To heal a Rogue

EDELINA

”Oh, we know exactly who he is.” The man leaned closer to the bars. ”His father sent half the men in this hole to rot. Some of us have been down here so long we’ve forgotten what the sky looks like. Others remember every face that watched us being dragged down these stairs.”

His smile faded into something meaner.

”And now, after all these years, the Crown delivers us one of its own. On his knees, with his hands tied. I almost want to thank the new regent for his generosity.”

”You mistake the circumstances of his arrival for permission to touch him.”

”Permission?” He barked out a laugh. ”Listen to her. She still thinks the word means something down here.”

He thrust his arm through the bars.

Johann flinched as the man’s fingers snagged the torn collar of his shirt. The sentinels yanked my son back, but not before the cloth bit into his throat.

”Let him go!” I snapped.

The man lingered, savoring the struggle, before shoving Johann away so hard he staggered sideways.

”Easy, pretty prince. We haven’t even been introduced properly.”

Johann steadied himself before he could fall. His breath came fast, but he stayed silent.

The scarred man studied him, then looked at me again.

”Tell me something, Queen. When the regent sent him down here, did he tell you what he expected us to do with him?”

I felt the guards beside me stiffen.

”No,” I said. ”But I imagine you are about to tell me.”

”Oh, I think you know.” His eyes settled on Johann. ”A crown doesn’t send one of their own into a cage full of prisoners without expecting something unpleasant to happen. Perhaps he wants the boy broken. Perhaps he wants him dead. Or perhaps he simply doesn’t care what becomes of him.”

He gave a dismissive shrug.

”Either way, we have waited a long time for someone from that family to fall into our hands.”

His fingers curled around the bars again.

”And since the prince has been kind enough to visit, we intend to make the most of it.”

A prisoner behind him called out, ”What about the queen? She looks like she could use a little hospitality herself.”

This time, their laughter crashed through the corridor, louder and uglier.

The scarred man did not join in. He kept his attention fixed on me, as though he had been waiting for the suggestion.

”That’s a thought,” he said. ”We could make an evening of it. The prince first, then his mother. Let this batch of the royal family find out what it feels like to have no one coming to their rescue.”

I let the handkerchief fall from my face.

”You have mistaken my restraint for fear,” I said. ”I suggest you correct that mistake while you still have the opportunity.”

His grin returned.

”And I suggest you remember where you are, Your Majesty. Down here, your crown won’t save you.”

I glanced at his hand gripping the bars, then at Johann, still kneeling with two armed sentinels looming over him as if he were the true criminal here.

When I turned back to the prisoner, I smiled.

”Then it is fortunate I did not come here expecting it to. But touch him again,” I said quietly, ”and I will have your hands taken off at the wrist and fed to the dogs in the kennels.”

The man laughed, but his hand withdrew.

I stepped between the sentinel and the lock. ”Open that gate, and you will answer for it. The Regent said imprisonment. That is the word he used, in front of witnesses, at his own table. He did not say assault. He did not say murder by proxy.” I swept a look over the crowded cage. ”Look at these creatures. Cornelius locked them up. They hate the crown, and they hate everything with its blood in it. You put my son in there, and he will not survive the night, and when he dies, the Regent will have killed a prince on a technicality while feigning ignorance. I am sure you can imagine who will take the fall for that when it comes to it. Think about this thoroughly before putting in the work for a man who does not care for any of you.”

The sentinel with the key hesitated. His eyes flicked to his companions, and I saw it then, the small flinch of men who had not been told to think and did not enjoy being forced to.

”There is an empty cell across the corridor,” I repeated, gesturing with two fingers. ”We passed it coming in. Put him there. Alone. If the Regent wants him in the dark, he will still be in the dark. That fulfills the order you were given to the letter and keeps your hands clean of royal blood.”

A long moment passed. The prisoners watched, hungry and silent now, waiting to see whether they’d take away their entertainment.

”Do it,” the oldest of the sentinels muttered finally. ”She’s not wrong.”

They hauled Johann back to his feet. Behind us, the cage erupted in jeers and curses, and the scarred man spat through the bars, but the sound slid off me like rain off glass. I followed my son across the corridor to the cell on the other side, a narrow stone box with a slab for a bed and a bucket in the corner. The door clanged shut behind him, and the key turned.

The sentinels stepped back a few paces to give us what they thought was privacy.

I gripped the bars and looked at him. Up close, I could see how badly he was shaking.

”You stupid boy,” I whispered.

He let out a breath that was almost a laugh. ”I know.”

”That was a trap. A child’s trap. He set out a plate of dinner and pulled one string, and you walked into it with your mouth open.”

”I could not bear it, Mother.” His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat to cover it. ”He sat there in Father’s chair with that smug look and that woman beside him, talking about you like you were a criminal. I should have kept quiet. I know I should have. I just could not.”