“Ugh,” I grumbled, rubbing my temples. A headachebloomed. What was I supposed to do? Become someone I wasn’t?
The reflection of my movement caught my attention. I looked at myself in the mirror—really looked for the first time in a long time.
The female who’d hidden in the lake country and run at the slightest whisper of the royal hunters had vanished like morning mist. A maelstrom raged behind icy eyes—a look that promised doom and destruction to those who faced her wrath.
I was mated to the Issaraeth. I lived in Thalvireth Palace. I sat atop a crystal chair and pretended to See.
For so long, I’d been following the choreography of others, half a step behind, while a tempest brewed inside me.
It was time I changed the melody. Started leading the dance. Took the realm by storm.
Snatched power and drove it deep enough to crack the gilded exterior of this fucking palace.
I could figure out how to do so without further violence—without staining my own hands ruby.
That price I’d pay for peace? It would be nothing if I used my wits and my position and wielded them like the weapon the crown wanted me to be.
Resolve hardened, I met Heraphia’s gaze. “We’re going to end this.”
We weren’t younglings any longer, dreaming of a different world. No, we were plotting the fall of the crown.
Her brows lifted, hope flitting through her expression. “Do you mean it?”
“Yes.” I stepped closer, clasping her forearms. “But no killing. I’ll need your Sight. And not a word about this to anyone. I need to speak with Vaeron. He told me last night that after his conversation with his sister, everything became clear to him. I need to figure outexactly what that means.”
“I’ll do anything,” she swore, holding my gaze with steady, sinister conviction.
My stomach plummeted.
What has she already done?
I’d heard that tone before, from many who had already accepted death as the outcome.
She would not die. Neither would I. And Vaeron would live through his trial by light. There was no way the Goddess would let him die, not after she’d appeared to me and told me we were change.
“Good. When we go back to the chairs today, focus your attention on the Koron and Korona. I need to know what they’re thinking, what they’re planning on doing,” I told her. Yet mixing with determination was a significant measure of dread. “Did you hear what Vaeron has to do?”
Heraphia nodded. “I did. Herr Elyriane is a fool for thinking he can take on the Issaraeth.”
“He has to throw it,” I murmured, throat thickening as air refused to glide in and out of my lungs. “Otherwise, he forfeits me.”
My friend’s eyes went wide. “No…”
Hot salt pricked the back of my nose, and I sniffed, hard, to dispel it. “So we must gather as much information as quickly as we can.”
“It is done.” Heraphia pulled me in for a quick embrace, her familiar citrus scent curling around me like home. “Thank you, Sylaira.”
“We’ve been through everything together,” I told her as we broke apart, giving her shoulders a squeeze. “Why not this too?”
My best friend grinned. I mirrored her expression. But my smile was hollow.
Yet as we entered the Divine Atrium, perched on our crystalstages and performed our duties to the realm, the walls closed in around from all sides, squeezing and merciless. Silver bars caged me in, forged from expectation and existential threats.
The price of peace would be steep.
And I couldn’t decide if it would cost me my soul, my friend’s, or the lives of everyone I loved.
50
