I smirked. “Lord Rynthene’s ship will be in Port Maranock in two days. That means we need to figure out a way to escape by then.”
“It won’t be easy.” Kiva rocked onto the back legs of her chair. “We’ll have to leave at night, and we’ll need horses. If we’re lucky, we won’t be discovered until morning. But if Razel learns we’ve left before we reach the port…”
I nodded, not wanting to imagine what would happen. We didn’t have a choice.
We searched the quarters for the ingredients we would need to mix the acid. The healer might miss them, but she wouldn’t come accusing the Rhodairen princess. Kiva tucked them away in her pockets, and I climbed back into bed.
* * *
I slept all morning and into early afternoon. When I woke, joy washed over me like sea spray, prickling with frantic energy. It took me a moment to realize it was Res, the link between us strong enough that his emotions flowed almost seamlessly into me.
I’m okay. I sent reassuring waves along the cord, guilt twisting in my stomach. Had he felt my pain last night? My fear? From how frantic his energy was, it seemed so. But why hadn’t I sensed him when I woke last night? I eyed the murkwood vial on my bedside table. Had the drug numbed more than my pain?
When the healer changed the bandages on my hand, it took a good minute for me to convince myself to look.
The worst spots were swollen and blistered, the best merely an angry shade of red. The shape of the key was still discernable on my palm, and the skin was sensitive and stung all over, but I kept silent. Along my forearm, the old scars gleamed.
I stared at the burns, confused and a little unsettled. They’d healed considerably already. I wasn’t complaining, but what in the Saints’ name had happened? Maybe the fire hadn’t been as hot as I’d expected. Maybe I’d grabbed the key fast enough to prevent the worst. I turned my hand over, inspecting every inch.
If I didn’t know better, I would have said it looked like the work of a sun crow. But that was impossible. Still, I couldn’t shake the quiet voice that whispered this wasn’t normal. It was magic, magic I didn’t understand.
A servant had brought me a change of clothes, and once the healer finished applying new bandages, I changed, and she granted me leave without asking questions, despite her confused expression.
Kiva followed me out, and I sucked in a lungful of fresh air as we stepped outside. Mist clung to the air, obscuring some of the moving figures in the training grounds. We skirted the edge, ignoring curious gazes, and returned to our room.
Someone had done their best to rearrange it. It looked nearly spotless, as if nothing had happened. Only the whistle of wind through the cloth-patched window remained to mark the incident.
Exhausted from keeping vigil at my bedside, Kiva collapsed onto a couch and promptly started snoring. I could tell she was worried about Auma but trying hard not to show it, and we were both on edge. Tonight, we would break into the room I’d discovered. Tomorrow night, we would run for our lives.
A flash of color at the edge of my vision made me pause. A vase of bright-red roses sat on the dining table beside a small box with a note attached.
Tension crept into my neck as I crossed the room and opened the card.
Thia dear,
In case you’ve lost your other ones.
Razel
A hollow pit opened in my stomach as I pulled the lid off the box. I knew what was inside before I looked, but at the sight of the blue silk gloves nestled inside atop a bed of rose-colored paper, I had to repress a scream of fury. Seizing the box, I hurled it across the room, sending the gloves and fancy paper skittering across the floor. I turned, ready to strike the vase of flowers, and stopped.
I was angry because Razel had made me feel powerless, and that was exactly what she wanted. The bright-red flowers, the gloves, the way they’d been given as a present—it was all posturing, a power play meant to make me feel weak.
But I wasn’t weak.
Strength comes in many forms, Auma had said. She was right.
Strength was Caliza taking on the weight of a kingdom without a single complaint. Strength was Kiva’s willingness to give up everything she’d ever known to protect someone she loved. Strength was Caylus’s curious mind, Auma’s unwavering determination, and Ericen’s struggle to remain honorable in a kingdom that had forgotten the meaning.
Every day, they fought, and every day, they were strong. And I could do the same.
I’d worn gloves out of fear and shame, but I never should have. There had been nothing shameful about my pain, nothing I’d needed to hide or hide from. I’d been afraid to face what the pain had meant, that my life as I’d known it was over, that I had to choose a new path.
Kiva had done everything she could to help me see that, and I’d thought after everything, I’d finally understood. But I hadn’t shaken my past. I’d still let my fear control me. I had let fire send my heart racing and small setbacks crush my hope.
No more. I refused to let Razel control me, to let her make me feel powerless. I wasn’t powerless. I had survived Ronoch, and I had survived the loss and the depression thick as mud that came after it, and I would keep surviving them.
Don’t let her silence the storm inside you.
