Everything I know about the Horsemen was all rumor and myth, sort of like how the Crownes used to be, except with the Horsemen, every fact was twisted in fear and sex.
We had no plan for what to do when we left. We’d been recovering in this dark room with no contact to the outside world, our meals delivered through the door from a person we never saw.
I grasped the gold locket at my neck—Grayson’s heart, beating alongside mine. I had to think it was beating alongside mine.
Grayson sent me away, hoping I would stay away, but I couldn’t just sit and do nothing.
I couldn’t stop imagining what his grandfather could be doing to him. A man like Beryl Crowne with four coins?
Sonnet started to fuss, like she knew, just knew I was worried about Grayson.
Lottie watched me, resting on her side in her twin bed. “You’ve had that look on your face every day since you woke up.”
I glanced at her. “What look?”
She exhaled. “Like you want to take on Beryl Crowne.”
“You want a happily ever after of your own, don’t you?” I asked.
Lottie stared at her sleeping baby. “I’ll settle for just knowing what I want.”
Like clockwork, the door opened, and two meals were placed on the ground.
Lottie stared at them. “I’m so fucking sick of being a prisoner.”
How does a princess locked in a tower, save a prince prisoner in his own castle?
You tear the castle to pieces.
You blow up the world keeping them trapped.
My eyes slowly drifted to Lottie. Months ago, I never would have even considered asking. Maybe that was why we were so trapped. I’d considered her one of the iron bars, but Lottie was one of the four keys to getting out of this world.
“Lottie…I have a favor to ask you. But I don’t think you’re going to want to say yes.”
Her eyes lifted at my voice, just as there was a knock at the door.
Sixty-Six
STORY
Grim tilted his head, eyeing us. Behind him, his Horsemen were shadows barely visible beneath the low light. Only flashes of them were visible—a tattooed forearm or a hand thrumming along a knee.
They were like a boy band that drank blood.
I held Sonnet close to my chest. Maybe it was meant to be that I ended up here in the underworld, like those old heroes in ancient sagas who had to travel deep into the dark undead before they realized their purpose.
Before they could come back to their lover. That’s what I hoped, at least, because in those sagas…they all got to go back.
“I need your help,” I said.
Grim leaned over, making faces at Sonnet. “You already have quite a debt, sweet Storybook.”
It didn’t slip my notice that as he discussed what I owed, he was being cute to Sonnet. My current debt.
It was a threat.
I swallowed. “You and I both know I can’t pay you anything if I stay stuck down here forever.”