Chapter 5 - The hidden truth

I read it three times. Then I folded it carefully and tucked it into the inside pocket of my shirt.

"Are you satisfied?" Azriel asked.

"For now." I met his eyes. "But if I find a loophole, I'll come for you."

"I would expect nothing less."

He turned to leave. I let him go, my fingers brushing against the document through the fabric.

I had a promise in writing. A small victory.

But as I turned back to the window, watching the strange moon rise over a forest I'd never walked, I knew it wasn't enough. I needed more.

I needed to understand this world before it swallowed me whole.

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The next morning, a young servant arrived to escort me through the castle. He was young, maybe sixteen or seventeen, with a shock of red hair and a face that seemed designed for mischief. He introduced himself as Quill, and within five minutes, I decided I liked him.

"I'm supposed to show you around," he said, his voice low and conspiratorial. "But between you and me, there's not much to see that won't try to kill you."

"Wonderful."

He grinned. "You're going to fit right in."

The palace was enormous. Corridors stretched in every direction, lined with doors and paintings and objects that sometimes moved when I wasn't looking at them. The ceilings soared overhead, lost in shadow, and the floors were polished stone that reflected the light of floating crystal lamps.

Quill explained the rules as we walked.

"Don't enter the west wing," he said. "That's where the prince keeps his private quarters, and he doesn't like visitors."

I filed that away for later.

"Don't touch anything that whispers. That's self-explanatory."

"What about things that scream?"

He glanced at me. "Also don't touch those."

"Noted."

"Don't accept food from anyone wearing a silver ring. The courtiers like to play games, and their games involve poison."

I thought of Rusk's drugged smoke. "Any particular reason?"

"It's funny to them." His voice was bitter. "We don't get a lot of humans, so they find humans are amusing. But I like humans, so I don’t mind them at all."

I filed that away too.

"And never follow a voice calling from an empty corridor," Quill finished. "No matter what it says. No matter who it sounds like."

I stopped walking. "Who it sounds like?"

He didn't answer. He just kept walking, his pace a little faster now.

"So this place is a royal residence or a poorly managed haunted house?" I asked, catching up.

Quill considered the question. "Both," he said finally. "The two aren't mutually exclusive."

We passed through a great hall filled with portraits of severely looking men. I kept my gaze fixed forward, refusing to acknowledge them. I wasn't going to let a painting make me nervous.

"Do you have other humans here?" I asked. "Other than me?"

Quill laughed. It was a short, sharp sound. "No. Humans don't last long here."

"What does that mean?"

He didn't answer.

We walked in silence for a moment. Then a thought occurred to me, and I stopped again.

"Wait, is this the first time the Prince is breaking the curse? Why hasn't the prince tried to break the curse sooner?" I asked.

Quill turned to look at me. His expression was strange and cautious. "What makes you think he hasn't tried?"

The words hung in the air between us. I felt something cold settle in my stomach.

"What do you mean?"

Quill's eyes widened, as if he'd just realized what he'd said. He shook his head quickly. "Nothing. Forget I said anything."

"No." I grabbed his arm, my grip tight. "What do you mean, 'what makes you think he hasn't'? Has he tried before?"

"I shouldn't have said that. Forget I said that."

"Quill." I stepped closer, my voice dropping to a whisper. "I need to know now. Please."

He looked at me for a long moment. Then he sighed, his shoulders slumping. "You cannot tell anyone I told you this. You're the eighteenth," he said quietly. "The other girls... they came before you. Human witnesses. He tried the covenant with each of them."

Eighteen. The number hit me like a physical blow. Seventeen other girls. Seventeen other girls, bought and brought to this place, made to participate in a curse they didn't understand.

"What happened to them?" I demanded. "Where are they now?"

Quill wouldn't meet my eyes. "I don't know. I only know what I've heard, and the rumors say..." He trailed off.

"What? What do the rumors say?"

"I cannot." He pulled his arm free. "I've already said too much. The prince will have my head if he finds out I've been talking to you."

"I won't tell him." I grabbed his arm again. "Quill, please. I need to know what I'm dealing with."

He stared at me for a long moment. Then he leaned close, his voice barely a breath.

"They died," he said. "All of them. One by one. The curse didn't break, and they died."

---

I didn't wait for permission before I set out to look for Azriel. I marched through the castle, my footsteps echoing on the polished stone, my heart pounding in my chest. The servants I passed gave me strange looks, but no one tried to stop me. Maybe they knew better. Maybe they could see the fury in my eyes.

I found Azriel in a study, surrounded by books and scrolls and his brow furrowed in concentration. He looked up when I entered, his expression shifting from annoyance to something that might have been concern.

"Stasia. What..."

"How many?" I demanded.

He blinked. "What?"

"How many other human girls did you bring here before me?"

The blood drained from his face. For a moment, he looked like a different person, younger, more vulnerable, stripped of that effortless arrogance.

"Who told you?"

"It doesn't matter who told me. What matters is that you didn't." I crossed the room, stopping on the opposite side of his desk. "Seventeen other girls. Seventeen. And you didn't think to mention that when you explained your little covenant to me?"

"I had hoped..."

"Hope isn't good enough!" My voice cracked, and I didn't care. "You lied to me. You stood in that room and told me about this curse like it was a simple transaction, like breaking a curse was just a matter of reciting some words and signing a document. You didn't tell me people died."

Azriel stood up slowly, his hands flat on the desk. "I didn't want to frighten you."

"Frighten me?" I laughed bitterly. "You should have frightened me. You should have told me what I was getting into. You should have told me that if I fail, I die."

"That is not the intention..."

"It doesn't matter what the intention is!" I slammed my hand on the desk, the pain shooting up my arm. "The result is the same. They died. They died because you brought them here to break a curse, and they couldn't, and they died."

The silence that followed was thick enough to choke on.

Then, very quietly, Azriel spoke. "Yes. They died."

I stared at him. "Tell me what happened to them. How did they die?”