Borrowed Magic (27 page)

“They went to find the shooter. Lord Teige
said he wouldn’t come back until he had.”

She thanked the captain and then pressed her
fists against her eyes. This was all her fault.

“Maren?”

Kira stood a few steps away
nodding towards Adare. “We need to do something.
You
need to do
something. I think you’re the only one who can.”

Maren straightened her shoulders and crossed
the room with a determination she didn’t feel. She pulled Adare
away from Daric’s body and held her close until she dared let
go.

“Adare, I need to get Philip. He has to know
about this. He’ll know what to do.” She motioned to Kira. “Kira
will stay with you.”

Then Maren ran, away from the sights behind
her, away from Adare’s heartache, and more than anything else, away
from her own guilt. She ran through the castle doors, down the
steps, and through the gardens, towards the soldiers’ training
field, without shedding a single tear. She didn’t even know why.
This is what she’d been afraid of all along. This is what she’d
been trying to avoid. Kern had won.

No! She pushed herself harder. He hadn’t won
yet. He wasn’t king.

She heard the ring of steel before she even
entered the field, but as she pushed her way through the soldiers
crowded around to watch, the sounds of fighting faded. She stumbled
to the middle of the field, expecting to find Philip. Instead, a
hundred eyes stared at her as if they’d never seen a woman
before.

“I need to see Lord Philip.”

A few men whispered to each other, some
regarded her with confusion, but no one answered. She felt the
anger she hadn’t had the chance to deal with boil to the
surface.

“Are you not listening? I need to see Lord
Philip!” She glared at the men, waiting for one of them to tell her
where to go. Instead, they backed away, looking at her as if she’d
gone mad. She brought a hand to her hair and realized it was no
longer smoothed back into a ribbon. Her dress wasn’t much better
and was covered in blood where Adare’s hands had clutched her. No
wonder the men were afraid to speak.

“Please,” she begged. “This is important. I
need Lord Philip.”

“Maren?” The men moved away as Philip
stepped between them, looking as shocked as they had at her
presence. Then he took in her appearance and rushed forward,
putting a hand on each of her arms, searching her for injury.
“What’s wrong?”

“He’s dead,” she whispered, finding it was
all she had left. “Daric’s dead.” And then the tears came, stinging
her eyes and staining her cheeks, as the realization truly hit that
she’d lost a friend, a man as close to a brother as she had. She’d
failed.

She felt Philip’s hands tremble as much as
her own. But he didn’t say anything.

He just looked at her with an expression
that was as much shock as it was acceptance. Then he pulled her
into his arms before turning to his men. “The King is dead,” he
said in a voice full of sorrow but laced with determination.

The silence from the men was oppressive, and
she didn’t know if she could bear anymore.

“I need men at every gate,” Philip
continued. “No one enters or leaves the city unless I say. You,” he
pointed at one of the captains, “take a group to guard the body.
And you,” he pointed to a different man, “get a dozen soldiers
mounted and ready for instructions.”

The soldiers just stood there for a minute,
too shocked to move, and then their training kicked in. They
scattered in all directions, looking grateful for something to keep
them occupied, and with anger in their eyes that Maren
recognized.

Philip pulled her into a more secluded
corner. “I need to get to the castle, but first you need to tell me
what happened. Everything.”

“There isn’t much to tell.” She wiped at her
eyes and recounted what the captain had told her. “But we both know
Kern is behind this. We know it’s part of his plan to become King.
Murder Daric, marry m—”

“Maren, I already told you. I won’t let it
get that far.”

“We didn’t think he’d actually murder Daric,
either,” she said. “And he did, and Adare is crumbling with grief,
and we still don’t have any idea what to do.”

He gently pushed her away and took her hands
in his. “Maren, we failed Daric. But I promise you.” His voice was
more determined than she’d ever heard. “I promise. I will do
whatever it takes to end this.”

There was something there, in his body
language, his eyes, even the way he squeezed her hands, that
confirmed he hadn’t told her everything, just as she’d suspected.
She examined his face, noting the angry lines around his eyes, and
opened her mouth to beg him to tell her. But she never got the
chance.

“Lord Philip!”

Philip released her and faced the
soldier.

“Lord Teige is at the gate requesting entry.
He says he’s found the person who murdered the king.”

Philip glanced between the guard and Maren,
as if weighing something. “By all means, let him in.”

The great hall was crowded, even more so than the
day Philip had returned after the siege ended. Except for the aisle
and the front of the room, which had been cordoned off, every
available space was taken. And unlike the usual formal occasions
where the hall was bursting with nobility, today the common and
noble alike had come. To see the man who’d killed the king they
loved.

Maren sat next to Adare, waiting for the
trial to begin. Philip stood a few feet in front of them, facing
the crowd.

Twenty-nine

Kern walked solemnly down the aisle, and Maren
felt hatred rise in her chest. He couldn’t get away with this. She
had to do something. She just didn’t know what. Unless she could
kill him quickly, before he had the chance to heal himself, she
didn’t stand a chance. Which left what? Poison? An accident of such
proportions that no one could survive? The first had already failed
once. The second she didn’t have the resources to pull
off.

Philip stepped forward to greet Kern.
“Well?”

“He’s just outside. I wanted to make sure
everything was ready before…” He glanced towards Adare. “Before I
brought him in.”

Philip turned to Adare. “Are you sure?”

She nodded and clung even more tightly to
Maren.

Kern signaled to the soldiers guarding the
door and they opened it, revealing a man shackled both feet and
hands. The soldiers led him slowly towards the front of the room as
everyone watched, some with fear, some with barely-contained
hatred.

Maren was more surprised
than anything else. The man in front of her looked barely sixteen.
Not even really a man. He was skinny and she wanted to hate him.
She wanted to grab Philip’s sword from his side and run him
through, but at that moment, watching him, she only felt pity. Even
though he
had
shot that arrow. He
had
killed Daric. Not because of some mysterious
reason he’d give today. Not because of some personal vendetta.
Because Kern had made him. Somehow.

He was just another pawn in Kern’s game.

The procession stopped in front of Philip,
and the soldiers pushed the young man to his knees.

“What is your name?” Philip began.

Silence.

Philip tried again. “Did you intend to
murder the king?”

The young man nodded.

“Did anyone else help you?”

He shook his head.

Kern stepped forward and lifted his head by
the hair. “Lord Philip is talking to you. He deserves the respect
of your answers.”

Maren cringed and looked away, unable to
meet the young man’s eyes.

“I murdered the king. I acted alone.” He
sounded desperate to be believed.

Philip crouched in front of him. “You don’t
need to be afraid. You are very young. If someone made you do this,
I want to know.”

“No.” His eyes flicked to Philip as his
hands twisted together. “It was just me.”

Philip sighed and ran a hand through his
hair. “A trial will be scheduled for two days from now. If anyone
has any evidence, we would request they bring it forward.” He
signaled for the guards to take away the prisoner.

“Wait!” Adare pulled from Maren’s grasp and
ran forward until she stood facing the young man. “Why?” she
demanded. “Why?”

The boy stood silent, unable to met Adare’s
gaze.

Kern stepped forward, with the obvious
intent of doing more physical violence, but Philip stopped him.

“You will answer your queen,” Kern said
instead.

“I…” Maren saw his entire body shudder. “I
had to. He was cruel.”

Adare’s face contorted with anger. She
slapped the prisoner across his cheek so hard it knocked him
sideways. She stood over him, and Maren didn’t like what she saw.
Adare was kind and gentle and loving, not the picture of hatred
that stood there now. “Daric was never cruel,” Adare said in a
voice laced with fury. “He would never…”

Adare’s entire body sagged forward, but
Philip caught her. Maren watched all the anger drain from Adare’s
face, leaving her pale and sad and lost.

She took the queen by the arm and gently
pulled her away. The blankness in her eyes scared Maren more than
she wanted to admit. Hopefully sleep and some distance would
eventually help, but she was terrified it wouldn’t, that Adare
would never be the same.

The soldiers hauled the prisoner back to his
feet. Maren watched it all with growing sorrow – that turned to
horror as the young man dared one last glance at Adare, and Maren
saw his face for the first time.

Her eyes flew to Kern’s as understanding
dawned. He met her gaze, and one corner of his mouth lifted the
tiniest bit, as if he’d been waiting for her to put the pieces
together and was pleased with her reaction.

Her breath came in gasps, and she pushed
herself up on legs so shaky she didn’t know if they would hold
her.

“Kira.” Her voice sounded like it belonged
to a ghost, and Kira’s face creased in concern. “I need you to take
Adare to her room and make sure she has everything she needs.”

“What’s wrong?”

Maren only shook her head. “I’ll tell you
later, but right now I need…I have to…”

She couldn’t even finish, instead making her
way to the side of the room and slipping out the door. She didn’t
care what anyone thought or how her exit would be perceived, she
just needed to leave.

She ran until her lungs hurt, all the while
fighting back the bile filling her throat. She stumbled and clawed
her way back to her feet and ran some more, not knowing where she
was going, or who was watching, or what she was going to do. She
only knew she needed to get as far away from that room as possible,
as far away from the look on the young man’s face as she could.

It wasn’t working. His eyes haunted her
until she wondered if they were permanently burned across her
mind.

She burst through the castle doors and
headed for the garden, falling again, and again, and again. And
then she couldn’t run anymore, couldn’t do anything but curl into a
tight ball and try to shut everything out. But the hollow ache in
her chest felt as if it would swallow her whole.

And then someone’s arms slipped around her
and lifted her off the ground.

Her eyes flew open to see Philip.

“No,” she tried to break free of his hold.
“No, you can’t. He’ll—”

Philip shifted her higher in his arms.
“Shhhh. Maren, it’s all right. Kern’s too busy to worry about you
right now.”

She realized he was carrying her into the
castle. “But someone else will see. They’ll tell him.”

“No one can see us,” Philip
said, his jaw tight and his eyes angry. “I made sure of it. I do
have
some
magic.”

He carried her all the way to her room and
sat on the sofa with her in his arms. “Now, tell me what
happened.”

She closed her eyes and leaned against his
chest. “Kern made him kill Daric. I saw it in his face. The pain.
Deep, constant, unyielding pain. Kern’s using it to manipulate him.
He learned from me how to do it and what it took. Then he injured
the boy and is forcing him to do whatever he wants.”

“And you think the young man would do it?
He’d go so far as to kill the king?”

She paused. “He’d do anything to get rid of
the pain.”

“But he’s going to die. That’s the sentence.
Death.”

“And he probably begged Kern for it when the
pain got too unbearable. Kern offered him a trade. If he would kill
Daric, Kern would kill him.”

Philip looked at her in disbelief. “How can
you be so sure?”

She couldn’t meet his eyes. “Because I
begged him to kill me once.”

Every last bit of color drained from
Philip’s face. “When?” he finally asked.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter. You left this out when you
told me everything else. Why?”

She shook her head and tried to bury her
face against him, but he pushed her away until their eyes met. “I
want to know. Now.”

“It was after the first time I tried to tell
you about Kern,” she whispered, afraid to meet his eyes. “He’d
warned me that if I said anything, he’d kill Adare, but I risked it
anyway. Only he heard everything. I begged him not to hurt her, and
he agreed. Instead, he…” She shuddered. “He…”

Philip squeezed his eyes shut and wrapped
her in his arms. “You don’t have to say anymore.”

For a minute all she heard was the sound of
his breathing, and then his entire body tensed. “If I’d believed
you… If I…” He shifted her onto the sofa. “I’m going to kill
him.”

He’d already taken three steps before she
realized he meant now. She ran to catch up, pulling on his arm
until he stopped.

“Not now,” she begged. “Not when you’re this
angry.” She reached up to run her hand along his cheek.