“Well, I didn’twantto go!” she snarls. “You had no right—”
“I took you out of that place before you could kill yourself on dew. As your friend, I had every right.”
Polly turns away, cheeks lifted with color as she stews in her anger.
I watch this exchange in anxious fascination. For years, these two were thick as thieves, always laughing and talking, always so drop-dead gorgeous and put together. It’s almost like they’re two completely different people.
Yet I can somewhat relate. The aftermath of leaving Midas’s grip hasn’t been easy for any of us.
I have snippets of that night with them, of Rissa coming to collect Polly, and my stomach twists. “I forgot,” I admit. “I forgot to tell you to go to the army. How did you know?”
“Some woman with daggers shaved into her hair,” Rissa tells me. “She helped us get out of the castle, too.”
Relief surges through me. I need to remember to thank Lu the next time I see her.
“So you stayed with Fourth’s army?” I ask. “They didn’t give you any trouble?”
Rissa tightens her hands into balls in her lap. “Nothing I couldn’t handle. The hairy giant brute came in and grunted some words every so often, but aside from him, it was fine.”
“Hairy gi—Wait, are you talking aboutOsrik?”
Rissa sniffs. “Yes.”
An unruly laugh escapes me. “Please tell me that’s not what you called him to his face.”
She blinks her crystal-blue eyes at me. “Of course I did. He wants to behave like a lumbering boor, then I’ll call him as such.”
I cover my mouth with my hand, trying to suppress more amusement. “I can only imagine how well you two got along.”
For some reason, her own cheeks turn pink, and she looks away. “Yes, well. We’ve just arrived, and it was along, long journey.”
“Of course,” I say soberly. “Did you want to...rest here?”
Rissa says yes at the same time as Polly turns and snaps out a no.
I look between them.
A trundled, weary sigh escapes Rissa. “Polly—”
“No,” she says, lurching to her feet. “I’m done.Done, Rissa. You just dragged me out of Fifth Kingdom, across the Barrens, past disgusting, rotted swamplands, all the way to this stupid kingdom, and I’m done!”
Her chest heaves, her voice shrill.
“I was trying tohelpyou—”
“Well,” Polly seethes, eyes alight. “I didn’twantyour help.”
Rissa looks stricken.
“That’s right,” Polly pounces, peeled finger pointed at her face. “That’s what you’re not getting, what you haven’t understood through this entire Divine-forsaken trip. You didn’t rescue me. I was happy there.”
“You were high!”
“So? I liked it. I liked the way it made me feel. And it was my choice.”
Anger flashes through Rissa’s eyes. “I wasn’t just going to leave you there to drug yourself to death!”
“I wasn’t going to,” Polly snaps. “Not that you’d believe me. But you know the difference between you and me? All those times you talked about buying out your contract? You never once noticed I didn’t want that. You thought that everyone—me included—wanted out as much as you did, but you were wrong.”
