A hug.
“Are you kidding me? I can’t believe you made a shot like that! Sai’s fucking champion indeed.”
I’m not following, but I’m afraid if I admit that, I’ll make her angry somehow, so I just go along with it. “Well, Larus made sure I got a lot of practice—”
“Larus is going to beso proudwhen he gets back! It all could have fallen apart tonight. All our planning, everything we sacrificed. It all hinges on—”
She remembers her surroundings and pulls me to the foot of the bed in case someone is listening.
“—it hinges on Ronan dying at theexactright time. If they have time to gather their power behind a new king or queen, we’re fucked. It was so close.”
Itwasclose. And there’s a part of me that hates Adria for the gleeful way she talks about it. The way she talks about his death like it’s just a step in a process to her. Something fun, too, like baking a cake. Add eggs, flour, sugar, murder the king, and stir.
I can’t tell her how it made me feel to save him. I can’t tell her that although I did know that the timing had to be precise, I didn’t think of it tonight.
I can’t tell her about the war that’s raging inside of me.
She won’t understand.
When she asks what we talked about, I only tell her that he wanted to express his gratitude and see what I knew about Calliope. I don’t tell her about the fact that his powers are waning, or that even so, he can still feel what I feel. I don’t tell her that if we want to kill him, we need to change the plan to make sure she can do it because he’s unlikely to see her coming.
I don’t tell her because I don’t want her to do it.
And it makes me a traitor to my people. It makes me a traitor to my family. It makes me a traitor to the memory of my parents and everything they fought for.
I don’t tell her because if she knew, she’d kill me.
Adria waits for me before going to breakfast for the first time since we arrived. She’s in the best mood I’ve seen her in in a long time. As far as she knows, the plan is going exactly as she’d hoped, and today is the day she gets to humiliate Quinn.
I don’t know who I’d rather see win. I don’t think Quinn has suddenly changed her mind about Nithyrians, but I can’t help but appreciate what she did for me in getting me out of the dungeons. And I admire her loyalty to Ronan.
But Adria is finally being nice to me, and it’s hard to silence the part of me that relishes her approval in spite of everything.
Still, I don’t want to see her victorious. Or Quinn, for that matter.
Is there a way they can both lose?
Adria invites me to join her at the arena, but I tell her I’ve already promised Ronan that I’ll be joining him today. I didn’t find out when, though, and he’s not at breakfast for me to ask him.
Adria isthrilledto hear Ronan asked me to join him. “I’m sorry I ever doubted you,” she says. This…this might be the first apology I’ve ever gotten from her. “I hope you have thebesttime together.”
I feel a wave of nausea churning in the pit of my stomach. The first time I’ve ever had her respect, and it’s because she thinks I’m finally not fucking something up, when in reality…
I’m definitely fucking something up.
I head towards Ronan’s chambers to see when he’ll be heading to the arena, but I’m stopped by a servant.
“For you, miss,” they say, placing a slip of paper in my hand.
Meet me at the market.
- Soren
My heart starts pounding when I read his name. Soren.
Why would Ronan want to meet with me as Soren now that I know who he is?
Unless he’s found something out about Vesper.
