Chapter Fifty-Two: Bahira
It was Magda. Themutilated body delivered by the rebels had been Magda—a mother just trying to survive. A female doing her best as a single parent who wasn’t quite so, and she had been murdered so viciously that my stomach churns every time the image of her hanging from the columns comes into my mind. I think of little Sione, of her other children now forced to grow up in an orphanage, and have to swallow down my rage.
Kai had been reluctant to invite the people of his kingdom into his home to air their grievances and have their voices heardafter the rebel attack. I pushed back when he initially declined my idea because I thought he needed to hear what the people’s actual issues with him were if he was to make any progress on gaining their trust. After what happened with Magda, it seemed like the right thing to do. Yet, three days into hearing mostly the same accusations from the mouths of shifters who are all too eager to point their fingers and wag their tongues, I am beginning to believe that I have made a mistake.
It would be one thing if their comments held value, but the majority blamed Kai for the blight on their magic simply because theycould. Or they blamed his father. And the king, for all the bite and fury I had seen leak from him in our private moments, sat there and took it. Over and over, his subjects yelled and condemned, and Kai might as well have been a statue for how little he reacted. Too few actually gave reasons for their anger, but when they did, Kai always responded with interest and a promise to fix what he could. I no longer believed him to be an apathetic ruler, and this show of restraint as he was belittled and verbally stoned was proof of that.
A persistent, aggravating voice nags at me in my head, scolding me for being sowrongabout him. Another voice, less annoying and more urgent, doesn’t like that rebels had breached the palace so easily. Then there is the fact that the rebel who attackedmesomehow escaped from the palace dungeons. Tua wasn’t forthcoming with any information when I met him in private, asking for a sample of his blood to study. He told me that it was being handled and that he’d make sure guards were stationed at all the palace entrances. Kai had been less reluctant to tell me that the rebel had killed one of his guards down in the cells and escaped before Tua could interrogate him. The information sat heavily on my chest. I collected a sample of Kai’s blood as well—and Jahlee’s later on, much to her morbid delight—before returning back to the experiment room to work.
The public forum was the next step on a long list of ideas I had worked up with Kai following the rebel attack, before we learned whose death would now weigh on my soul in a way I could never have anticipated.
One thing we hadnottalked about was how we had ravaged each other in the dining room before I used the Mirror to speak with my family. Or of how he slept in my bed. Even with our avoidance of those topics, there is no denying the cracks in our armor that have formed because of them.
“I swear to the gods, if another person blames Kai for something so obviously out of his control, I’m going to fucking lose it,” Jahlee whispers at my side, her arms crossing over her chest as she stares at the long line of shifters still waiting to say their piece.
I nod my head, my gaze going above to the wooden rafters. The light, sandy-colored beams extend the entire length of the rectangular throne room, long fabrics in the colors of the kingdom’s sigil—black, gray, and white—draping between each one. The air smells of salt and flora and the incoming rain storm, which makes the humidity mixed with the many bodies in the room feel stifling.
“Perhaps it was too much to make Kai do this for three days,” I respond with a grimace.
Jahlee snorts before baring her teeth at a male waiting in line who is glaring at her. He shakes his head in annoyance but is slow to draw his gaze away. “I’m going to fuck him later,” she whispers, elbowing me in my ribs.
I arch a brow, my eyes flicking between the male and her. “He looked like he’d rather fight with you.”
“Thoseare the best males to bed. Their dumb brains can’t handle it when their anger gets mixed with lust.” I want to laugh at that, except it hits a little too close to home. “Anyway, did you find what you were looking for in our blood?”
I force my jaw to stay relaxed as I tilt my head to the side. In truth, I didn’t exactly know how to answer that. While examining Kai’s blood under the magnifier, I zoomed in as far as it would allow and watched as the cells moved within the liquid, nothing seeming out of the ordinary until I saw a glint of light. A flash—no bigger than the tip of a needle—there and gone before I realized what I was looking at. It happened one other time as I peered down the scope, the look of it like a faraway star flashing brightly for only a second. I might not have been as disturbed by the sight if I had seen that hint of light in anyone else’s blood. When I studied Tua’s, Jahlee’s, and my own, I only observed what I had expected: blood cells and plasma and platelets—though there was a distinct difference in the shape of the shifter cells versus my own. The notes I had written in my journal reminded me that I had seen that spark of light before, but it was while peering at the leaves in magic-infused water.
Jahlee elbows me again, staring at me expectantly.
“She would be sodisappointedin you!” A loud female voice cuts through the room, drawing our attention while everyone else falls silent. “To see what you’ve let them turn you into is a disgrace, Kai Vaea.”
Jahlee and I glance at each other before our quick steps take us up to the front of the line, where an older female with short white hair stands at the bottom of the dais. Tua is posted on the stairs, splitting the distance between the female and Kai, his face set in a grim line as he holds his hands behind his back.
“Iolana?” Jahlee gasps, walking towards her.
The female turns, her head cocking to the side before a smile softens the edges of her face. “My Jahlee!”
Running to embrace her, the crowd murmuring louder at the sight, Jahlee asks, “What are you doing here?”
Iolana growls low, her head turning to look back at Kai with narrowed eyes. “There are rumors that your brother is denying aid for his own people.” Her body shakes as she shouts.
“Come, Iolana. Let’s talk about this over some tea,” Jahlee suggests, guiding her away from the line.
Iolana grumbles something but lets Jahlee lead her to a door.
“We’re done for today,” Tua announces, walking down the steps with his hands raised over his head. “I appreciate you all coming out to speak with our king, and I promise I will make sure that your voices are heard.”
My eyes narrow in on him, watching as Tua continues to ply the crowd with words of reassurance. The words scrape like thorns beneath my skin. Those should beKai’spromises to make to his people. I search for said king, startling backward when I see him barreling towards me after having stepped off his throne. “Godsdamn it, how do you move so fast—”
“Is this what you wanted? To have a line of people day in and day out pointing out how ill-fitted I am to be king?” He stares down at me with a cold expression, despite the hot fury of his words.
“Are you blamingmefor whateverthatwas?” When he doesn’t answer, instead brushing past me to continue down the dais and to the door Jahlee exited through, I grind my teeth together and follow him. “Kai, stop.”
Of course, he doesn’t. The asshole moves as if he doesn’t hear me. I trail behind him down a small corridor that leads to an outdoor garden. Vibrant flowers in a variety of shapes and colors grow taller than my hip as I brush past them and down the rocky path to catch up with Kai’s long strides.
“Do you honestly think I am trying to humiliate you?Whywould I do that?” My blood rushes in my ears when he ignores meagain. “You know what? Fine.” Without warning, I kick the back of his knee hard, the sudden movement making himstumble and fall. His animalistic growl rumbles the ground beneath me as he looks at me from over his shoulder, his dark irises sporting two rings of gold. “Are you going to talk to me now?”
He snarls at me, his hand snapping out faster than I can react as he wraps it around my ankle and pulls hard until my back meets the ground. Kicking out at his chest with my free leg makes him grunt, but he doesn’t let go of my ankle, instead rolling us off the path and into a patch of flowers growing off to the side. He finally releases me with a growl when I stomp on his hand with my free foot, and I snap upright to straddle his hips before he has a chance to get up. My hands press into his chest as I hold him down.
