It’s the way of my people, Kori said, her empty palm outstretched. A prisoner’s promise, the last thing she had left to give.
My people are nothing like hers.Iam nothing like her. Somehow, even through her protective mask, I felt her eyes steady on me, blurry with tears. Hopeful.
What kind of girl seeks mercy in a monster? What sort of dayfolk leader walks willingly into the uncharted dark?
Thaane’s three-clawed foot scrapes idly at the ground. “It can’t be for nothing. She must have an angle, a play.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I say, the lie thick and slimy on my tongue.
I’m not afraid that Kori wants something from me. I’m afraid that this planet hasn’t only birthed monsters. I’m afraid that my bloody footsteps were my own design.
Was there truly no other way? Did I strike down my parents as a desperate act, to prevent an overcharged army from declaring war on the Daylands? Did I really break free of their toxic influence at that moment? Or have I become the perfect weapon they always wanted?
I feel cold all over.
“Come to the meeting,” Thaane says, arms crossed, all four wings folded back. “Discuss the ransom. Then you can sleep on all this and determine what she really wants.”
I nod stiffly. With one last jealous glance at my innocently sleeping dog, I follow Thaane into the corridor, back toward the Shadow Court’s seventh-floor meeting chamber. Together, we will decide the worth of the Daylands’ first daughter in weapons, resources, perhaps even soldiers. We will transmit a rogue message across the Passage.
And maybe, when I close my eyes, I’ll discern why she would offer me sunlight for no cost at all.
“There’s one other thing,” Thaane says, testing, “if you’re ready to hear it.”
“Readiness is overrated.”
“Upon your return to the fortress, I took the liberty of sending a telekinetic unit, led by General Isek, after the citizen who traded with the prisoner.”
General Isek. I can still see his son’s head twisting clean off, imprinted on the inside of my eyelids. Isek the younger’s killers are dead, yes, and by my hand, but it makes precious little difference when the child remains a corpse. Or at least, I would think so.
Without continued prying for details of his son’s demise, General Isek has simply stood by me since my overcharge, accepting my orders without question, leading soldiers into battle against Azarii, delivering rallying speeches to the wounded—and now, apparently, retrieving Kori’s trading partner with a telekinetic squad.
Does he know I could’ve stopped his son’s death? Does he know that by killing my own parents, I’ve avenged Isek the younger as best I knowhow? I don’t deserve his loyalty. But in such unstable times, I will gladly accept it.
Thaane continues recounting the capture of Kori’s trade partner. “Thankfully, she was neither a telekinetic herself nor blessed with wings. They caught up with her and held her fast.” He deliberately clears his throat. “She was questioned by a qualified interrogator, of course.”
I can’t help but raise an eyebrow, intrigued. “What did she tell them?”
“Her name is Lail, daughter of none. An orphan, long surviving on her own, but cared for by another. Her brother, Neo. An Elysian.”
I rack my brain, but the name means nothing to me. “Describe him.”
“A telekinetic prodigy with a shock of red hair. Judged to have immense aptitude, even in his youth, and offered early enrollment in your parents’ regiment. But he refused to take up arms,” Thaane says sourly, “even for his king and queen. Instead he fled to the Depths, converted into a cultist. The only person aboveground that he didn’t cut off entirely was his sister.”
I knit my eyebrows together in thought. “What value does this information hold?”
Thaane begins to pace back and forth, not looking at me. “Did you ever wonder how a nightfolk had a Morpheus sphere in the first place? Sure, she could’ve scavenged it off a corpse or an unfortunate passerby in the Passage, but how does a nightfolk, without a dayfolk memory implant, possibly transplant a recollection into a Morpheus sphere?”
I fight back a growl. “Get to the point.”
“During your charge into Depths, in which you took the throne”—Thaane deliberately doesn’t say,When you killed your parents, but my chest aches at the reminder nevertheless—“Neo’s stubborn nature led him to an even greater offense than abandoning us for Elysium. A sin that even his new family couldn’t tolerate.” Thaane huffs. “In the chaos of the battle, before you could possibly lock down access, he touched the Diakópsei. He overcharged himself, just like you.”
My throat constricts. “What happened to him? To his gifts?”
“He’s a telekinetic. The overcharge to his abilities was psychic, not physical like your energy blasts and vascular enhancement.” Thaane gestures to my hulking form. “And he was lost to himself almost immediately, overwhelmed with competing thoughts of the people around him.”
“Did Elysium know this had happened?”
“If they did, do you really believe they would have told you? They’re religious fanatics, Adria. They’ve never been our allies. And in the wake of your overcharge, they were terrified of you.”
