Reign: The Haunting Read Online Free PDF Page A

as Bash stepped into the crypt.
    â€œI count my blessings daily,” he said, crossing himself in front of the sarcophagus and whispering a pagan prayer under his breath. “I never wanted to rule, little brother.”
    â€œNo, you only wanted my wife.” Francis punched the wall, grinding his fist into the stone. The pain woke him up, made the lines between reality and fantasy that much clearer. “If I were to die now, would you seize the crown, Bash? Would you seize Mary?”
    â€œI don’t know what’s wrong with you, Francis, but people are beginning to talk.” Bash rushed over to his brother’s side, thrusting himself in front of his fist before he could strike the wall a second time. Francis pulled his bloody hand away from his brother, the red imprint staining his white shirt. “This has to stop.”
    â€œI don’t know what’s wrong with me either,” he said. “You were raised a pagan, you understand their beliefs and superstitions. Do you believe a man can be haunted?”
    Bash’s forehead creased at his brother’s question. “I believe in the world we see,” he replied, pushing thoughts of The Darkness from his mind, of the plague, of the people he had seen that he could not have seen. “Trusting in prophecies and stories leads only to discord and chaos.”
    â€œThen do you believe that poisoned blood passes from father to son?” Francis stared hard into his brother’s eyes. “That the madness that took the king can pass down to his son as freely as the crown?”
    His knees gave way beneath him and he slid down the wall, stretching his legs out in front of him.
    â€œSo that’s it?” Bash followed suit, sitting side by side with his brother. “You fear you’re going mad, like our father?”
    â€œI don’t know how else to explain what’s happening to me,” he confessed. “I dream of him every night, he talks to me, in cryptic warnings and riddles, but it feels as though the dreams are coming true.”
    â€œThat’s why you want to send your son away?” Bash leaned his head back against the wall. “You’re afraid that you’ll hurt him. Or that he’ll inherit a sickness you perceive in yourself?”
    Francis laughed. “Dear brother, I hadn’t even thought of that. Splendid, another burden to carry. Besides”—he slapped his brother’s knee—“I realize now sending the baby away won’t help. Whether it is my mind or my soul that is poisoned, having my son raised by strangers won’t change a thing.”
    â€œI’m glad you’ve come to your senses,” Bash said. “Mary will be relieved.”
    â€œMary will be heartbroken,” Francis corrected him. “I’m not sending the baby away because I am leaving instead.”
    Bash’s mouth hung open, his clear gray eyes wide. “Before, I thought you were suffering from a lack of sleep and the weight of the crown,” he replied. “Now I truly believe that you are insane.”
    â€œThere’s no other answer for it, Bash,” the young king said with a tired determination. “I’ve spent all night searching for another way and there just isn’t one.”
    â€œDamn it, Francis, you’re the king of France.” Bash pushed himself up to his feet, dragging his brother up with him. “People will make allowances for you. You can kick goblets at servants and shout at your mother and call your brother’s wife a whore, but you cannot disappear on a whim.”
    â€œI am sorry for the things that I said last night,” Francis said, pushing up the sleeves of his dirty, bloodied shirt. “I wasn’t in my right mind, which is the problem I’m trying to resolve.”
    â€œBy running away?” Bash asked. “Where does that leave Mary? And the country?”
    â€œNo one needs to know,” he