Sara Larson - Defy

A wave of nausea rolled over me, threatening to make my stomach heave. Was there no end to King Hector’s atrocities? He was bloodthirsty and a rapist, a man who had forced our nation into a war that had lasted most of my life — and for what? What did he hope to gain?

“Even after that Lisbet didn’t dare leave us boys at the mercy of the king. She was determined to stay and help, even though she’d have been killed if she was caught. Victor and I helped her hide in the abandoned wing of the palace and she began to take bloodroot to hide her presence from Iker. The only other person who knew was Cook, and she’d never tell because Lisbet healed her daughter years ago.”

“That room you took me to …” I trailed off, remembering the dark hallway and the fear I’d felt, the sense of being watched.

Damian nodded. “I was going to see Lisbet. My father has been growing steadily more suspicious of me, which is partly why he assigned my guard to be with me at all times. And he was having me followed, on top of that.” He sighed and shoved his hand through his hair. “I had to assume that all of you were loyal to him, not me, especially since I always acted like such a brat, to deflect suspicion that I could possibly be plotting to overthrow him. But by then I’d begun to hope that maybe I could trust you. And Lisbet had sent me a message that I needed to come see her right away. Since I’d been ordered to have a guard with me at all times, I took a risk and picked you.”

“The boy that came through the secret passage — that was Jax, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.” Damian’s expression was inscrutable. “It was a test, to see if you were truly loyal to me.”

“Now do you see why we had to fake an abduction to get him away from the palace?” General Tinso asked from the doorway, startling us. “We have to stop Hector’s reign of tyranny. We have to put Damian on the throne. But there was no way to do it with him stuck in the palace, being guarded day and night, with Hector’s pawn constantly on his tail.”

So many missing pieces were beginning to fall into place, my head was spinning.

“I told you I’d answer your questions when the time was right,” Damian said, looking straight into my eyes. Just the force of his gaze was enough to make my legs feel weak. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

Rylan had remained silent the whole time, listening, until now. “But you decided to trust Alex and me for some reason.”

“I once overheard her tell someone that it didn’t matter if she liked me or not, her duty was to protect me and she always kept her word. That was when I started to hope I could trust her. When she was assigned to guard my door, I knew it was providence. And I even hoped that if she got to know the real me, she’d come to like me someday.”

I flushed with embarrassment. “I’m sorry you heard that,” I said.

“Don’t be. I didn’t like that version of myself, either.” He turned back to Rylan. “Alex’s ability to fight gave me new hope. With my father’s guard dog always nearby, no one, not even a sorcerer, could get close enough to kill the king.”

“Do you mean Iker?” I asked. I’d barely thought about him since we’d left the palace. Honestly, I’d rarely thought about him when we were in the palace unless he was in the room. “He’s creepy, but how could he stop a sorcerer?”

Damian and General Tinso glanced at each other before Damian looked at me, his expression grim. “Iker isn’t just an advisor to my father. He’s his bodyguard. I would have killed the king myself long ago if I’d stood a chance of getting close to him without Iker stopping me first — and I think they know it. Why do you think my rooms are on the opposite side of the palace from his? Why do you think I was forced to spend so much time there — basically imprisoned in my own room?”

I shook my head, almost feeling the urge to laugh. They were all afraid of trying to kill King Hector because of Iker ? “Are we talking about the same person?”

“Alexa.” The seriousness of Damian’s voice made the smile slide from my face. “Iker is a black sorcerer.”

“A … a what ?” My heart dropped. “But Iker is from Dansii, not Blevon. And — and your father hates sorcery. He has sorcerers killed!”

Rylan looked as shocked as I felt when I glanced at him.

“No, he only hates sorcerers who fight against him. He spread lies about sorcerers so that our people would be terrified of them and support his decree that all sorcerers be killed in Antion, ensuring that no one will ever be able to challenge him or stop him.”

“And not all sorcerers are from Blevon,” General Tinso added. “That was one of the lies Hector told his people to build more animosity toward our kingdom.”

I stared at them in shock.

“It’s true,” Damian agreed grimly. “Iker was a gift from Hector’s brother, the king of Dansii, to protect my father. No one can get past Iker and he never leaves my father’s side.”

“What makes a black sorcerer so much worse than other types?” Rylan asked as I tried to wrap my mind around all the lies we’d been told by our king. I’d hated him before, but as I continued to learn just how evil he was, there wasn’t a word strong enough for the utter abhorrence that burned through me.

“It’s a sorcerer who uses the forces of the underworld to increase his power. He draws on the strength of demons by making blood sacrifices to them. Because of it, he is even able to create and wield an unnatural fire. It makes him unbeatable, but in so doing, he forfeits his soul.” General Tinso looked at me as he said this, for some reason. I shivered. The sun had gone down while we talked, leaving the room in shadow. I remembered suddenly the scent of burned blood, the stains on Iker’s knife, the oppressive heat and unnatural darkness in his chambers. So that’s what he’d been doing. Making an offering to the demons that fueled his power. I’d known something was wrong that night.

“All sorcerers are able to sense the power of sorcery in others,” General Tinso continued, breaking into my troubled memories.

“So if another sorcerer gets near Eljin, he can sense it?” Rylan asked.

“Yes. If that person comes within a few feet of him, Eljin can tell whether he is a sorcerer,” General Tinso confirmed.

“So I’m not a sorcerer, then?” I blurted out and then immediately snapped my mouth shut.

“What?” Rylan turned to me, his eyes wide. “You think you’re a sorcerer now?”

“No.” General Tinso smiled grimly, answering my question.

I tried not to flush in embarrassment. I’d been worried about it ever since he said I was “gifted” — especially since no one would tell me what that meant.

“Has no one answered your question yet?”

I shook my head, not daring to look at Damian or Rylan.

“My suspicion is that your father was a sorcerer, and a powerful one at that. Most likely one of the rare sorcerers whose gift was the ability to fight. And I believe he passed that on to you. You’re not a true sorcerer, but you carry some of his power within you. It enhances your ability to fight. It’s why you can sense magic around you. Average humans, without an ounce of sorcery in them, wouldn’t have been able to feel the use of magic during a fight.”

I stared at General Tinso. “My father ? There’s no way. I would have known. He would have told me if he were a sorcerer !”

“My dear girl, do you honestly think so? In a nation where being a sorcerer is akin to a death sentence?”

My mouth opened to continue to protest, but nothing came out. What if he was right? I thought again of how much I loved watching Papa practice — how he’d been so fast, so beautiful. How I’d longed to be like him. I thought of the hours and hours we’d spent relentlessly sparring, how he was always pushing me, driving me to be better. Faster. Stronger. But I’d never felt him use magic against me. I shook my head, my mind spinning.