Leigh,Father’s ghost admonishes,remember what I told you. Stay in control.
I take a deep breath, filling my lungs with the sweet scent of fresh flowers from the tall arrangement to my right. My father has supported me in my mother’s absence over the past weeks. He claims that helping me adjust to my new role is part of his unfinished business.
Janus shrugs. “Until you revise your proposals, I’ve heard enough.”
I rest the folder on my lap. I need her approval before proceeding with my proposed policy changes, but if she’s not willing to listen, I won’t submit.
“Travel safely, Madam President. I look forward to seeing you at tomorrow’s Council meeting,” I say, reaching for my still-hot tea.
Janus bows. “Your Majesties.”
As she exits, her back straight and confident, I accept that I underestimated her as an opponent.
My grandmother turns to me. “Leigh, for the sake of the realm, you and Janus must learn to get along.”
“Janus had no intention of hearing me out or agreeing to any of my changes unless they were trivial,” I seethe. She means to control me, just like my uncle did.
I refuse to stay quiet when I know something isn’t right in my heart.
“Excuse me,” I say tightly. “I have calls to make.” I stride out, a plan already forming. If Janus thinks she can outmaneuver me, she’s sorely mistaken. I’ll find a way to push my reforms through, with or without her approval. The future of Corona depends on it.
A flashof movement catches my eye, but it’s gone before I can focus. My racing heart slows as I scan the abandoned di Siena property grounds, snow crunching beneath my boots.
“Marlowe?” I whisper, my breath creating fleeting clouds.
Delicate snow flurries swirl in the ash-gray sky. I suppress a shiver. This better not be another dead end. It’s been three weeks since President Janus Dyer named me Borealis Blade Commander, and the replica of Dad’s old pin feels heavy on my jacket. The real pin vanished nearly fifteen weeks ago with my predecessor, Marlowe Wilkes. Now, fleeting sightings of Marlowe have led me to this desolate place where the scent of decaying leaves mingles with the snow.
The empty house looms like a gothic monolith perched on the cliff’s edge. Waves crash against the jagged rocks below as I scan the house’s vacant windows. It’s the ancestral home of Elio di Siena, our former president, who was recently exposed for killing vampires and harvesting their tears to create magic-enhancing drugs. Convicting him would have been my first move as Blade Commander, but I allowed the vampires to get to him first.
Marlowe is who I want, anyway. She was theoneperson I thought I could trust before she began manipulating me like a puppet on a string. Marlowe cheered me on to enter and win thetrials for promotion to Domna, the Blades’ second-in-command—Marlowe’ssecond-in-command. But she didn’t support me out of belief in my abilities. No, she and Chiron had their own agenda. Their encouragement disguised how they were using me as a pawn in Nyx’s vengeful schemes against the Council and all the Epsilon for their treatment of the Nebula. If I had emerged victorious as Domna, Marlowe would have exploited my position, using me to turn the Blades against the Council in a violent coup.
I wipe my hand down my face, scanning for any sign of movement, though I know I won’t see anything. My vision is blurry from exhaustion. I have a thousand other duties in addition to searching for Marlowe. But I need to find her; I need it to make sense. I just can’t reconcile the Marlowe I knew—the one who would leave casseroles in our fridge when our parents worked late shifts, who helped me with calculus homework, and listened to my sister Desi’s teenage drama—with the one who chose such violence. How can they be the same person? I need to look her in the eyes and understand why. Why did she abandon everything after preaching about making change through patience and persistence? Until I confront her—until I know the truth—I’ll never be free of this betrayal eating away at my core.
A car engine rumbles in the distance. Soter. My Domna, arriving late as usual. I melt into the shadows as he pulls up the long driveway, unaware of my presence. He steps out of the car, and the wind tousles his two-toned hair. I can’t help but notice what an easy target he’d make.
Adjusting my jacket, I creep toward him. With his back to me, Soter places a cigarette between his lips. He casually snaps one of his jewel-encrusted fingers, and a flame materializes. The rich scent of tobacco wafts through the crisp winter air.
“Bang,” I say, pressing my gun-shaped fingers against Soter’s shoulders.
He stiffens, preparing for the inevitable. But the shot never comes.
I laugh. “If I were Marlowe, you would be dead.”
Soter exhales with a shaky, sharp laugh. “I knew it was you, Wilder.”
I roll my eyes. Soter’s excuses are as predictable as the sunrise. “You’re late.”
Soter shrugs, inhaling the nicotine from his cigarette. “I got held up. Another fight broke out between a Nebula and an Epsilon in Asterhead.”
I clench my jaw. Damn. Is he serious? That’s the third fight this week, and it’s only Wednesday. With their entitled swagger, the Epsilon can’t handle that their pet Nebula aren’t submitting anymore. And the Nebula? Years of being treated like second-class citizens have left them craving payback. They’re done being nice. I’m running myself ragged, trying to maintain the peace, but for every fire I extinguish, two more flare up. There aren’t enough hours in the day to deal with this chaos. “What happened?”
Soter takes another long drag. “If you’re so concerned, maybe you should have been there, boss.”
I scowl at him. He didn’t use my title as an endearment. But I am determined to get along, so I swallow the insults on my tongue.
As students at the Blade Academy, we pushed each other through countless skirmishes and competitions, always striving to gain the upper hand. Soter even pursued my girlfriend, Isolde, behind my back. He flaunted his half-Epsilon status while I had none. However, competing in the Blade’s Domna Trials this autumn changed everything. Our masks crumbled, revealing that we are two sides of the same coin. Both of us were motivatedby a hunger for a promotion that would grant us the power to right the wrongs that haunt our pasts.
I see Soter now. His Epsilon father is a cruel tyrant, and his half-brother Keris, a Council member, has always looked down upon him for the crime of being born a Nebula. Keris has since come out as pro-Nebula since the revelation of the War Letters.
