I pursed my lips. “Not exactly the encouragement I expected.”
She dropped her chin and gave me a look. “Since when have you ever shied away from a challenge?”
Toying with my bottom lip, I ran a finger along the inside edge of my desk. It was my father’s when he and Mother ruled this empire. I didn’t have any memories of those days. My twin brother, Leo, and I were too young, barely toddlers when our father, Branock Aris, abdicated his throne and sequestered our family away to a lone cottage in the woods of Veridia City—the only home I’d ever known.
I knew next to nothing about what he was like as an emperor,besides what he and my mother used to talk about. Was he as firm and just of a ruler as he was a father? Did he love his people the way he’d loved Leo and me? Did he fight to protect them at every step, or did he let them make their own mistakes?
One thing I knew for certain was that he wouldn’t have let his council walk all over him. Branock Aris had a steady hand. Brash at times, but unflinching. Unshakeable. Strong.
Strength came in many forms. If I had learned anything in the sixteen years since he died, it was that.
Mother crossed to my side, kneeling before me and taking my hands in hers. “You have done such wonderful things in such a short amount of time, Clarissa. Hold your chin high. Don’t let the words of men who are threatened by the power of a woman make you think you are anything less than the rightful empress of this empire.”
Swallowing, I nodded and squeezed her hands. Fates, I didn’t know what I would’ve done without her by my side this whole time. I was thankful every single day she came out of her illness to be with us once more.
The Veridian Empire certainly looked different today than it did eight months ago when Theodore Gayl died. My predecessor spent his two decades on the throne bolstering those with a greater magic in the six provinces that made up our empire. He made everyone feel isolated by banning travel across each individual border, and he praised violence in his citizens. I’d never forget finding the families from Emberfell, the northernmost province, who moved to the capital of Veridia City to get away from dangers at their border.
They came here for safety and were met with brutality. The image of their ransacked cottage and blood-stained walls often appeared when I closed my eyes, and the smell of decay and fear still lingered in the air, more potent with my Shifter instincts.
I couldn’t count the number of times I’d come across Gayl’s Royal Guard in a back alleyway beating some poor Lightbender or Alchemist to a pulp. The attacks that my rebellion, the Sentinels,had stopped, the people they’d saved, the bones they’d broken in an effort to keep peace on the streets of Veridia City were an endless ledger.
But that was the past. We’d put those dark days behind us and forged a new path. One of hope and safety andfreedom. One where my people didn’t have to face fear when crossing their borders, one where they could openly explore this world and the rights they’d been given.
It seemed, however, this was not the future everyone envisioned. Those still loyal to Gayl, for example, thought my ideas were too weak. That I was carving the way for foreign threats to swoop in and stake their claim among a people too defenseless and unprotected.
They were idiots.
But they were idiots onmycouncil, and I had to appease them to keep my life running somewhat smoothly. At least until my year-long provisional period was up in four months and I could kick them out of the palace for pissing me off.
A knock on the door made both of us look up. My mother used the edge of the desk to help herself stand, and when I offered my hand, she shooed me away.
“Come in,” I called.
The heavy door swung open. On the other side was Larken Everest, my closest friend and advisor. Her dark features soured as she wheeled herself through in her wheelchair, scowling at me before I even had the chance to speak.
“I happened to notice there aren’t any guards outside your door, Rissa,” she said.
“Your powers of perception are amazing.”
“It’s not funny. Why do you keep sending them away? They’re for yourprotection.”
“I didn’t needprotectionin the five years I was your Sentinel leader, and I don’t plan to start needing it now.”
Lark crossed her arms over her full chest and rested her elbows on the arms of the wheelchair. “That would be far morebelievable if you hadn’t almost been assassinated two weeks ago.”
I brushed off her words. “That was a misunderstanding.”
“Yes, I’m sure Imisunderstoodthe dagger in your pillow.”
My mother let out a sigh as Lark continued to glare at me. “Clarissa, Lark is right,” Mother said. “Times have changed. You have people whose responsibility is to protect and guard you. Let them do their job soyoucan do yours.”
I knew this wasn’t a fight I could win, not with the two of them teamed up against me. We’d been having the same argument for weeks, ever since the messenger from Drakorum found his way into my bedchambers and tried to put a knife through my skull. He left with a few less fingers.
There had been almost no complaints from any of the six provinces about my rise to power,exceptDrakorum. The mountainous province to the east was home to the Shifters—magic-wielders who could shift at will into their given animal form. They were the most volatile of the magic types, ruled by their temperamental emotions and primal instincts.
I should know. I was one of them.
My mother’s ancestors lived in Drakorum until generations ago when they moved to the capital of Veridia City. That was where she met my father, the heir to the empire and an Alchemist with roots in the Feywood province. My brother inherited his Alchemist blood, whereas I took after my mother.
