I’m stunned at how much emotion my sister’s showing.
Dangerous to show it when the Constellation guards who were ‘training’ nearby are now watching us closely. More spies.
I add my arms to Thyra’s, intended to be a consoling gesture until I realize that between us, we’re holding Cassia upright.
The buckling of Cassia’s legs is even more alarming to me than her openly shed tears. “Cassia, what the fuck did Rohan say to you?”
“Mother’s celebration tonight.” Cassia’s eyes are hollow as she turns them up to me, her breathing shallow, rapid, and near-panicked. “Rohan will be her entertainment.”
My jaw clenches so hard my teeth clack. “Fuck.”
The last time Galla made someone herentertainment, she forced more blood onto my hands.
This is what I feared, and it can only be the first of Galla’s many planned strikes tonight.
“She’ll make you do it,” Cassia says. “You won’t have a choice, brother. She’ll withhold her starlight. She’ll let the darkness come. Just like she did last time.”
Thyra takes urgent glances between us, her question hushed. “What’s going on?”
My response is as hollow as Cassia’s eyes. “Galla will make me fight Rohan,” I say. “She’ll make me kill him.”
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Thyra
This is my fault.
I’m frozen in shock, barely able to breathe.
I thought to save Rohan, but the seed I planted in Galla’s mind must have burrowed too deep.
Or… she’s seen her chance to force Antony into one-on-one combat, ensuring he has to undo the ruby circlet, allowing me to be separated from him.
Cassia’s pleading breaks my heart. “Brother…Please…”
“Rohan is strong enough to challenge me,” Antony says, his words blunt. “But he won’t win. Only Stellen and Maxim could have a chance against me.”
The awful constriction in my throat is so tight I can barely speak. “There has to be a way to stop this.”
The cold savagery in Antony’s eyes only grows more intense as one of his arms finds my back, slipping around me.
“If I knew how to defy Galla Vividari,” he says, “I would have done it years ago.”
A scream builds within my throat.
Damn this curse!
Frustration and fear…monstrous and overwhelming fear…grow within me.
If only I could tear the Dragonstone Blade out of my body, smash it, and end all of this pain.
I reach for my power, desperately hoping for that calming flutter, a vision that will show me a way forward for Cassia, to prevent the harm to Rohan, even if it’s a narrow path. Even if it’s a nearly impossible path?—
Antony’s hand brushes the back of my neck, a sudden, urgent movement, his murmur low and urgent. “Maybe there is something.”
His next words are for Cassia, his cold gaze seeming to pin her to the spot. “If I give you a command, will you obey me without question?”
Her weight lifts a little, as if she’s finding her feet, the sliver of hope she must be feeling giving her strength. “What is it?”
