“Your whore is alive, for a little while longer, at least,” she snaps at Jesse.
I exhale in relief, some of my guilt ebbing at the knowledge that Raelyn hasn’t fulfilled her threat yet. But just as my lungs deflate, Ventrallan soldiers march through the door the other soldier entered—the men who had accompanied Raelyn earlier.
Jesse blinks a few times before he realizes they’re pulling him off her, that his own men are holding him on his knees. “Release me!” he commands to no avail, the glare he shoots at Raelyn filled with hatred. “What are you doing? Release me!”
“They don’t obey you anymore.” Raelyn straightens her gown, her voice twisted ever so slightly with annoyance. “Now, where was I—ah, yes. Unification.Properunification. Weak leadership will no longer be tolerated, and the Seasons are no longer allowed to claim themselves as kingdoms—well, three of them, at least. Summer, Autumn, and—” She stops, glances at Noam. “Winter. May I tell them, or was that your secret to reveal?”
Noam seems just as shocked as I am. But when Raelyn addresses him, his eyes dart up to her, resuming a small flicker of his power. “Cordell is not part of any larger scheme. Winter is ours, and I came here to inform the queen of this development.”
Theron steps in front of me as his father talks, his back to me, shoulders hunched so I can’t see his face.
“The Seasons are, at long last, where they belong,” Raelyn coos. “Isn’t it wonderful? Winter and Autumn have been subdued by Cordell—”
Cordell overtook Autumn too?
“—Summer has been cleansed, and Spring—well, Spring is the only Season that has proven itself worthy of kingdom status. It will be the deliverer of a new world, and by its example, we will purify Primoria of insufficiency. We do not need the Royal Conduits anymore; we do not need the allegiances of weak bloodlines. We will form our own governments and kingdoms based on proper leadership.”Slowly Raelyn takes one step forward and bends down on the stage so she’s level with Theron. “And Cordellispart of this bigger scheme. Isn’t it?”
“Absolutely not!” Noam shouts.
Theron whips to him. “You know nothing of this!”
I can’t tell whether Theron aims it as a question or a statement—it should be a question, him forcing his father to admit to not knowing about this. But the way it hangs before him . . .
No. Ithasto be a question.
Noam’s control flickers, his jaw working. He turns to Raelyn. “Cordell has no need of the things you offer. We have true magic, not this infectious evil.”
Theron coils his hands into fists. “It isn’t just Cordell’s magic. It belongs to the world—everyone deserves power. That’s what I’ve been trying to accomplish on this trip—uniting everyone to show you how the world could truly be. I drew up a treaty, did you know that? A treaty linking the world together inpeace.”
Noam’s shocked rage makes spittle fly from his mouth. “You naive, selfish boy! You go behind my back to make alliances for the world with that Winterian whore whispering weak Season politics in your ear!”
Theron falters for one moment of brokenness before he lunges forward in a snarl. “Of course you refuse to share power. That’s always been your problem. Cordell is important, but you cannot behave as though we are the onlypeople worthy of life!”
Noam matches Theron’s anger, his hands knotting into fists. “I always do what our kingdom needs. Do you know what happens when a ruler doesn’t do what their kingdom needs? They end up like that.” With a disgusted wave, he motions to Simon’s head, still silently watching the chaos unfold. “They end up as a castoff that other kingdoms take advantage of, and I will die before I see Cordell fall so low.”
I keep myself from looking at Simon, my body slack under Noam’s meaning. Summer is no better off than Autumn was for so long—helpless to use their conduit without the proper gender as heir. Assuming Raelyn doesn’t just destroy Summer’s conduit now, while no male exists who could provide a host for the magic, and kill Ceridwen to end Summer’s lineage. The thought makes me sway.
Theron scoffs, the tight, pinched laugh of a man close to crying. “This is why my mother died—because you were too arrogant to admit that Cordell needed help in any way. Shewasn’tCordellan, and no matter how hard you tried—”
“Stop!” Noam shouts. “I order you—”
“—you couldn’t cure her. Cordell wasn’t enough, but rather than admit that and let her go back to Ventralli to be healed by her bloodline’s conduit, you let her—”
Noam’s face turns a violent shade of red, spittle flying from his mouth as he shouts at Theron over the stage. “Silence!”
“You let her die!” Theron shouts. “And you destroyed our chance at peace, at ending this, because I just want us all to be safe.”
I think Raelyn says something, or Jesse struggles to reach her—but all I see, hear, feel, is the look Theron gives me over his shoulder. His face twists with a sickened pallor—brows curved, lips twitching, teeth bared. And behind it all, rising up alongside his anger like light brought with the morning, comes every moment he stood against his father. Every second of being a pawn, of wanting one thing and watching his father do another, of being so tantalizingly close to changing the world, only to have it all snatched away by people with stronger agendas.
This is the boy I saw in my visions, crouched in Angra’s prison, weeping over the power his father wielded. That was all Theron ever wanted—for everyone to be safe through unification.
Raelyn said that word specifically, as if she knew the weight of it.
“Today, we will rejoice in the knowledge that unification has been achieved.”
Understanding rushes through me.
The key-magic said it was supposed to make whoever had the keys ready for something. So what if the scenes I saw were things that I, personally, needed to prepare me to open the magic chasm? Theron himself said before this began that if he had something this powerful locked away,he’d have made it so only the worthy could access it.
