Chapter 128 Silent Pain
Klaus’s chest heaved. The muscles in his neck strained against the burning metal, thick cords standing out under his pale skin. Slowly, agonizingly, he lowered his chin, fighting the brutal upward pull of Thorne’s leash.
He turned his head to the right. He looked at me.
My heart fractured, a clean, devastating break right down the center of my chest.
The sapphire in his eyes was entirely clouded, hollowed out by days of starvation and the crushing suppression of the collar. But beneath the physical agony, there was a profound, catastrophic despair.
He looked at my severe, perfectly composed face. He looked at the heavy, midnight-black silk of my gown. He didn't see the woman who had washed his wounds in the dark, or the girl who had offered him her wrist to drink. He saw an assassin. He saw a queen who had dressed for his funeral, completely willing to trade his beating heart for a clear ocean.
He believed the lie. I had tricked him flawlessly.
A single drop of silver blood leaked from the corner of his cracked lips, tracking down his jaw to hit the sharp, black glass of the obsidian block.
I am sorry, he mouthed the words silently, his vocal cords too ruined by the collar to produce a sound.
He was apologizing to me. Kneeling on a butcher's block, chained and starving, waiting for me to drive a blade into his chest, he was apologizing for not being strong enough to save my kingdom himself.
I dug my fingernails so hard into my own palms that I felt the healing scabs from the gold cage split open. Warm, fresh blood coated my fingertips, hidden within the folds of the heavy black skirt.
I could not look away from him. If I looked away, the Emperor would see the weakness. I held Klaus’s shattered gaze, forcing my turquoise eyes to remain completely flat, empty, and devoid of any human warmth. I had to let him think I hated him. I had to let him drown in the betrayal for just a little longer.
"Look at him," Lady Vespera’s voice rang out from the front of the gallery. She stepped up to the velvet railing, pointing her black lace fan at Klaus. "The great Admiral. Reduced to a shivering stray, waiting for his master to put him down."
Laughter, cold and cruel, bounced off the marble walls. The lords and ladies joined in, the sound a sharp, jagged assault on my ears. They were mocking the man who had kept their borders safe for centuries. They were laughing at his execution.
The cold, stagnant magic buried deep in the base of my lungs boiled.
It was a heavy, dark pressure, a violent storm begging to be released. I wanted to open my jaw. I wanted to sing a song of pure, unadulterated destruction. I wanted to shatter the bronze chandeliers, burst the eardrums of every vampire in the gallery, and watch the entire Ivory Spire crumble into the black ocean.
But if I sang, the magic would filter directly through the curse. It would fill Klaus’s lungs with toxic sludge. I would kill him faster than the Emperor’s dagger ever could.
I swallowed the magic down, locking it in my chest alongside my breaking heart.
The Emperor held up a bony hand, and the cruel laughter of the court instantly died away, replaced once more by an eager, breathless silence.
"The hour approaches," the Emperor whispered. He turned his back on Klaus and walked slowly toward me.
He stopped a foot away. I could see the individual, brittle grey hairs on his head and the dark, pulsating veins beneath the translucent skin of his temples. He smelled like ancient dust and drying ink.
He reached into the deep, dark folds of his crimson robes.
My muscles coiled, tight and hard as drawn bowstrings. I shifted my weight infinitesimally to my left leg, preparing the pivot. I kept my eyes on the Emperor's chest, watching for the gleam of the weapon.
"You have chosen your kingdom, Siren," the Emperor said softly, his voice meant only for me, though the acoustics of the hall carried the whisper to the closest guards. "You have proven that you possess the necessary ruthlessness to rule. When the beast is dead, and the ocean runs clear, you will take your place by my side. The Empire will protect your shores, and you will ensure the waters remain calm."
It wasn't just an execution. It was a complete subjugation. He wanted to parade me around as a broken, obedient pet who had murdered her own Anchor just to secure his commercial trade routes.
I kept my jaw locked tight. I gave him a single, shallow nod, acknowledging the terms I had absolutely no intention of keeping.
The Emperor smiled, a terrifying display of yellow bone.
He pulled his skeletal hand from his robes. Resting flat across his pale, up-turned palms was the ceremonial dagger.
It was a brutal, beautiful weapon. The blade was a solid, nine-inch shard of pure, polished obsidian, tapering to a razor-thin, wicked point that seemed to absorb the jaundiced light of the chandeliers. The hilt was wrapped tightly in heavy, twisted gold wire, designed to provide a perfect, unyielding grip when driving the glass through bone and muscle.
"The bloodline that cast the curse must be the one to break it," the Emperor instructed, holding the weapon out to me. "Take the blade, Arch-Duchess."
I stared at the black glass.
I felt Klaus’s eyes on the side of my face. I could feel the heavy, crushing silence of the entire vampire court pressing down on my shoulders.
I slowly raised my right hand, pulling it free from the heavy folds of the black silk skirt. My fingertips were smeared with my own fresh blood.
I reached out, wrapping my burned, bleeding fingers around the heavy gold wire of the hilt.
The metal was freezing cold. It felt incredibly heavy, a physical manifestation of the death I was supposed to deliver. I lifted the dagger from the Emperor's palms, pulling it back against my side.
"Very good," the Emperor breathed, his blind eyes wide with triumphant delight. He took a slow step backward, clearing the space between me and the obsidian block.
He swept his arm toward the kneeling, chained man.
"The ocean waits for your strike, Nerissa," the Emperor commanded, his voice echoing with absolute authority. "Sever the Anchor. Kill the traitor."