What Stone failed to realize earlier when he’d asked her to leave was that there was power in being the spare. No one would expect her to lead, only to be grateful to be given the opportunity so they wouldn’t see who she really was, only who they expected her to be.
She was no longer choosing to serve her father or Celestria or the Order. She was choosing, for once, to serve herself, just as Stone begged her to. And she would bring the kingdom down right from the inside, making them pay for his pain.
For Kamari’s.
For her own.
And she would do it with a crown on her head and a smile on her face.
She would destroy them, each and every one, and she’d do it as a queen.
Thirty-Seven
Stone
The only godsend of being back in prison was the break from the heat. There was no way to tell what time it was so far underground, but by the meager meal and the absence ofastralight, he could assume that it was late which meant the Aquila would be sailing straight to the Isles, rule number two be damned.
Something tapped in the cell next to him, through the thick cinder walls.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
“Are you going to do that all fucking night?” The tapping stopped and he shut his eyes, leaning his headagainst the wall. He winced, the pain in his face still pounding, his ribs bruised and broken.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
“Sorry,” a voice came from the other side of the wall. “I’m going crazy in here.”
Stone ran a hand down his face, wincing at the tender flesh. He thought of Aesira, telling him to go, saw how broken she looked, how torn. He struggled to open his eyes and started counting the bricks of his cell, one by one. It was easier, even with the pain, than seeing her face behind his eyes.
The rejection stung more than he thought it would. Birdie, Bee, Patch. They were his friends and his family. He kept his circle small yet he’d invited her in.
He invited her, begged her, and she’d said no.
“What are you in for?” the voice again, too high to be a man, but rough around the edges like whatever she’d been through had destroyed anything soft she might have once been.
He wouldn’t tell this woman of Ravki. Wouldn’t say that he was supposed to be a free man for the first time in his life. Instead, he sighed, and said, “Smuggling.” It wasn’t far-fetched, considering that’s what all his other citations were for. “You?”
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
An anxious boot against the stone floor, he decided.Must be her first time in here.“I beat the shit out of a sentry.” The honestyin her answer made him laugh which turned to a wince when his lungs pressed against his bruised ribs. “Deserved it, though.”
“I don’t doubt that,” he said.
“What’s your name?”
“Odega.”
