All Shadowbloods had to be held in the center of the two.
“Some sacrifices had to be made,” Eona said. “We created an army. An army intent on protecting Dohrsar when that foretold darkness came.” She seemed to still, and Sonara watched as her eyes shed tears made of stars. “Eventually, I met a Shadowblood from the south. Fell in love, as the living ones do. I had a child of my own, a beautiful girl who would someday become a Soreian queen.”
More tears of starlight.
“Time and again, I would return to this space alone, to speak with Dohrsar. When she feared a threat was near, I came. And one day, my brother Ederdidreturn. He brought with him that piece of the planet’s heart. Tricky, he was, for he’d used it to fashion a weapon. One that I could not best with ease, for it held power from the planet’s very heart. Eder and his army, hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers, nearly slayed me. And as I lay dying, I told the planet I was sorry. That I had failed her. Dohrsar mourned, the aura of sorrow on my tongue. I used the last bit of my strength to destroy this place. To bury it deep, destroying Eder, his army and myself along with it.”
“But yet here you remain,” Sonara said.
Eona nodded. “The planet loved me. Mourned for me, her first creation. But in that great explosion of my power, I gave so much of myself that I cast out my very soul. And with her own magic… the planet preserved it. She kept it here for a time, alongside my spirit. Keeping the pieces of me safe, until she could find someone else worthy to carry them. Someone to burn with the desires I had, to always protect Dohrsar, no matter the cost. She chose. Eventually.”
“Your daughter?” Karr asked.
“No,” Eona said. Her eyes turned until they fell upon Sonara, who felt stripped wholly bare beneath that ancient gaze. “She choseyou, Sonara. The bastard princess of Soreia. My descendant, and a soul that was finally worthy.”
Sonara froze as those words washed across her. “What did you just say?”
Eona simply smiled.
But it wasn’t possible.
It wasn’t possible at all, that Sonara would be chosen. For she was nothing. She was no one.
She was unwanted and unworthy, a sign she’d seen in her own reflection, all her life, when she looked into the sparkling sea and saw herself staring back: blue hair with streaks of brown, dark eyes that were not the cerulean of a true Soreian lineage.
“It can’t be me,” Sonara said. “I’m… no one.”
“You carry blood of great strength,” Eona said. “Have you never wondered, Sonara, why the Queen of Soreia hated you so?”
“Because I was a bastard,” Sonara hissed, hating that word as it tumbled from her lips. “Because I was not created out of a fully pure bloodline. Because I was a stain on the crown, and a threat to the throne.”
“There are plenty of bastards in each kingdom,” Eona said knowingly. “They are swept under the rug, set aside… but the hatred goes deeper than that word, Sonara. You, my soul… you are perhaps themostworthy of any on Dohrsar. Because you are the daughter of a kinganda queen.”
“No,” Sonara said, shaking her head. “My father was no one. A spoil of war… that’s what my mother always said.”
“How easily the living believe such petty lies about themselves.” Eona smiled softly. “Your father, Sonara, reigns on a different throne. I believe you and your comrade recently removed one of his eyes.”
Sonara didn’t want to believe it.
But she saw the face in her mind, as Eona said, “Yes, my soul. King Jira sired you.You, a girl who has a claim to not one, buttwoDohrsaran thrones.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it? The King has sired hundreds of children, from hundreds of women across Dohrsar. How do you think your mother has kept the peace with Jira all these years?”
“Through strength. Through a steed army,” Sonara growled. “Through a ruthless taste for bones and blood.”
“Not so,” Eona said, shaking her head so that more stars tumbled from her, landing upon her shoulders. “Your mother and Jira were lovers who met on the battlefield, and in secret, when they signed the Decree, they createdyou.A child that had the ability to bring both their kingdoms crashing down.”
“No. I refuse to believe that monster is my father.” Sonara’s breath was growing ragged with horror. For that would mean… that would mean, all along, there was Jira’s blood running in her veins. She was part monster, after all.
But then a different thought struck her, one that pressed back with a bit of light, as she realized…
Sonara’s eyes widened.
Azariah was hersister.It all made sense now, the connection she felt to the princess. The strange sense of trust between them.
Sonara’s hands began to shake. For the collar scar on Azariah’s throat should have been on Sonara’s throat,too. Would have been, if she’d grown up one kingdom over. “An entire life, I spent in the shadows,” Sonara said, shaking her head. “When all this time… I could have been seated upon either throne.”
