Chapter 13: Shadows of Betrayal

The next morning, they descended into the dungeon.

The air was damp, with the scent of earth and mold clinging to every stone. Faint torchlight flickered along the narrow corridor, casting long shadows that danced across the iron bars of each cell. Water dripped steadily in the distance, the sound echoing like a slow, solemn heartbeat through the silence.

This time, Lekan was not a prisoner. He walked beside Prince Leo, no chains around his wrists—only the invisible weight of dread pressing against his chest. The walk felt different. He had entered these depths in fear once, but now... now he walked with purpose.

As they approached Bella's cell, Lekan's eyes caught sight of Aleryn sitting just outside the cell, a thick book resting in his hand, eyes casually scanning the pages.

Leo stopped. "Shouldn't you be watching her?" he asked coldly, one brow raised in clear disapproval.

Aleryn didn't even look up. "A knight of my rank doesn't need to waste energy on a bug that can't crawl past enchanted chains," he replied, turning a page with a slow, deliberate motion. "She's not going anywhere."

Leo's jaw tightened, but he didn't press the issue. Instead, he stepped to the iron door of the cell, his gaze hardening as he looked inside.

Bella lay curled in a corner of the room, her body tangled in glowing chains carved with runes. Even in sleep, she twitched restlessly, perhaps troubled by the knowledge of what was coming.

Without hesitation, Leo extended a hand and chanted a spell. A thin bolt of lightning sprang from his fingers and crackled through the air. It struck Bella's body with a sharp snap, and she bolted up with a scream.

Her voice echoed off the stone walls, filled with hatred.

"You dirty bastard!" she yelled, eyes blazing as they locked on Leo.

He stepped inside the cell with calm precision and backhanded her across the face, commanding silence.

"You know how I conduct my interrogations," he said, with a twisted smile. "So let's not start the day with theatrics, alright?"

With a wave of his hand, he called for a pen to draw a slave contract with his blood. He cut his palm, allowing red droplets to fall onto the ground. He pressed his hand against her skin. 

"Let's begin," he stated, his voice low and chilling.

"Who was behind your actions?" he asked, the tension in the air noticeable.

"No one sent me," Bella replied defiantly, a lie coated in bitterness. Just then, a surge of pain coursed through her body, and she collapsed to the stone floor, gasping for breath. Lekan watched with a cold gaze as Prince Leo continued to ask the question, Bella's lies as her blood started dripping to the ground, and her body weakened under the pressure.

"This method doesn't seem to be working," Leo stated, frustration etched across his face. He called over one of the guards and ordered a set of tools to be brought forth. From the box, he took a device that gleamed ominously in the light, moving toward her with fierce determination.

Bella's screams filled the dungeon as Leo began twisting the device around her fingers, mercilessly forcing them to break beneath the pressure. He looked at Lekan, whose dazed expression revealed the shock of what he was witnessing.

"Lekan, come and heal her," Leo commanded, his voice steady as he began unwinding the device to reset it.

With a cold hand, Lekan approached. He gently touched Bella's broken fingers and began. "Great Solura… guide my hands with your warmth, and bring healing to the wounded," he chanted, a prayer. To the shock of everyone in the cell, her injuries began to heal, and her lost arm regenerated before their eyes.

 Bella gasped, her newly restored hand moving quickly in a desperate lunge to attack Lekan. But Aleryn was quicker; he rushed and caught her arm, stomping down hard on her hand to keep her in check. 

"Bring something more secure," he shouted at the guards.

As the guards retrieved new restraints, Prince Leo burst into laughter, the sound echoing through the enclosed space. "Now we have more to work with," he smirked, an unsettling excitement lighting up his face. Meanwhile, Aleryn reflected on the significance of Lekan's abilities; he had sensed the boy's potential before, but this exceeded all expectations.

Lekan was still in shock as he watched the others prepare for the next phase. Bella, regaining her composure and furious at her situation, glared at him, spitting insults. "You're nothing but stupid trash! You'll die soon!

Lekan's smile was tight, masking the anger brewing within him, excited by the twisted fun developing before him.

"Shall we continue with the interrogation?" Prince Leo asked, with an eerie eagerness in his tone. 

With cold determination, he attached a device to her other hand and set to work breaking all ten fingers as Bella's screams echoed through the dungeon. Each crack reverberated like a grim symphony of torture, and Lekan felt the air grow thick with despair. 

Finally, after an agonizing hour, Bella's defenses crumpled, her spirit breaking. "Stop! Please! I'll talk!" she pleaded, her cries ringing through the dungeon.

Bella wheezed, slumped against the cold dungeon wall. Her face was pale, streaked with sweat and blood, fingers trembling from repeated healing and breaking. Prince Leo stood before her, arms crossed, gaze sharp and unreadable.

"Once more," he said, voice calm, almost too calm. "Who sent you?"

Bella was silent at first. Then her lips curled in a broken smirk, and she whispered, "It was First Prince Thorne."

The words echoed.

Lekan's heart skipped. Confirming the words he heard in the south wing to be true. 

Leo blinked, once. Then he gave a quiet, humorless laugh.

"Thorne?" he repeated slowly, like the word offended his intelligence. "My idiot brother?"

He shook his head, pacing a short step back. "No. No, Thorne can barely string together a coherent sentence without a tutor whispering in his ear. He doesn't plot. He doesn't plan. He's not capable of doing this alone."

Bella didn't answer.

Leo turned back to her, voice colder. "So who's really behind it?"

"…The Queen," Bella said, swallowing hard. "She's the one who gave the order. Seven years ago. She told me to keep eyes on you to join your personal guard, to watch, to report."

"How often do you report?" Leo asked, voice tightening.

"Every three months."

He stepped closer.

"When's the next report?"

"…One month from now."

Leo's jaw clenched. He turned, thinking aloud more than addressing anyone. "That means they don't know yet… about Lekan… or Rowan."

He paused, fingers tapping the hilt of his sword in thought.

"I don't need to adjust the plan yet."

Bella looked up, defiant even in chains. "She fears you, you know."

Leo's gaze snapped back to her.

"She always has," Bella continued. "You and your mother were the king's favorites. Before the king fell ill, your late mother wormed her way into everything."

Leo narrowed his eyes. "She sees me as a threat to Thorne's claim."

"She doesn't just see it," Bella said, breathing hard. "She knows it."

Leo stood still, the weight of the words pressing down on him. The dim light carved harsh shadows across his face, but none harsher than the storm building behind his eyes.

Betrayal from within his own house.

A brother too stupid to mastermind anything, but just clever enough to be a pawn.

And a queen pulling strings from behind the veil of the throne.

The silence thickened, punctuated only by Bella's ragged breath and the distant drip of water echoing through stone.

In the dark of the dungeon, something shifted not just in the air, but in Leo himself.

And as Lekan watched him, he realized something had changed. A door had opened in Leo's mind.

One that wouldn't be easily closed.