Sabine

I pulled my hand away from Cara and rubbed my hands on my thighs. A million thoughts and excuses raced through my head to explain myself to the prince.

"Steal my voice," Cara whispered.

"What?" I hissed back.

"I know too much now. Cast a spell to steal my voice because if they interrogate me more... I can't promise I'll keep my silence." Her words came out in a panicked rush and I saw her pulse jump against her throat.

I pressed my hand to my throat and whispered the words of a spell to silence someone.

Cara gasped and clutched her own throat. She smiled and nodded. She did want to break the curse more than anything, I could be sure of that now.

"Sabine?" Prince Cole's thundering voice struck me.

I shuddered and turned to him. My hands shook and I hid them in the folds of my dress.

Cole seemed to fill the entire corridor. His presence was made more ominous by his firmly crossed arms and the glower on his face.

"I... had questions..." My words faltered and I bit the inside of my cheek. Yeah, that didn't sound convincing at all.

"And you're making deals with prisoners of the crown?" He arched a sharp eyebrow, his lips narrowing.

I swallowed, a lump sticking in my throat. "Well, I... needed her to talk." I shifted my eyes sideways toward the cell.

Cara bowed her head and slipped backward, the shadows swallowing her.

I didn't want her to think anything I said to the prince meant I'd go back on our deal. I took a few steps toward Prince Cole, my light following me, and motioned down the corridor.

"This place is depressing. I'd rather talk somewhere where I'm not straining my eyes to see your scowl."

Prince Cole's features immediately softened and a smile flickered across his lips. He nodded and stepped to the side, letting me pass.

His eyes burned into the back of my head as I walked through the spiraled corridor to the stairs. I could feel him, just a few paces behind me. If he'd demanded answers from me down in the dungeon, I would have been in trouble.

I squinted against the lights in the palace hallways. My own light orb blinked out the moment the dungeon door closed behind me. I took a deep breath, the air fresh and clear. The dungeon had been suffocating me and I hadn't even noticed.

Cole's fingers curled around my elbow and he pulled me down the hall.

"H-hey!" I tried to pull away from him.

"Come with me." He didn't release me.

I hurried after the prince to keep from tripping over my own feet, my shoes clicking on the marble floor. The corridors became familiar and I realized he was taking me back to his wing.

I hadn't been to the Prince's Wing since I'd moved to the Mage's Wing.

"Where are we going?" I hissed, tugging against his grip again.

"Where the guards are loyal to me."

The Prince's Wing doors clanged closed behind us and echoed through the silence. Cole released my elbow and crossed his arms.

"Alright, talk!"

"About what?"

Cole smirked and shook his head. "Don't play coy with me. What were you doing in the dungeons talking to Cara?"

"You might find it strange, but I'm not exactly proud of what I did to her." That much was true. "Those collars... no one should be subjected to them."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"So, you needed to ease your own conscience?" The prince snorted and gave me a pitying look. "That's pathetic for a royal mage."

"I needed answers from her! I don't get them from Master Reinier or you. She's the only other person in the palace who knows..." I shut my mouth tightly, my teeth clicking together.

"Knows what?" Cole pressed, his voice a sharp hiss.

"The king elevated me to royal mage, and I am still as clueless as ever! I understand that the crown has its secrets, motives, and intentions and that I don't need to understand them. But if I'm to act on their behalf, I want to know what and why."

"That kind of thinking will get you in trouble around here. Ask too many questions and you won't like the answers." The prince nodded a few locks of hair from his face.

"Which is why I went to someone who could answer but wouldn't cause problems for me." I glanced in the arbitrary direction I thought the dungeon was.

"You spin a pretty tale," the prince said. He smiled wide and showed me all of his teeth. "I almost believe it."

"It's the truth." I nodded firmly.

"Perhaps part of the truth. You've always been good at the sleight of hand... keep me looking in one direction while something else is happening in the other direction." He pinned his lower lip between his teeth and stared into me.

"I've never..."

"You showed me how, remember?" He cut me off, talking over me. "That little disappearing trick you did. A magic trick without magic. You've mastered that kind of trickery."

"My intention is not to be deceptive."

"No, I don't believe it is." The prince looked off into the distance thoughtfully. "You've had to find ways to survive in your harsh world, protect yourself. Just remember, I'm not one of those commoners who bullied you and couldn't see your talents."

"No," I shook my head. "You wanted to stifle my power."

Cole shrugged one shoulder. "Call it one of those secrets, motives, or intentions you don't need to understand."

I nodded slowly. The prince wouldn't let this go until I gave him something. The truth? No, he couldn't know that. I had no idea what he'd do with it and I couldn't risk it.

"It's possible that Princess Cara knew my mother," I said, leaning into the one thread I knew the prince couldn't condemn me for. "I feel like I barely knew her because she died when I was young and I... never knew anything about the rest of my family."

I clutched my arm to my chest and let out a deep breath. I didn't have to fake the emotion.

"Learning about your mother is important enough to risk the king's suspicions?" He scowled deeper.

"Do you think it would be better if the king found out about anything related to my family before I did?"

The prince opened his mouth and then closed it. "You think you have some skeletons hanging from your family tree?"

"I don't know," I shrugged, "That's the problem. I don't know anything about my father or his family... and I doubt ignorance is an excuse King Talis would accept if there was anything... offensive in my past."

I shuddered and looked at the floor. As it was, the king would already consider me an enemy for my association with the Sarcon royal family.

Groaning, I pressed my palm to my forehead. "I shouldn't even be telling you this much. You're the crowned prince!"

"What does that have to do anything?" Cole's light chuckle echoed through the empty corridor.

I peeked at him from under my palm.

He took my hand from my forehead and clasped it between his warm, slightly rough palms. Tingles ran up my arm and I held my breath.

"You're in a precarious position with the king, as his favorite new pet. Of all people, I know what it is like to be in that position."

I pulled my hand away and turned to the side. "Precarious? I finally have my freedom and access to my power. I have the means to learn magics I never dreamed of and I am in a position to learn about myself and my past for the first time in my life."

"Aren't you forgetting the part where you're still in the service of the king, bound to his will?" The prince grinned at me.

I shook my head. "Why are you so interested in me and what's happening with my training and the king?"

"I told you..."

"No! You evaded the question and blamed it on Talon." I threw my arm out to the side.

Cole sighed and bowed his head. His fingers twitched at his sides.

My stomach sank as a sudden realization dawned on me. Cole was the king's son. Regardless of their friction, they were still family and his loyalty to his family would surpass any loyalty he might have to me. He could be there to report back to the king on anything I said or did.

"I know what it's like," he muttered in a low voice. "The feeling you get when the king looks at you from his perch on high. That feeling of pride at the potential he sees in you and the terror of disappointing him."

I licked my lips and looped my arms around myself. It was hard to put words to how I felt about what the king expected from me but Cole described it perfectly.

"I know the fine line you have to walk between staying true to yourself and carrying out the king's wishes."

"I will always be caught in a difficult place because of my enslavement."

Cole scoffed. "It's not that. Has he come to observe you during your lessons yet?"

I glanced up and met the prince's eyes. The red flecks buried deep in his green irises burned bright like hot coals. His expression was flat, unreadable.

"No..."

"He will. And when he does, I know the first question that will come to your mind."

I creased my brow and crossed my arms. "And what will that be?"

His mouth curved up in a humorless smile. "You'll ask yourself if it is more petrifying to do something you don't want to or to lose the king's favor."

"H-how do you know?" My words caught in my dry throat. My knees trembled and I stepped back until the smooth, cool marble of the corridor wall pressed against me and became a rigid support for my wavering spine.

Prince Cole's eyes darkened under drooped lids. He rubbed his chin. "Once upon a time, I was you."