Alekko had been such a person.
The first crack thundered around the courtyard. I jerked forward. Shocked murmurs trickled around me. I blocked them out and focused on the pain ricocheting up my back. It took several more lashes before the air I’d been holding whooshed from my lungs.
I balled my fists at my sides. As Felaf whipped at my back, I found myself transported back to my eight-year-old self. In my mind, no longer was it a whip that slashed open my skin, but a belt. A belt that was a distinctly faded, worn shade of brown.
“Stop this at once!” a voice demanded.
The roaring in my ears quieted as Felaf broke the rhythm of her steady cracks. It had been so long since I’d felt such true, raw pain. Previous lashings hadn’t lasted this long.
I deserve this, I reminded myself through the dizzying haze. The interfering voice had only been a figment of my childhood’s imagination, from a time when I wished anyone would have intervened?—
“I said,stop!”
My eyes shot open and bored into the bloody sand, uncertain I’d heard right. The courtyard had grown quiet enough for me to hear the pounding heartbeats of each spectator. To hear one in particular, beating so ferociously it drowned out everything else.
I glanced up, and there was Rahzlyn. Her dark, wild curls glowed as she stepped into the sunlight. She’d broken through a throng of guards with Alekko and Vesperah hot on her heels. Not to stop her, but to protect her.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I panted.
Her frantic gaze fixed on me as she walked closer. Her movements were labored and stiff. My own forearms trembled to keep hold of my upper body.
“I will not condone interference,” Maryn announced from her seat above. “Guards, seize?—”
“This is cruel and barbaric,” Rahzlyn shot back, turning to address the queen regent. She pointed behind herself, down at me. “His actions resulted in saving my life, and your response is to beat him to death?”
I couldn’t understand why she dared to intervene. Nor could I make sense of the distress coating her voice.
“Not death, but close enough. Do you wish to join him or take his place instead?”
“Queen Regent,” Gregorios implored at her side. “That is hardly appropriate?—”
“Iwill decide what’s appropriate,” Maryn hissed back at Gregorios. “Until she has any actual power,Iam the reigning sovereign, Chosen or not.”
“Keep going, Felaf,” I ground out.
I deserve this for being born, for that fateful day when I?—
“I don’t care what rule he broke. This isn’t right.” Rahzlyn faced us. “Please, end this, Felaf.”
I stared up at her in bewilderment.
“My word is what governs this place!” Maryn bellowed. “As future queen, you would do well to watch and learn. Disobedience will not be tolerated. In a time with such uncertainty, order is paramount. Lessons must be learned. Continue!”
Without a law that would find Maryn facing retribution for inflicting punishment on a Chosen, shewouldput Rahzlyn under the whip beside me. And Felaf would obey.
An unexpected wave of protectiveness took hold of me. I’d promised Rahzlyn harm would come to her if she deceived us, but that had been an empty threat meant to scare her. There were few people in this world I truly wanted dead. The apostai needed to be brought to justice, not executed or tortured on a whim. As much as I didn’t want to trust Rahzlyn, that included her.
“Keep. Going,” I growled at Felaf. Anger boiled in my blood. Maryn would stay true to her threat if Rahzlyn didn’t back down and stay out of this.
The warmth of Rahzlyn’s body neared as she positioned herself between Felaf and me. “I will not stand by and allow this kind of savagery to continue. If that means you wish to put me under this whip instead, then so be it.”
The courtyard erupted in gasps.
What the fuck did she think she was doing?
“Felaf!” Alekko bellowed in alarm. As though he, too, would not stand for any more of this. I was grateful when Vesperah clutched his arm.
Because only I deserved this.
