Father nods. “The scroll can only be destroyed with magic. I suspected this much after Admiral Ebele’s failure, but the girl confirmed it. With her in our grasp, we finally have everything we need. Once we retrieve the scroll, we’ll have her do the deed.”
My heartbeat pulses into my throat. I have to close my eyes to keep calm. “So she’ll live?”
“For now.” Father runs his finger over the X marking the div?ner valley. The red ink runs thick. Dripping like blood.
“Perhaps it’s for the best,” he sighs. “She killed Kaea. A quick death would be a gift.”
My body goes rigid.
I blink hard. Too hard.
“W-what?” I stammer. “She said that?”
I struggle to say more, but every word dries in my throat. Kaea’s hatred flashes back into my eyes. Maggot.
“She confessed to being at the temple.” Father speaks as if the answer was obvious. “That’s where they recovered Kaea’s body.”
He picks up a small turquoise crystal, stained with blood. My stomach twists as he holds it up to the light.
“What’s that?” I ask, though I already know the answer.
“Some kind of residue.” Father’s lips curl. “The maggot left these in Kaea’s hair.”
Father crushes the remnant of my magic until it crumbles into dust. As it breaks, the smell of iron and wine hits me.
The scent of Kaea’s soul.
“When you find your sister, end her.” Father speaks more to himself than to me. “There’s no shortage of people I would eradicate to keep you both safe, but I cannot forgive her for whatever role she played in Kaea’s demise.”
I grip the hilt of the sword and force a nod. I can almost feel the knife carving TRAITOR into my back.
“I’m sorry. I know—” She was your sun. “I know … how much she meant to you.”
Father twists his ring, lost in his emotions. “She didn’t want to go. She feared something like this would happen.”
“I think she feared disappointing you more than her own death.”
We all do. We always have.
No one more than me.
“What will you do with her?” I ask.
“With who?”
“Zélie.”
Father blinks at me.
He’s forgotten she has a name.
“The physician is tending to her now. We believe her brother has the scroll. Tomorrow we’ll use her as leverage to retrieve it. After it’s in our hands, she’ll destroy it for good.”
“And after that,” I press, “after it’s gone, what then?”
“She dies.” Father turns back to his map, charting a course. “We’ll parade her corpse around Or?sha, remind everyone what happens if they defy us. If there’s even a whiff of rebellion, we’ll wipe them all out. Then and there.”
“What if there’s another way?” I speak up. I glance at the cities on the map. “What if we could hear their complaints—use the girl as an ambassador? There are people … people she loves. We could use them to keep her in line. A maji we control.” Each word feels like a betrayal, but when Father doesn’t interrupt, I keep going. I don’t have a choice. I have to save her at all costs. “I’ve seen things on these travels, Father. I understand the div?ners now. If we can improve their situation, we’ll quell the possibility of rebellions altogether.”
“My father thought the same thing.”
I suck in a quick breath.
Father never speaks of his family.
The little I know about them comes from gossip and whispers around the palace.
“He thought we could end their oppression, build a better kingdom. I thought so, too, but then they killed him. Him and every other person I loved.” Father places a cold hand on my neck. “Believe me when I say there’s no other way. You saw what that Burner did to their camp.”
I nod, although I wish I hadn’t. There’s no fighting Father now that I’ve seen humans incinerated so fast they couldn’t even scream.
Father’s grip tightens. Almost to the point of pain. “Heed my word and learn this lesson now. Before it’s too late.”
Father steps forward and embraces me. A touch so foreign my body flinches in shock. The last time his arms were wrapped around me was when I was young. After I cut Amari.
A man who can cut his own sister is a man who can be a great king.
For a second I allowed myself to feel proud.
I was happy as my sister bled.
“I didn’t believe in you.” He pulls back. “I didn’t think you would succeed. But you’ve kept Or?sha safe. All of this will make you a great king.”
Unable to speak, I nod. Father turns back to his maps. He’s done with me now. With nothing more to say, I leave the room.
Feel, I command myself. Feel something. Father’s given me everything I’ve ever wanted. After all this time, he finally believes I will be a great king.
But when the door slams shut, my legs buckle. I slide to the ground.
With Zélie locked in chains, it doesn’t mean a thing.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
INAN
I WAIT TILL FATHER SLUMBERS.
Until the guards leave their post.
I sit in the shadows. Watching. The iron door moans when the physician exits her cell.
His face is blanched with strain, his clothes stained with her blood. The sight of him fortifies my desires.
Find her. Save her.
I zip across the floor and slide in my key. As the door groans open, I brace myself for the sight.
Nothing can prepare me.
Zélie hangs limp, her body nearly lifeless, her torn dress soaked through with blood. The sight rips a new hole inside of me.
And Father thinks the maji are the animals.
Shame and rage thrash within me as I select the right key. This isn’t about magic. For once it has to be about her.
I unlock the shackles binding her wrists and ankles, freeing Zélie from their hold. I catch her in my arms and cover her mouth. As she wakes, I muffle the sound of her screams.
Her pain ripples through me. Already the physician’s stitches are splitting. Her blood seeps out.
“I can’t feel it,” she whimpers against my skin. I adjust my arms to put pressure on the bandages around her back.
“You will,” I try to soothe her. What in skies’ name does she mean?
Her mind is a wall, running her torture on a constant loop.
There’s no ocean, no spirit. No scent of the sea. I can’t see beyond the anguish. She lives in the prison of her pain.
“Don’t do this.” Her nails claw into my shoulder as we ascend an empty stairwell. “I’m already bleeding out. Just leave me.”
The heat of her blood leaks through my fingers. I press harder against her back.
“We’ll find a Healer.”
Guards’ boots clank around the corner. I duck into an empty room as I wait for them to pass by. She cringes and fights back a scream. I press her even tighter to my chest.
When the corridor clears, I ascend another set of stairs. My heart pounds with every step.
“They’ll kill you,” she whispers as I run. “He’ll kill you.”
I steel myself against her words.
I can’t think about that now. All that matters is this. I need to get Zélie ou— The shouts ring first.
The heat comes next.
We crash to the ground as a blast from above shatters through the fortress wall.
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT