The Invasion of the Tearling

“Done is done, Lady.”


This was worse; not only did Mace not approve, he didn’t even want to discuss it. Kelsea’s eyes watered, but she forced the tears back, furious. “I suppose you think I’m just like her.”

“You spend too much time dwelling on your mother, Lady. That’s always been a weakness of yours.”

“Of course it has!” Kelsea shouted, mindless of the guards nearby. “She overshadows everything I try to do here! I can’t make a move without being hampered by her mistakes!”

“Perhaps, Lady, but don’t deceive yourself. You make your own mistakes as well.”

“Is this about Thorne?”

His gaze slid away from hers, and Kelsea narrowed her eyes. “You cannot be serious.”

“Listen to me, Lady. Listen very carefully.” Mace’s face had paled, and Kelsea suddenly realized that the granite expression she had mistaken for resignation was actually anger, a deep, quiet anger that was somehow worse than the blustering rage she had seen from Mace once or twice before. “You have done many things that I would not have done. You are reckless. You do not consider all consequences, nor do you take advice from people who are more informed than you. And yet I have never condemned any of your actions, until now.”

“Why?” she hissed. “What makes Thorne so important?”

“It’s not Thorne!” Mace roared, and Kelsea shrank back. “Stop being a child for once! It’s you, Lady. You have changed.”

“This?” Kelsea ran a hand down her face and neck. “This is what concerns you?”

“I wouldn’t care if you transformed into the Beautiful Queen herself, but your new face is not the issue, Lady. You are different.”

“Less naive.”

“No. More brutal.”

Kelsea’s jaw clenched. “And what of that?”

“Think it over, Lady. There are worse things than becoming your mother.”

Kelsea’s temper snapped, and for several seconds, she hovered within inches of picking Mace up and heaving him over the wall. She could do it, she knew…. Thorne’s execution had awakened something inside her, some creature that stalked through her daily life, looking for any excuse to spring. This creature was predatory, implacable, and it did not want to go back to sleep.

Mace stepped forward, reaching out to take her shoulder. Mace never touched her unless there was a security issue, and Kelsea was so surprised that she stilled immediately, feeling her anger retreat.

“Take your jewels off, Lady,” Mace pleaded. “Let them go. For all the good they’ve done, it’s not worth what’s happening to you. I’ll hide them away. No one will ever find them. Build your throne, your legacy, on something else.”

For a moment, Kelsea wondered whether he was right, whether the jewels were the real problem. The dreams, the voices, Lily’s inexorable invasion … some part of Kelsea’s own life seemed to have gotten lost en route. The way her guards eyed her now, when they thought she wasn’t looking: tentative, suspicious, sometimes even fearful. The feeling of helplessness when she looked in the mirror and found Lily’s face staring back at her. Everything had gone bad somehow, and Kelsea wasn’t even sure when it had happened.

But the sapphires … what Mace asked was impossible. It didn’t even matter that the sapphires did nothing anymore, that they seemed to be lifeless. They were hers, and now Kelsea found herself staring a hard truth in the face: she had her own narcotics. They merely took a different form.

“No,” she finally replied. “You can’t ask me for that.”

She felt his eyes on her, their weight nearly physical.

“Are we going to have a problem, Lazarus?”

“I suppose that depends on you, Lady. I’m a Queen’s Guard. I’m sworn.”

A throat cleared behind Kelsea, and she whirled, furious that anyone dared to interrupt. But it was only Coryn, standing at the top of the steps.

“We’ll continue this at a later time,” she told Mace.