I stare at Juniper’s weathered hand as it hovers between us.
Despite my resolve…despite the chill in my blood…I find myself challenging her to have an answer. “Where would you have me take the Oracle, Juniper? She’ll freeze to death in the palace.”
“No, Lord.” Juniper’s eyes brighten, even though her hand falls to her side. “We made a place for her.”
I’m wary. “Where?”
Juniper’s hopeful eyes rise to mine. “We constructed heating elements in the northern wing, where the vines grow. The vines your mother planted.”
“Those plants died.”
Juniper reaches for me again. “You should see them, Lord. They’re bright and green.Thriving.”
I don’t detect a lie in her speech, but I also don’t believe her.
Her smile fades the longer I don’t respond.
“Lord?”
I harden my expression. “I’ll consider it.”
Juniper waits another moment, a long silence as she searches my face. Maybe she’s looking for some hint of the boy I once was.
Her shoulders slump. She casts her gaze past me to the Rose Room and now she wears the same expression she wore on the day Thyra first rode through the palace gates.
Deeppity.
As Juniper hurries away, I remind myself I’m no better than my enemies.
No matter what Juniper believes.
I’m incapable of?—
Thyra’s faint humming floats to my ears. As soft as falling snowflakes. As sharp as knives.
Her singing cuts through my self-contempt as cleanly as a blade.
She has moved along the hallway and now I judge she’s outside my sister’s room. A room still filled with all the innocent beauty of my sister’s heart.
From far away, the chill breeze carries that quiet scream, the ever-fragile cry that haunts me.
For the first time in days, I force myself to remember what Thyra said to me after I collapsed in the Alak-Teah.
You’re all I’ve got.
I close my eyes, my shoulders hunching.
I’ve constructed a prison around Thyra and called it protection. I vowed to ensure she could hold her own in combat, only to use that as an excuse to keep her away from what she really needs.
I’ve deceived myself.
But opening this cage…
Will only bring Thyra more pain.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Antony
