And with it came a question she’d uttered a hundred times in another room before another monarch who knew that she was nothing more than power to be used. A blade to be sharpened and honed and thrust in the hearts of others, until her own was unrecognizable.
A weapon to be wielded.
“What do you need me to do?”
***
The plan was simple, in the end. Aya would take to one of the high walls of the fortress that stretched between thebattlements—the one that lorded over the city like a damning shadow—and destroy the Midlands forces.
The method, Evie assured her, was up to her choosing. As long as the outcome was total destruction, neither she nor Gregor cared what power she unleashed on the unsuspecting Midlandian troops.
What was a human to a god, after all?
“And you’re sure in your decision?” Lorna asked as Aya lay on a cot, her gaze fixed on the worn canvas above her head. They had shoved them in the same tent, one near Evie and Gregor’s, with two guards stationed outside.
There was a time when the mere idea of Aya was a threat. She thought of the increased guard that had awaited her in Dominic’s palace—that green livery standing sentinel for no other reason than her reputation preceded her.
Now, two measly soldiers: the Anima who had been her personal guard for two months, and a Zeluus Aya had not had the misfortune of meeting until today.
“Yes,” she finally answered Lorna. She tried to count the threads in the canvas, but there were far too many for her tired eyes to pick apart.
So she pushed herself up instead, ignoring the ache in her tender muscles as she shoved her feet into her boots. Lorna’s attention fell heavily on her, but Aya ignored it as she pushed through the tent flaps.
She would not find sleep tonight.
“I’d like to take a walk,” she told the Anima. The woman stared at her for a beat, her mouth pinched in the corner. Then she shrugged.
“Watch the other one,” the guard commanded the Zeluus. She took a step away from the tent and waved Aya on with a mocking bow. “Lead the way.”
40
Josie loathed to admit she had envisioned Aleissande in her bedroom before. It had been late at night, her nerves frayed from sneaking through Rinnia to meet with members of the Royal Guard. Aleissande had been a steady presence at her side, unwilling to let Josie out of her sight as they wound through the streets.
It had been a moment of weakness. Of distraction.
Yet Josie could admit it had looked nothing likethis.
“You’re not ready.”
It was the second time this week Josie had had this conversation with Aleissande. Today, the general had shown up at her dormitory in the Maraciana—a large but dark apartment on the far side of the complex where the Saj who resided there full-time lived—dressed in her fighting leathers and demanding they train.
As if she hadn’t recently been on death’s door.
“I seem to remember you being particularly bothered when I dared to voice reservations aboutyourreadiness in combat,” Aleissande mused as she pushed past Josie.
“Now you have firsthand experience in how irksome it is.”
Aleissande pulled her focus from the circular table covered in maps and scraps of parchment, her lips fighting against a smile. She glanced around the space, lingering on the sword that leaned against the far stone wall in the sitting room. Josie had pushed the large armchair and end table to one side, creating a makeshift training ring right in the center of the apartment.
She’d attempted to train in one of the courtyards on the far side of the Maraciana. Natali had found her and cursed her so thoroughly, even Clyde would have blushed in admonishment.
She’d kept the training to her room since then. But the Maraciana, even in all its grandeur, was becoming stifling.
“I also seem to remember you blatantly disregarding orders and boarding a ship to join a mission you weren’t qualified to join,” Aleissande remarked as she trailed a finger over the pommel of the blade.
Josie smoothed a hand down her own fighting leathers, her muscles aching from the various exercises she’d been conducting before she was so rudely interrupted.
“I do not need the reminder of how much my actions cost us,” she muttered.
