Page 72 of Hearts Lost

“Fish!” I yell as I bring my fists down on the wood. “Fish, you asshole! Let me out of here! This isn’t funny!”

My voice echoes around me, taunting me, and I fall silent, my breath ragged and panicked, my heart racing inside my chest. Tears sting the corners of my eyes; I bring my palms back to my face, trying to hold them in.

Why am I here? Stars above, I figured I’d end up in a dungeon in the Lands Below one way or another, but I thought I’d know what I did. I didn’t think King Galan would offer me kindness and then turn it into a knife.

I thought the Lands Below were different.

“Wow,” I gasp as the room swims around me. “I’m an idiot.”

As if in response to my words, a bell chimes somewhere, high and clear and very close. A current of fear runs through the animals in the dungeon, pulling the cold air taut all around me. Shivering, I try to parse through the fear to discover what’s got the dungeon’s rodents and lizards so scared, but they reveal nothing. Only dread.

I wrap my arms around my chest as the bell chimes again, bright and silver. The rats are pulling back, retreating into their dens, their little hearts racing with terror. My throat goes dry as a tremor moves through my body like a wave across the water. What’s scaring them? What does the bell mean? What in the nine hells is Aloserin hiding here in the dungeons?

The bell chimes a third time, and then another sound echoes through the door. Footsteps, brisk and sharp. One set, then another, all blending together. I have enough time to picture Aloserin in his polished boots, his crisp uniform, his dark, closely trimmed beard, just like he looked on the day I’d destroyed the teleportation hub and tried to murder all of his friends, and then the footsteps stop.

Outside the door to my cell.

The bell chimes a fourth time. My heartbeat throbs in my temples. There’s the click of a key in a lock, the squeal of neglected hinges, and then the door swings open. Lamplight floods the room, almost blinding me. I step back.

A woman stands in the doorway wearing an elegant black gown. Her dark hair is swept up in an elaborate hairstyle, and diamonds glitter from her wrists and neck like armor. She’s watching me with a hard expression, but even so, I can see the echoes of Aloserin’s features in her marble visage. Two men stand behind her; one of them is the man who’d led me from the palace. The one who’d given me poisoned wine. He’s got a shortsword in his hand, and he’s holding it like he knows how to use it.

Certainty settles over me like snow. I’m not in the palace. Whatever this place is, it’s part of Aloserin’s estate, not King Galan’s palace.

And this is absolutely not a sex thing.

The woman crosses her arms over her chest. Her diamonds catch the lamplight and throw it back at me in little golden daggers.

“If you’re quite finished screaming,” she declares. “It’s time to come with us.”

Aloserin’s words return to me like a ghost in the night. I hated every hour I spent in my family’s estate, he’d said. Staring at the woman who wears Aloserin’s beautiful features like a cold iron mask, I can almost believe he was telling the truth. But then why did he bring me here?

The woman taps her foot on the rough stone floor. I nod, then drop my head.

“I’ll come,” I say. As if I have any choice.