Chapter 35
Chapter
Thirty-Five
EVIE
“ T his is ridiculous.” Adara twisted Petrylla’s greeting card between her fingers, sneering at the golden parchment, perfectly inscribed with Petrylla and Loryn’s signatures, as was apparently fashionable among the richest of the city. “Such a waste of resources when we’re in a war.”
“Yes, yes, it’s nauseating.” I tugged the card from her and passed it to Leesa. “Study it, every curve and dot. We never know when it might come in handy.”
Leesa nodded, pocketing the piece of parchment as we neared the gates to Phoenix Peak. “We still have to visit the garment district.”
“If Petrylla plays along and tells her dear husband about the shipment, we will,” I said. “She asked for more smelling salts, by the way. Said they reminded her of the ocean breeze.”
“She lives in one of the biggest ports in Malhaven.” Adara rolled her eyes. “I’m going to cheer the Sages’ downfall.”
Soon. If this all worked, we would all rejoice.
We stopped in front of the gates, Leesa puffing up her chest. “Her Highness demands entry into Phoenix Peak.”
“We’ll be waiting a long time,” Adara muttered.
We’d known this was a risk as soon as we’d left Phoenix Peak in the morning, cart filled with crates and jars. The guards had rushed to open the gates as soon as they saw my armor–it seemed I’d scared them into finally doing their duty.
Using the crevice in the wall wasn’t an option. I’d known I’d attract attention today and I didn’t want the advisors wondering how I managed to leave and enter Phoenix Peak.
Leesa cleared her throat. “Her Highness–”
The vast gates creaked open, groaning like twin giants. Instead of the dozen of terrified guards I’d left at their posts, I was greeted by a friendly face.
“Your Highness.” Nylen smiled our way and bowed, the rest of the guards gathered to the side.
I mirrored his smile. Apart from Owyn, he was the only guard who hadn’t openly scowled my way. “We thought the sun might get us before the gates opened.”
“Not while I’m here. I made an oath to protect Phoenix Peak and the royal family.”
Adara sighed in annoyance, but mercifully stood quiet.
“How’s Loryk?” I asked, drawing near.
After an entire day of a crowd staring at me with distrust and Petrylla trying to cozy up to my title, it was refreshing to talk to someone who looked at me like a normal person.
“He’s…confused,” he said and added a small bow. “But I have faith he will come around. He’s all alone in the world now and needs guidance to understand what the right path truly is.”
Adara had reached the point of huffing impatiently.
“Your Highness,” Nylen whispered urgently, not rising from the bow. “I heard what you’ve done for the civilians. They are grateful, even if they don’t say it, trust me.”
“I’d settle for them not looking at me like I’ll incinerate them where they stand.” I knew leading was a thankless job and I didn’t expect gratitude for performing my duty, I just wished it was easier to bear. “Please stand, I’d rather talk to your face than your neck.”
“Ah.” Nylen tsked and rose with a grin that made his entire face light up. With the sun shining behind him, the curls which had once again escaped his helmet made him look like a lion. He was almost handsome in this light. “You’re looking for positive emotions from the Blood Brotherhood? Madness.”
I laughed despite myself. It felt good. No painful memories, no emotional outbursts, no suffocating tension.
Easy.
Maybe too easy.
“Careful, Nylen.” I glanced at the waiting guards. “Talk like that is dangerous for a guard.”
He shrugged. “I’m still my own person with my own thoughts.”
“Dangerous habit, that.”
“Owyn is, too.” His voice lowered to a whimper. “I’m glad you saved him and he’s safe now. As safe as anyone can be in Phoenix Peak.”
“That’s why we have the guards, right?”
“Precisely. I know what my companions can do. Stay safe, Your Highness. Your loss would impact us greatly.”
“You, too. Good deeds tend to be punished around here.” I gave him a grave nod as I walked away. “Thanks for opening the gate.”
He tilted his head to the side and grinned wider as a farewell.
Adara muttered a, “Finally” as I joined her and Leesa through the labyrinth of paths. She kept looking at me from the corner of her eyes, lips twisted in a grimace.
“What?” I asked, voice too high to sound casual.
Adara shook her head. “You’re looking for trouble.”
“Trouble tends to find me.”
“You can not smile its way when it does, at least.”
“Jealous?”
“It’s not me you need to worry about.”
“Honestly, Adara, he–”
The words died in the back of my throat as Kaya suddenly appeared from behind a rose bush.
Trouble did tend to find me.
“Evie,” she said breathlessly. Gods above, she’d lost even more weight, the clothes clinging to her bare bones. From behind, her guard Vexa sent her usual scowl my way, but it was even meaner this time. “I heard you left today–”
“News travels fast,” I said evenly, even as a storm began to brew inside of me. I tried to have compassion, I did. It was obvious Kaya was going through something , and, despite everything, I didn’t wish her harm.
But she hadn’t had enough compassion for me before the wedding, had she? All that pain from her and his betrayal barreled back into me.
I forced myself to move out of my shock.
“Wait,” she called, hurrying after me.
I only slowed down out of fear she’d trip on her ridiculous shoes; she could have actually shattered if she’d hit the pavement. “Kaya, please–”
“I need to apologize–”
I closed my eyes, taking deep breath after deep breath. I tried to ignore the desperation in her voice. “Don’t.”
“But–”
“Kaya!” I whirled around, teeth bared. “Please, don’t. I can’t, not right now.”
She deflated, looking so grief-stricken, it almost pained me. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
“But it did.”
Vexa’s glower turned more hateful. Adara stepped next to me, squaring her shoulders, while Leesa stood to the side, silent and tense.
“But I didn’t mean to,” Kaya whined.
“It doesn’t matter,” I hissed. “Did you avoid telling me the truth out of some misplaced mistrust in my Clan?”
Beside me, Adara fidgeted.
“N-no,” Kaya mumbled.
“Did you tell yourself you were doing it to protect me?”
“I–I don’t know.”
“Then why ?”
Why, why, why? No matter which way I looked at the issue, there was no scenario in which Kaya looked even remotely well-meaning.
She gulped. “I had to.”
Some of the fight left me. “If you knew what was going to happen, why did you pretend to be my friend?”
“I was your friend,” she argued, voice finally finding some vigor. “I didn’t pretend.”
“Friends don’t backstab each other,” I said sadly.
Friends definitely didn’t steal what was yours. This went beyond the prince, that lying bastard.
As the favorite, Kaya would become queen.
She now had the right to the crown and the throne.
If I survived the war and the advisors’ schemes, I would have nothing .
I would fade away into insignificance. Become a mere footnote in the books written about her marriage to the famed Dragon, even as I risked my life and wracked my brain to help their people.
And she was standing here, trying to apologize for taking my future, and I couldn’t handle it. Not when I had the weight of her Clan’s survival on my shoulders while she wasted away in that house of hers.
Hiding.
I was doing her job and she would reap the benefits.
It infuriated me.
“I didn’t backstab you,” she said and I saw red.
Meaningless apologies, I could take. A part of me even respected her a tiny bit more for having the guts to face me, the woman she’d betrayed, even after weeks of not bothering to even check if I was still alive.
But trying to deny what she’d done…that, I could not stand.
I hadn’t imagined the betrayal and I definitely didn’t imagine the pain that came from it.
“Then what exactly did you do, Kaya?” I asked with a deadly calm.
Adara’s eyes slashed to me, sensing the danger.
“I–I just went along with it. I thought it was the best way, to listen–”
“Maybe leave the thinking to people who’ve actually done something with their lives other than pretending to be helpless.” The second the words left my mouth, I felt rotten. Kaya’s reddening eyes and trembling chin only sunk the knife deeper in me. “Just leave me alone while I do the job you should have been doing. Maybe Zavoya needs a new tallys partner. Enjoy being the Jewel of the Blood Brotherhood. Enjoy sitting on the throne. Enjoy your beautiful crown.”
With that, I turned before I sunk to even lower depths. Kaya mercifully didn’t follow, but her soft cries did, beating against me.
“She really is helpless,” Adara muttered.
“Why do you care?” I barked, angry and ashamed all at once. “You’ve said worse things about her.”
“I have and I probably will again.” Adara turned her endless gaze on me. “But this is unlike you. Careful, Blue Queen. I told you to steel yourself for your own good, not to stab others. You infiltrated the Blood Brotherhood court, but don’t let its viciousness infiltrate you.”