I allowed them. They would not kill me. They would bring me faster to the person I must see. He stood where I’d left him, at the doorway to his balcony. Only this time he was dressed in his finest kaftan, his red sash tied diagonally from shoulder to waist, his saber hanging at his side, his ceremonial crown upon his brow. If he were to go down, he wouldn’t go down like a beggar. He would show his power until the very end.
With his hands clasped behind his back, Valko stared at the rampant battle below, watching from a safe distance where no musket could aim true. His only acknowledgment of my arrival was a slight turn of his head as the guards ushered me into the room and his nod for them to depart.
I exhaled and approached him, reaching for his aura like the tentacles of a sea monster closing in on her prey. My fingertips tingled, my brow spasmed as I strove to cast my awareness wide enough to sense Valko, but not the raging throngs of people outside.
“Tell me what I’m feeling,” he said when I was three feet behind him.
I halted. What game was he playing at now? “Pride,” I began tentatively, “in your entitled position as emperor.” His energy puffed out my chest. “Anger at those who question your supremacy.” I balled my fists. “Betrayal from those you had trusted.” My rib cage compressed against my heart.
He turned to face me. “Is that all? A common child could divine those things.”
I came nearer, close enough to touch him if I wanted. My legs trembled as I remembered all the times he had hurt me, how readily he’d executed Pia, how unflinchingly he planned to kill his own brother. Despite that, I had to find empathy for him. A pure connection between us was necessary if I hoped to overpower his aura. I had to bind myself to him no matter how vicious he became.
“Your chest constricts as you fight for air,” I continued, and drew in a sharp breath. “Tension pulls your shoulder blades together.” Pain knotted my back as I stood before him. “Deep within you, the very fibers of your body seem to be shrinking, losing their place to hold you together.” The domed ceiling stretched to a towering height above me and made me feel small and alone. “The hateful curses of the peasants burn in your ears.” I winced at their cries, then clutched my stomach. “A terrible hollowness is overcoming you, like your insides have been gutted and laid bare. Pressure closes around you from all sides. It makes your head ache and your muscles cramp for space. It’s as though everyone is gathering to demand more greatness of you, yet greatness is all you’ve ever labored to deliver, and now you feel you have nothing more to give.”
Valko’s jaw muscle quavered, and his brows hitched together. His armor chipped away, and the pitiful boy in him emerged.
“The truth is you’ve always had room within you to be wonderful,” I said, offering an affectionate smile for the man he could have become. “Your capability for warmth and tenderness. Your determined mind, fit to help so many people.” I shook my head in mourning. My chest fell as the flickering hope of that version of Valko vanished, eclipsed by the blackening reality of who he truly was. “Instead, you’ve chosen to destroy others in the quest to conceal your insecurities, to put the changeling prince you’re identified with once and forever to rest—as surely as your father attempted when he ordered an innocent boy to be murdered in your place.”
Valko’s eyes flashed with indignation. His aura mounted to unleash his full wrath.
“Your heart is shriveling,” I continued before he had the chance to speak. I grafted onto his anger. Attaining true understanding demanded I share the beast in him, as well. What was more, I had to become beastly. “You slaughter innocent people like they’re dispensable pawns at your chessboard.” My pulse hammered at my boldness. Fear seeped through my pores. I knew how much I was provoking him, but to abandon all restraint, I couldn’t hold back the worst of his traits—the worst of me.
“You care more for prestige and the possession of your throne than the lives of the hundreds of thousands of your people.” My voice rose in volume as I flung the truth at him, every word more spiteful, more impassioned with his escalating rage. “You rip young sons from their mothers, forgetting how you were torn from yours. And when you do remember, you are glad.” My mouth curled with a savage smile. “They will know your pain, you tell yourself, and they will die as soldiers for Riaznin feeling it.”
I rolled back my shoulders. Valko’s haughty self-importance flooded the length of me. “You mean to spread your reign far and wide upon this land until it scales the mountains of Estengarde and crosses the forests of Shengli, until the world is under your heel and you can grind it to dust. Then the people will believe you are great. They will lift their faces from the muck of the earth and worship you.”
Valko’s lips pressed in a thin line. His eyes went from flint to fire. A thousand dark emotions teemed in a seething undercurrent beneath his faltering mask of indifference. “Is that all, Sovereign Auraseer?” he asked.