“Em and I will have the same powers. If that means you remove more powers from the monarchy, then that’s what you’ll have to do.” He looked at her. “If that’s all right with Em.”
She squeezed his hand in return. “That sounds fair to me.” She turned her gaze to the others at the table, narrowing her eyes. “If you don’t agree, just remember that if I don’t marry Cas, I still remain queen of the Ruined. And I could also run to be a representative of the Ruined in the Lera government. If I did both, some might say I had more power than the king.”
Aren ducked his head into his chest, obviously trying not to laugh.
“Are you threatening us?” Danna asked tightly.
“I was merely stating a fact,” Em said.
“It’s scarier than that when she threatens you,” Mariana said. “You’ll know when it happens.”
Danna looked openmouthed from Julieta to Galo, like she was trying to figure out if Mariana was serious.
“Listen,” Cas said, his tone almost amused. “We’re done comparing. We’ve all done horrible things. Em’s not threatening you; she’s simply pointing out the fact that she is a powerful queen who commands the loyalty of her people and strikes fear into the heart of her enemies. No one like that has ever married a member of the Lera royal family. The rules have to change for her. You can either accept this marriage, or you can run in fear from her like everyone else. It’s your choice.”
FORTY-ONE
OLIVIA STARED AT the spot where two Ruined had been sleeping. They’d left behind the smoking remains of a fire and nothing else—the blankets she’d seen them snuggled into last night were gone.
She blinked and got to her feet. She was still half asleep, and it took a moment for the world to take shape around her.
No horses, no supplies, no food.
No Ruined. They were all gone.
She turned in a circle, her heart pounding in her chest. She found Jovita, bound to a tree, her hair wild and her eyes unfocused.
“They left,” a voice said.
Olivia turned to see Ester ducking under a branch, Carmen and Priscila behind her, bags slung over their shoulders.
“What do you mean, they left?” Olivia barked.
“They were scared you’d hurt them if they told you,” Ester said. “We decided to do you the courtesy of saying good-bye.”
“Good-bye?” Olivia repeated.
“We’re going back to Ruina. There’s no point to . . . this.” She gestured at Jovita when she said it. Ester had done a good job cracking open Jovita’s mind. Just last night she’d spilled all the secrets of the royal family, including the various affairs of her aunt, the queen. They hadn’t gotten anything useful yet, but it was only a matter of time.
“You’re just giving up?” Olivia asked, stunned. First the Ruined followed her useless sister to the Lera castle, of all places, and now the few smart Ruined who’d remained by her side were deserting her. She pointed in the direction of the army they’d been following for days. “They’re preparing for an attack! It won’t be long now.”
“If we go back to Ruina now, we can claim it as ours,” Ester said. “If Emelina claims it, that means Lera has it as well. It should stay in Ruined hands.”
“Of course it should,” Olivia said. “But we can have Lera as well. Then Vallos and Olso after that. We’ll take all four kingdoms back. It was the humans who stole them from us.” She pointed to the east. “The Vallos and Olso armies are right there.”
Ester shook her head. “I’m sorry, Olivia. I want that too, but it won’t happen. There are too few of us to take Lera. Our best course of action is to go back to Ruina and start rebuilding. Maybe in a few generations, after we’ve built up our numbers, we can try again.”
“A few generations?” Olivia gaped at her. She’d be dead. She’d be remembered as nothing but a disgraced queen who was captured, then defeated by her useless sister. The Flores family probably wouldn’t even rule in a few generations, if Olivia failed.
“You can come with us, if you want,” Ester said, throwing a bag over her shoulder. She wrinkled her nose at Jovita. “You can’t bring her, though. Just put her out of her misery already.”
Jovita made no indication that she’d heard Ester talking about killing her. She blinked once, very slowly, then sighed.
Ester started walking, and Priscila and Carmen fell into step behind her. They hadn’t waited for Olivia’s answer.
“You’re just going to let them get away with this?” Olivia yelled at their backs. “Casimir will continue to rule and you don’t even care?”
They didn’t turn around. They kept walking until they were out of sight.
Olivia swallowed back tears. It was quiet suddenly. Too quiet. She hadn’t been alone since . . . since before she was captured. And even then, she was usually around her mother. Or Em.
Fresh anger rolled through her body. She let a scream loose. She didn’t care if the coward Ruined heard it.
She’d failed. Olivia, like her mother, had failed to conquer Lera. She had to admit that.
But she could still make Em pay for what she’d done.
Olivia turned to look at Jovita. She took in a breath to steady herself. Jovita didn’t respond well to anger. Not anymore. Not in the past few days, when Ester had really destroyed her.
Olivia walked to Jovita and sat down across from her. “Hey,” she said gently. “It’s time to wake up.”
Jovita opened one eye. “Wake up,” she repeated. She whispered it twice more.
“Yes. Time to wake up.”
Jovita thought about this for a moment. Then she looked at Olivia like she’d just noticed her sitting there. She rounded her shoulders and shrank back, like she was scared.
Olivia grabbed her canteen. “Do you want some water? Here, I’ll even untie you.”
She reached around Jovita and pulled the ropes loose until she could free her hands. Jovita greedily grabbed the canteen and drank, tipping it back until she got every last drop.
Olivia handed the last of her dried meat to Jovita, who immediately tore off a piece with her teeth.
“I’m going to be honest with you,” Olivia said. “Things aren’t going so well for me right now.”
Jovita snorted. She may have lost her mind, but she hadn’t lost her hatred of Olivia.
Olivia gestured around her. “As you can see, everyone has left. I won’t be taking over Lera. But there is one thing I can do.”
Jovita gnawed on her meat and stared at a point beyond Olivia’s head.
“I can sneak into the castle and kill Em. And Cas, if you’d like.”
Jovita’s eyes snapped to hers, but she said nothing.
“How did you get out of the castle, the night the warriors attacked?”
“I’m not telling you that.”
Olivia raised her eyebrows. It seemed Jovita hadn’t completely lost her mind after all.
“Why not?” Olivia asked. “If I get in, I’ll kill Casimir. Isn’t that what you want?”
“They’ll kill you,” Jovita said. “There are too many guards. Even you won’t make it out alive.”
That, unfortunately, was true. With Jovita’s help, Olivia could get in, and she could probably kill a lot of people, including Em’s beloved Cas, but she’d never make it out. Even if she managed to kill everyone in the castle, she’d be so weak she’d barely be able to walk. Guards would get her before she made it over the castle walls.
But it was the only plan that didn’t make her want to rip her hair out. She wouldn’t join Em in protecting the people who had killed their mother and father. She wouldn’t sulk back to Ruina to be queen of nothing. Killing Em would make her immortal. The Ruined would always talk about it, how she fought until the very end, all alone, and defeated the greatest Ruined traitor they’d ever known.
“You know how powerful I am,” Olivia said to Jovita. “You don’t think I can kill Casimir? I can kill everyone in that castle.”
Jovita stared at her as she chewed. She blinked several times, like she was seeing something that wasn’t there. It was an aftereffect of a Ruined controlling the mind, especially when the control had gone too far. Jovita would likely see things that weren’t there for the rest of her life.
“Not everyone,” Jovita finally conceded. “I need some guards. And some soldiers.”