A cool breeze blew against my face, but the sun was shining warmly enough, I could almost taste summer. Almost.
We were weeks into the spring season, and staying in yet another safe house. In Korteria of all places. Cretanya in the end, Thene in particular, had been a nightmare. I should have known. That’s where I’d been the last time my life fell apart. Where I’d escaped to, where I’d been free for a moment with … Seth. But that had all been taken from me in the most brutal way. It was all I could do to go on—to survive by not thinking about it.
I reached for my ring finger, for the blood oath I’d made him before he died.
I’d sworn I would survive, promised I’d live, even without him. And I had. I fucking had.
Even after the soturi came to our inn—again.
Even after two safe houses in the city were compromised. After a brutal akadim attack left dozens dead. Worse, turned. Dario had had to get us out, and we’d fled the country in the middle of the night—not even saying goodbye to Cal and Marisol.
But I was still here. Still alive, still somehow surviving every day. So I guess that was something. And now I was hiding in the country of my worst enemy. Kormac’s country.
Our new host was a loyalist of Ka Azria, a wealthy member ofEl Zan Vylette.But they weren’t Elyrian. As expected by our location, they were Korterian. Born and bred, going generations back. They just also happened to be one of the few that didn’t support Ka Kormac, who thought they were overstepping their power and that what had happened to Ka Azria—to my Ka, to my family, the family I’d never known—was wrong.
And while he’d been nothing but kind, protecting us, housing and feeding us, I didn’t fully trust him. Not that I trusted anyone completely.
Because as of a week ago—there was no Elyria. And no more Bamaria. Not according to our new Emperor. Because of the recent instability, rising akadim attacks, and growing concerns about vorakh living amongst us—the new southern Imperator, my aunt Arianna, had decided to unite the southern border. My homes, the home I’d been raised in and loved, and the one I was supposedly destined to rule, had both been turned into something called New Korteria.
It was temporary, they said. It would dissolve the moment we were safe. What a joke. That day would never come. And if it did, I already knew there’d be some horrendous attack or distraction to delay it. I guess it didn’t really matter that I was here. We were all Korteria now. Everyone of us along the southern border.
Go figure. They made my aunt announce it—so Bamaria didn’t revolt. Elyria under the rule of Ka Elys had been basically Ka Kormac all along. And why would Lord Viktor, the Emperor’s son and newly consecrated Arkasva of Korteria ever take issue?
Arianna may have been given the title of Imperator, but it was worthless now. All the power lay here with Kormac. Like always.
I clutched my stomach. We were fucking surrounded. EvenEl Zan Vylettewas laying low, it was going to be pretty hard to remove Ka Elys from power and place me on the Seat when they currently didn’t have a country to rule. But what did it matter? What did any of it matter? Rhyan was long gone, an akadim. Galen was dead. Murdered. Tristan back under the thrall of the enemy, their puppet once more. And Lyr—Lyr had been missing for almost a month now. It was time to stop pretending we lived in Lumeria anymore. Or that we were remotely free. The whole Empire was going to be New Korteria soon.
Dario stepped onto the balcony. “May I join you?” he asked formally, his Glemarian accent thick.
I continued staring out at the green hills, the white flowers beginning to sprout in the meadows.
In the distance there was a growth of purple flowers I didn’t recognize. The color was mesmerizing. And for a second, I lost myself in them, wanting to go out there and pick a bouquet, place them in a vase and stare at them for hours.
Because they were violet. Because I was Hava, Goddess of the Violet Ray.
I groaned and shook my head. Another title, another identity that sounded impressive, and might have been interesting to me at another time. All I saw now was more ways for me to be used, hunted.
I’d remain Julianna and nothing else. I wasn’t the Heir. I wasn’t Hava. I wanted to be no one. I looked away from the flowers.
“It’s a beautiful day,” Dario said. “Maybe … maybe you’d like to take a walk in the fields?”
“No.”
“You should get outside. Stretch your legs.”
I glared back at him, gesturing around us. “I do believe that we are outside.”
His mouth tightened. “You know what I mean. Out there, out in the open, where you can breathe, be surrounded by nature, its smells, the way the air moves. You’re so cooped up in the house. You’re always in the house.”
“I said no.” My voice hardened.
“Okay. Sure.” He looked away, his jaw clenching. “Sorry.”
“Did you need something?” I asked.
“No, I-I just—I wanted to see how you were doing.”
“I’m babysitting nahashim,” I said dully. “It’s not that exciting.”
