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We were running out of time.
If we didn’t find a way to break that oath soon, either Coen or almost everyone else on this island was going to die.
CHAPTER
3
COEN
“Otla basco.”
The traditional Sorronian language had never left my vocabulary, so it was easy enough to understand the queen’s words: “You’re late.”
I despised that simpering voice that made her veil flutter when she spoke, but there was nothing I could do besides bend a knee and stare at my rigid reflection in the polished throne room floor.
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty,” I responded in the Sorronian tongue.
A pause lingered in the air, but I didn’t elaborate. If she wanted an excuse or explanation, Queen Mydusia would have to pry it out of my cold, clenched jaw. I wouldn’t give her anything more than I absolutely had to.
“You may get up.”
Taking a quick breath, I rose to my full height. In reality, I probably stood two heads taller than her, but her throne of pure rose quartz sat on a raised dais that made her loom over even in her cross-legged position.
Still, I didn’t look up. I didn’t care if that goddamned veil usually hung low over her eyes—one strong gust of wind from the open stained-glass windows, one lift of the fabric, one moment of eye contact, and the queen would be able to suck my magic right out of me. Permanently.
Not a chance I was willing to take, so I kept my gaze trained on the dais beneath her feet.
Queen Mydusia gave a sudden, tiny cough, as if testing to see whether I’d break and look up at her.
I didn’t. Finally, she asked in her high-pitched tone, “Update?”
“I am still researching how to destroy Dyonisia Reeve’s magic so that I can infiltrate her fortress at the top of Bascite Mountain,” I answered automatically, using every ounce of my Mind Manipulating magic to wrap that little half-lie up nice and tight. Nobody knew how many powers the queen had stolen from her own citizens, exactly, but I’d wager at least one of them gave her some kind of telepathic advantage… and I couldn’t let her discover that I was researching a lot more than that.
Again, another pause stretched in the air.
Queen Mydusia leaned forward. From my periphery, I could see her head tilt. “Do you know why I gave you a year to complete this task, General Steeler?”
I scraped my sharpened canines against my tongue until I tasted blood. “Why, Your Majesty?”
“Because I am nothing if not generous.” A titter echoed throughout the throne room, rebounding in fading waves. “I know you won’t be able to conquer the world in one night. It takes time to plan out that sort of thing.”
My blood ran cold. Conquer the world? I’d always assumed her command to annihilate the island of Eshol would only be the first of many heinous tasks, but conquer the world?
Not for the first time, I wished that Rayna and I shared a bond like Barberro and Nara’s. I needed her voice, her presence, to stabilize me as the queen’s words and her meaning whittled into my bones.
“But now,” Queen Mydusia continued, leaning back in her throne again, “you’ve wasted half of your allotted time just researching instead of doing.”
Even if I wasn’t actively trying to find ways to break my oath, I would have scoffed at that—an implication that words and information didn’t hold just as much power as weapons and whole armies. Maybe I’d never been the most studious reader, but I knew the right book could change the tide of any war.
Queen Mydusia, obviously, didn’t think so.
“I don’t want you going to the library again after today, General Steeler,” she snapped, losing a bit of that schoolgirl façade. “Is that clear?”
The oath writhed on my back, its magical ink twisting like a lair of snakes as the command took hold of me, hooking onto the very fibers of my muscles. I wouldn’t be able to disobey this. After today, I would no longer be able to step foot in the royal library.
Which meant I had to find the right book before midnight.
Queen Mydusia reached up to finger the edge of her veil. “I asked if that’s clear, General Steeler.”
