“Do you see any glow?” I asked through choked tears.
“What are you talking about?” Dax whispered, as if afraid he might push me further past the edge.
“The crown has symbols on its middle spire that light up when it accepts the heir.” I pointed my finger at the metal as if I wanted to slash it in two. Sacrilege, but I was in a sacrilegious state of mind. “Do. You. See. Any. Glow?”
Dax shook his head, caught somewhere between shocked and shattered. He even averted his gaze, staring down at the floor, as if he couldn’t look at me anymore.
I told myself it was because of the shock, nothing else–but I didn’t believe it.
The ugly, incredulous silence that followed left me feeling foolish.
Defeated.
I yanked the crown off my head, cheeks red and eyes stinging. Whatever pride I still had had paled in the wake of that deranged display.
“Maybe it would light up for Clara,” I said when Dax still didn’t react.
Despite everything, my thumb still caressed the metal, yearning for it to react. Give me a sign and make me feel like I wasn’t wrong.
A heinous, desperate little thought I knew I should have been better than. But I wasn’t.
I was raw and sad and angry and I still didn’t know how to make myself whole again.
“Make her your advisor, not your leader. She wasn’t made to rule.” His gaze slashed to mine, unflinching and wild. “Who else knows about this?”
“Me, Ryker, and now you,” I said hesitantly.
“That’s how we need to keep it.” He took a determined step toward me. “I know I’m selfish when I say this, but you can’t abandon us, Allie.”
I frowned, the sting at the corner of my eyes burning hotter. “What–”
“Don’t abandon the Protectorate. I don’t care what the crown says. I don’t care what lies Silas spreads. I don’t care how many Clans try to tear us apart,” he said with the conviction of a believer who’d just been proven his god was a lie. “I honestly don’t care if you believe it or not. You are the true Protectorate heir–and you cannot abandon us. We will crumble without you.”
Chapter 32
Allie
The leather gloves slipped on seamlessly as I marched toward the exit. The fortress was funerally silent, every soul already out in the cold to witness the largest army deployment in generations.
I’d lingered long enough for the excitement to die down. I didn’t want eyes on me.
Not today.
I wasn’t going to war as First Daughter of the Protectorate or future ruler of Solkar’s Reach.
I was simply another warrior marching toward the battlefield.
The massive doors opened as I neared them, the sun blasting through and instantly heating my face.
My face tightened.
Figures this unhinged crater would choose today of all days to bless us with a sunny, warm morning. Like it was glad so many of its people were marching toward death.
No matter how fiercely they fought, war always claimed warriors. Not all of them would return. The crater didn't care.
I blinked against the sun and rushed down the steps. When my eyes finally adjusted to the light, I saw none other than Dax,fully geared in a Solkar’s Reach uniform gods-knew where he’d pillaged from, a grin on his face.
“We talked about this,” I said instead of a greeting.
