‘Not long. An hour. Maybe two.’
‘An hour! James will get away.’
His frustration touched on her old feelings, the desire she had had to beat on the walls, Hey! Listen to us! Let us out! Alongside that was a spiralling hopelessness. They were trapped down here in this pit while outside, dawn was coming, and with it their one chance to stop James.
‘It’s my fault.’ Violet drew in a painful breath. ‘They wouldn’t believe anything after they found out I was a Lion. They think I’ve got bad blood. That I’m destined to serve the Dark. That’s why we’re down here.’
‘Then they’re fools,’ said Will.
He pushed himself up to his feet, though it obviously cost him. He came all the way forward to the bars of his cell. His hands manacled behind his back, he had to lean his shoulder against the bars. It was probably the only thing holding him up.
‘I don’t care what they say. You’re good and you’re true. Whatever happens, I won’t let them hurt you.’
She looked at his pale face with its tumble of dark hair. The blood at his temple – it was because of her. The manacles forcing his arms painfully behind his back – because of her. She was the reason they were here, the reason the Stewards wouldn’t listen. She was a Lion by blood, her family served Simon, her brother was his creature.
‘How can you trust me? I’m one of them.’
‘You came back for me,’ said Will.
Their first meeting; her monumental decision to jump back onto the sinking ship; and the way that he had looked up at her, bruised and chained. He hadn’t expected anyone to come. Maybe no one ever had before.
She looked at him now through two sets of bars that seemed to symbolise all that separated them: different futures; different fates. He was the hero; she was the Lion who didn’t fit anywhere.
‘They’ll let you out.’ She could feel how true it was as she said it. ‘You’re Blood of the Lady. They need you.’
‘I don’t care. I won’t leave you.’
Did he mean that? With the bars between them, their friendship felt like it was being forced apart, and yet it was the thing that was holding them together. He was in here with her, when outside there was a bigger fight.
She said, ‘You have a destiny.’
‘So do you,’ he said. ‘It’s what we make it. You and me. We’ll fight Simon together.’
Together.
She felt his faith cutting through all doubt. His faith in her. It was like a flame piercing the dark. She looked at his bruised face, his unwavering gaze, and could see why people would follow him. She could see why people followed the Lady.
‘Now, if we’re going to stop James, we need a way out of here,’ Will said, as though the topic was settled.
She drew in a shaky breath and nodded. She didn’t say any of the words of gratitude that crowded in her, what it meant to her right now to have a person on her side. She just followed his lead, looking around at the cell that confined her.
‘There are no cracks, seals or windows. It’s only the barred door.’
‘It’s the same in my cell. You can’t bend the bars, or break open the door?’
She shook her head and gave voice to the nausea she’d had since she’d first set foot down here. ‘These cells – I feel—’ She couldn’t describe it. Weak, she might have said. Dizzy. ‘The manacles, the walls … it feels like—’ Like cotton in my head, she might have said. Like a weight on my chest. It’s hard to think, or move, or do much.
‘I feel it too.’
She looked up at him and realised that his struggle to stand was not due to the cut on his head; it was because of the black stone of the cell. It was affecting him just as much as it was affecting her. More.
‘You mean you can’t just’ – a faint attempt at humour—’ magic the door open?’ Even saying it, she felt a roil of unease. The thought of anyone trying to push past this compulsion made her sick.
‘Even if I knew how, I feel what you feel. Blocked. No, trapped. Except it’s not in my body. It’s in my head.’
‘Then we wait for someone to come,’ said Violet, ‘and get out the old-fashioned way.’
‘We don’t have much time if we want to have any chance of stopping James—’
There was a sound at the top of the stairs, the metallic screech of the heavy iron door opening. Will broke off and swung around towards the noise.
Her heart started to pound as she imagined a squadron coming to take her to the hall, and then she saw a familiar shadow thrown across the floor.