“You just don’t let things go, do you?”
“Says the man following me even when I’ve asked him to leave.”
He scratched his beard. “Technically, you haven’t asked me to leave, Empress.”
I sucked on my teeth, assessing him with another sigh before continuing my walk through the maze. “Whyareyou following me, anyway?”
“I was out here first. I saw you head into the hedges and got curious.” He shrugged. “Wanted to be sure you were okay after what happened today and yesterday.”
“I wish everyone would stop asking me that.”
He made an exasperated sound in the back of his throat. “Is it such a burden to know people care about you? You wereattacked. You almost died, and you killed someone in the process.”
I swallowed. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“Cryptic, I see.”
I stopped walking again and crossed my arms over my chest. “I’mcryptic?” I shook my head, causing my hair to brush against my arms. “You know what? Never mind. It’s been a long few days, and I was trying to clear my head out here. If you’re not going to start telling me the truth, then please, just leave me alone.”
He closed his eyes. “Clarissa, there’s so much that?—”
I didn’t let him finish his sentence, for something behind him caught my eye and made my stomach drop.
“Thorne,” I gasped out, instinctively reaching for him. At the sound of his name, his eyes flew open, and he grasped my arm, pulling me to his side.
“What is it?” he asked quickly.
“It—it’s the hedge. Look.” I pointed behind him, where anentire section of the well-trimmed bushes was now black and gnarled. Dead leaves fell from the hedge like dark rainfall, collecting on the ground in a heap. “Did that just happen?”
His eyes widened, and his face fell. Licking his lips, he tried to regain his casual composure, but I’d already seen the slip. “I’m sure it’s nothing,” he said. “Perhaps the servants forgot to water this area.”
Oh, absolutely not. I wasdonewith these people and their attempts to cover the truth. Anger flooded me, almost strong enough to fill the hollow pit where my magic used to be.
I yanked my arm from his hold. “Alright, that’s it. I’ve had it with all of these poor excuses.Somethingis going on in this kingdom. The dead sea creatures? The blight in the farms? You and Galen have been ignoring me, acting like everything I’m seeing is a figment of my imagination.”
I prowled closer to him, my nostrils flaring. “This is supposed to be analliance. Fates, I’m supposed tomarryhim. I deserve to know what I’m getting myself and my empire into. I will not willingly join forces with a kingdom that’s hiding information from me. If you and your king want this union to work, if you want peace with Veridians, someone needs to start being honest with me.”
I was close enough now that, even in the darkness, I could see every inch of his face. His blue eyes were tight and guarded as they shifted between mine. A breeze came through and rustled our hair, my blonde locks mixing with his dark brown. My chest heaved from my outburst, and his lips parted as I glared up at him.
Just when I thought he wasn’t going to give in, he let out a sigh and took a step back.
“There’s something you should know, Empress.”
19
Thorne
Galen was going to kill me.
But he’d had the chance to tell her.Multiplechances. Yet he still refused. Even after I tried to convince him that she needed to know the truth, especially after she saw it firsthand today.
My mother would agree. She would think knowing the full story would convince Clarissa to not go through with this marriage.
Perhaps that was true, but that wasn’t why I was telling her. Nobody deserved to be in the dark when making decisions that would impact the rest of their life. Nobody deserved to have the truth concealed from them, as Clarissa pointed out. And it was becoming more and more difficult to respect Galen’s wishes to keep this from her.
If discovering the truth caused her to leave, then so be it.
Maybe then Galen would see the wisdom in stepping down, and we could do as my mother desired: put someone on the throne who would do right by the people.
