Chapter Fifty-Two – Scarlett
Chapter Fifty-Two
Scarlett
Hours.
I had hours left until dawn. Until I would be forced to execute Mira and Cassius – or face the consequences of failing my mother.
Fear tugged at me as I slipped inside my mother’s workroom and locked the door behind me. A weak, selfish part of me begged me to reconsider, to go back on my promise to Cassius and follow my mother’s orders. If I did, I would be protected from everyone and everything – except her.
What I was contemplating . . . I wasn’t sure that I could do it. I wasn’t selfless like Mira, or noble like Severin–
Severin . The thought of him gave me strength. I envisioned his face: his beautiful tattooed skin, those mismatched eyes that had stared right through me and into the person I was at my core.
For some reason, he had loved that person. Had seen something in me worth loving.
And he had died for Zandri’s ambition.
It would be far too easy to let affection and dependence stay my hand. But Severin deserved justice. He deserved vengeance .
And he deserved to have died for something. A cause – much more powerful and enduring than a single person ever could be.
But with Zandri in control, nothing would change. She would continue Emperor Kalias’s legacy of conquering new nations, and she would rely on ever harsher policies to subjugate the countries under her rule. Severin’s dream of a better world would die with him.
Unless I stopped Zandri and took her place.
My fingers tightened around Severin’s necklace, and something powerful and slumbering stirred at my touch. Ever since that aquamarine light had exploded from the locket Severin had given me, I had known the truth. Known how precious his gift really was.
I felt Selussa’s warmth and encouragement. She was eager for me to do this – eager for me to honour the vow I had made when she had kept me from Velanthe’s reach.
A vow that I had intended to honour decades from now. When I had lived my own life fully and completely. When I was finally ready to trade my individual freedom for the eternal existence she offered.
I wasn’t ready for that now. Not even close.
But my death magic wouldn’t be enough on its own. If I tried to face my mother as I was, she would kill me and proceed with Mira and Cassius’s executions. There would be no one left to oppose her.
I looked up into Zandri’s punishing gaze – unsettling and yet somehow fitting, even for a girl of twelve or thirteen. My eyes went to Queen Leanna, affectionately touching her daughter’s shoulders. Then I noticed Zandri’s hands – intertwined with her brother’s. Mira’s father, King Arioch.
Zandri was responsible for the deaths of everyone in this portrait, and she had made the decision to kill them when she had burned their faces to ash. There was so much anger and hatred here. The room seethed with it.
This was who Zandri thought I was at my core. The kind of person who resented her own powerlessness so deeply that she was willing to murder her own family. The kind of person who was every bit as dark and twisted as she was.
I had proven her correct when I had killed my father. But I had been desperate then; I hadn’t seen another way out, and if I was being honest, I still didn’t. Emperor Kalias’s death had been necessary.
But I refused to condemn Cassius and Mira to similar fates. Executing them would be the actions of a coward and a monster. And I wasn’t a coward.
As for being a monster . . .
I saw so much of myself here, in my mother’s past. But that didn’t mean her past had to be my future.
I turned decisively away from the portrait. From the hatred and darkness I could feel polluting the air around me.
I had made a promise to work with Mira – to choose trust over fear. I intended to keep that promise.
I’m ready , I thought and released Severin’s necklace. Letting it fall against my skin in a blaze of aquamarine light.
As that light flooded into my body, filling me with warmth, I tipped my head back and embraced the Sorceress. Embraced everything she was and everything she offered.
In that moment, I was no longer afraid. Whatever doubts I had harboured were gone, replaced by certainty.
Together, Selussa and I could do more than tear down an empire.
We could build one.
I felt like I was floating as I moved through the Kalurian palace. It was Selussa who directed me through the halls, urging my exhausted limbs forward even as tiredness threatened to overwhelm me.
I slipped silently into Odessa’s chambers – and nearly walked into Odessa herself.
For a moment we merely stared at each other.
‘If I call for the guards,’ Odessa said, her voice unreadable, ‘they might throw you into the dungeons along with Mira.’
‘I’m merely visiting an old friend,’ I replied with a saccharine smile. A smile that didn’t quite fit this new version of me. ‘What’s wrong with that?’
Odessa didn’t play along. Dressed in black, like the Mask I remembered, she looked fierce and strong – but her skin was paler than usual, almost unhealthy looking. ‘We’re not friends. We never were.’
‘Fine. We’re not friends.’ My tone was light, conversational.
‘But I am the daughter of your new empress, so why don’t you indulge me for a moment?
’ When Odessa said nothing, I continued, ‘You asked me something once. If there was anyone I loved – anyone I would be willing to sacrifice everything for.’
‘And we established there wasn’t.’
I thought fleetingly of Severin. Of how different things could have been if I had embraced my love for him earlier. But no one could change the past. Not even the Sorceress.
Though apparently she had a sense for the future. Which was why I was here – trying to save Odessa’s life, when Zandri could visit my chambers at any moment and find me missing.
I must have lost my mind.
But all I said was, ‘I’m not the one who needs to answer that question. You are.’
Odessa’s expression shuttered. ‘If you’re talking about Jadis–’
‘She won’t forgive you if you allow Mira to be executed.’
‘She won’t forgive me anyway.’ For the first time, a hint of regret entered her voice.
‘Mira has forgiven me for worse. I think Jadis will do the same.’
‘You can’t know that.’
‘You’re right. I can’t. But I do know that you need to choose between love and revenge. And if you won’t make that choice for Jadis, then make it for the Sorceress. Because I know your dedication to her is real. I can feel it.’
I let Selussa rise up inside me, allowing Odessa to glimpse the Sorceress for a handful of seconds – her dark eyes and hair briefly overshadowing my own.
‘That’s not possible,’ Odessa said through bloodless lips. ‘You can’t be–’
She took a step back from me, but beneath her shock was a yearning so deep that it was almost painful. And I felt an answering affection stir in Selussa. As if she really had heard Odessa’s prayers, and more than anything, she wanted to grant them. To give her some measure of peace.
‘I’m not asking you to stand against Zandri,’ I told Odessa gently. ‘I’m only asking you not to stand against me.’
‘Why?’ Odessa whispered. Her voice was faint – but her eyes were intent on mine, desperate to know the answer.
‘Because,’ I said, surprised by the conviction in my words, ‘the Sorceress believes you’re worth saving. And so do I.’