It hurt like it had ripped open again, but when I slid my jacket aside, the skin was healing just as before. Perhaps, I’d never felt the full pain of it until now.