Chapter 8 #2
The next time she reached to trip me with her foot, I let her do it, tumbling to the ground as she straddled my ribs and held the knife to my throat. The hem of her dress was torn and it bunched up around her waist, leaving her legs enticingly bare.
We were both breathing heavily, the warm weight of her settling on me and…
Well. I missed her in the soul-deep way of her understanding me better than any other person alive, but also in a vividly physical way, a fact becoming more obvious by the second thanks to my now-tenting trousers.
I thanked whatever deities were out there that she hadn’t straddled my hips instead—if she had, that beautiful fury simmering in her would have turned to disgust.
I could bear her hatred. But her disgust would destroy me.
Her free hand pressed into my shoulder, holding me down. The other trembled, and I wondered vaguely whether the silver had drawn blood yet. “Going to kill me, Princess?”
For a long, long moment that stretched out before us, she stared at her weapon against my throat. I waited for her to snap back, to remind me she wasn’t a princess any longer. But a retort never came.
She watched her weapon tremble on my skin, but I knew when her eyes glazed over that she was seeing something different. “Every single part of this,” she whispered, “is your fault.”
I had nothing to say to that. She was right. The queen had kept her plans from me, but Revna wasn’t just talking about the next three weeks. I knew she didn’t want to hear my excuses, though, so instead of retorting I took the moment to survey her.
Again.
My focus had been locked on her from the moment her delegation rode up to the palace yesterday afternoon.
Her hair was still pinned into its elegant style from the ball, though a few strands had escaped.
A bead of sweat trailed down the side of her face, and I had the intrusive thought to push up slightly and lick it off—blood from the knife on my throat be damned.
You can’t, I reminded myself. You made your choices and she made hers. And she will never forgive you.
I thought back to the ballroom. When the bright fire of her anger had dimmed, when her Lurae had released its hold on her, I’d seen what she was hiding. Emptiness. Fear. Desperation. Exhaustion.
Something inside her had snapped. I wondered when it had happened, whether it was my fault or someone else’s.
I thought about offering to kill them for her, if it was someone else, but held back.
More likely than not, I was to blame—and I couldn’t fall on my own sword until I’d found my sister, at least.
The same yawning chasm of devastation was beginning to open in her eyes again now. I could see it as her hand shook.
“I must say, this dress isn’t as fun as the one you wore yesterday.” I let the words linger as I spoke them, taunting. “I enjoyed seeing so much of you on display.”
Revna growled and a spark of anger returned to her gaze.
That’s my girl. The thought slid, unbidden, into my mind. Fight back. Don’t let it bury you.
The knife bit into my neck, and I inhaled sharply at the sting. That had most certainly drawn blood. “You planned this,” she snarled, leaning closer. “You asked her to let you train me so you could rub it in my face.”
I blinked, surprise keeping my face expressionless. “No.”
“You’re lying.”
All right. Enough of this.
She was angry and, as I’d told her over and over again, an angry opponent is a sloppy one. It took no more than three seconds to grab her wrist, twist it until she inhaled sharply and dropped her knife, and push her over, rolling until I was the one holding her down.
With one hand, I pinned her wrists above her head as she thrashed.
She was strong, and I found myself grateful that training had been the only thing capable of distracting me from thoughts of her after that fateful day on the front.
She seemed surprised, like she hadn’t realized I was letting her take control of the situation earlier.
Still, the feeling of her body beneath me stirred the desperate want I’d barely managed to force behind bars. Especially when her eyes flicked down my bare chest and then back up. So quick I could have imagined it—but I knew I didn’t.
Do not, I ordered myself, think of the last time you had her in this position.
“I have told you many times,” I said, allowing a hint of something deadly to creep into my voice. “I am not a liar.”
“Maybe not,” she snarled. “But you’re certainly an excellent lapdog.”
Now she wasn’t the only one who was angry.
I released her and stood, crossing my arms. “If you’re only here to toss insults around, then go. Despite your insistence that I’m lying, I want this arrangement as little as you do.”
Her answering laugh was cold. “You think I’d ever believe that? You’re going to turn me into a monster. Again.”
Ah. So that’s what this was really about.
I watched her move to her feet. “You didn’t mind the monstrousness, as I recall.
” I stepped closer to Revna, until she was forced to tilt her head back to keep my gaze.
“Is your country not worth your destruction? If you won’t become a monster for them…
then what was the fucking point of winning the throne? ”
She shoved me away, her jaw grinding, and I saw the shine of tears in her eyes. Damn it. You swore you weren’t going to hurt her again. That you were going to soften your sharp edges for her.
Stepping back, I ran the fingers of both hands through my hair, tugging at the roots.
It grounded me a bit. “You’re backed into a corner, Princess.
” I glanced toward the door, double-checking it was shut.
“The queen is not an easy person to get along with. She is the one with the power in this scenario. You’re a new ruler, dealing with civil unrest and a brand-new Lurae. ”
“One you told her was out of control.” Her jaw tightened.
“It wasn’t like you were keeping it hidden,” I said with a shrug. I’d certainly seen the obvious signs. The queen must have been thinking it too, considering she’d halted all negotiations after the disastrous dinner.
Like this—back to the wall, dagger hanging limply at her side—Revna was a shadow of herself. This was not the Revna I knew. The fiery princess determined to save her people was gone, replaced by a defeated shell.
I did this to her. The knowledge ate at me.
She frowned, and her gaze moved to me. “You don’t know the queen’s plans. You don’t know how she discovered my Lurae. Am I to assume you also don’t know about the prophecy, then?”
I wanted to laugh. The exhaustion of endless nights without sleep was getting to me, and I suddenly felt it weighing down my bones. I sat heavily on the edge of the bed, elbows on my knees, and gestured to the chair beside my desk. “Will you sit? I haven’t heard anything about a prophecy.”
Revna hedged, glancing back and forth between the door and the chair. Finally, she stepped forward and took a seat. My shoulders relaxed. Hers remained taut.
“There was a Seeing One released from prison in Bhorglid, after the Trials,” she said. “Their name was Valen. They said they had a vision that you and I were going to fulfill the very first prophecy together.”
When she lapsed into silence, I prodded. “And? What does that mean?”
She glared. “If I knew, I would tell you. The first prophecy was lost to time—the only people who have heard it were the Seeing One who gave it and Arraya. It was hundreds of years ago.”
“Arraya?” I frowned, searching my memories of endless history book pages for why the name was so familiar. “She was the wife of that revolutionary, wasn’t she? The ones who founded Bhorglid.”
“Yes. She and her husband, Callum, were the first to believe that Lurae and Nilurae should have different statuses. Most of what the priests taught came from them.” She shrugged.
“Valen said she kidnapped the first Seeing One—Tam—and kept them locked away until they revealed the prophecy to her. At which point…”
“She promptly killed them.” It’s what I would have done. “I had no idea there was any kind of prophecy about us.”
Revna exhaled deeply and slid back, closing her eyes and tilting her head to the ceiling. With her face turned toward the light, the dark shadows beneath her eyes were plain to see.
Had she been sleeping? Or were her thoughts as turbulent as mine?
I traced my gaze across her face. The bottom edges of her scars touched just past her cheekbones.
They were still a dark red, clearly not finished healing.
I hadn’t seen them before yesterday—when I’d sat a silent vigil in her room three weeks ago, waiting for her to wake and either confirm or deny her new powers, they had been covered in bandages.
Somehow, the scars made her more beautiful. Testaments to her ferocity. Surely Volkan had offered to heal them for her. That they existed meant she’d refused him. She’d chosen to let the Trials leave marks.
Upon closer inspection, her dress was tighter around her waist than I’d expected.
It hugged her curves, which were smaller than I remembered.
Not sleeping or eating well, then. One of her hands twitched, then curled into a fist. That was a familiar movement.
I forced down a fond smile as I watched her mouth and, just as I expected, she began chewing on her lip.
Predictable as ever.
Slowly, she opened her eyes and stood. “If you have no useful information, then I’ll be going.”
“And if I do have useful information?”
She glared. “Then stop being an asshole and speak up.”
I fought a smile. Now was certainly not the time for it.
Especially not when I had an idea. “There may be a way to learn what this prophecy said. I’ve found mentions in books about a place that’s…
well, magical is the only way to describe it.
It holds memories, ones entirely lost to time.
Whether or not it truly exists is debatable, but on the off chance it does, it’s our best bet at hearing exactly what Tam said about our futures. ”
“Where?”
“Deep in the northern wastes.”
Surprise flitted across her face almost imperceptibly. She rubbed a hand over her forehead. For the first time, I wished my Lurae was mind-reading.
After a few moments of silence, she stood and crossed to the door.
“Revna.” She paused with her hand on the knob but didn’t look back. “The queen is not kind. The cost of this alliance is high—but you do not want her as an enemy.”
My princess scoffed. “If you really cared, you would do more than offer useless words of advice.”
She slammed the door behind her as she left.