And a horrible part of her, a scared and dark part she wasn’t proud of, wanted to erase her deal with Felix and Nerissa, to have everything go back to the way it was before, when the world was hers to do with as she pleased now that she had enough power to wield.
“I have been your greatest advisor,” Neela said. “I know you’ve struggled with some decisions you’ve had to make, such as with Ashur. But you did choose to kill him, just as you killed your father and two other brothers. You did that, not me.”
“I know,” Amara whispered.
Neela took a step forward. With Lyssa cradled in one arm, she reached her other hand out and stroked Amara’s check.
“You need me, dhosha. I’ve given you everything you’ve ever desired, and yet now you look at me with such doubt that it breaks my heart. But it can still be all right.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Nerissa hissed. “She fills your head with lies.”
Amara tried to ignore her, tried to focus only on her grandmother’s face.
“It can?” she whispered.
“Yes. However, sadly, today it seems that you lost your mind, dhosha.”
Amara shook her head. “I haven’t lost my mind.”
“But you have,” Neela insisted. “I have seen this madness coming upon you ever since you lost your beloved father and brothers. I’ve documented it, but I had hoped it wouldn’t escalate to this.”
“What are you talking about?” Amara’s heart began to beat fast and hard. “I’m not mad!”
“I’ve found a place for you, somewhere safe, where you can recover your mind. It will be peaceful, so very peaceful, and I promise to visit you regularly. There are others like you there, others afflicted by this confusion that has caused you to hurt so many people I know you love, including me. I hope that the actions I’ve taken will help you heal, my beloved dhosha. And during your absence, for as long as it takes, I will rule in your place.”
Amara stared at her grandmother as the rest of her world began crashing down all around her.
“You planned this all along,” she said, the words like jagged rocks in her throat.
Those of a lower class, if they lost their minds, were allowed to leave this life gently, with the hope that they would be cured for their next life. But those of the royal class were given the opportunity to heal during this life.
Locked away in a forgetting room—but one in a madhouse, where its prisoners were told it was for their own good, not because of a specific crime they’d committed.
But Amara knew the experience was the same in all other ways.
Forgotten for years—decades.
Sometimes until their natural death.
Neela sent a glare toward Felix and Nerissa, who were still watching silently. “Put down your weapons and walk away, or I fear my granddaughter will hurt this child, and I can’t do a thing about it.” She moved the tip of the blade upward to Lyssa’s small, vulnerable throat.
Nerissa and Felix finally did as instructed, their expressions dark and pained. They moved backward until they were on the other side of the open door.
“I’ve won,” Neela said. “Admit it and all of this will go smoothly, dhosha. I promise it doesn’t have to hurt.”
Amara tasted the bitter tang of the red dye as she licked her lips, trying to find the strength to reply, to say what she knew she had to say. Her grandmother controlled her life—she always had. Amara just hadn’t realized it until now.
“You’ve won,” Amara whispered. “Now please, please put the baby back in her cradle.”
“Very well.” Neela smiled and gently placed Lyssa down. “Now I want you to thank me for the beautiful gift I’ve given you.”
Amara smoothed the sides of her golden skirts. “Thank you for the beautiful gift you’ve given me.”
“A gift that is valuable and precious.”
“Yes. Yes, it is.”
“Not it, my darling. She. And we still need to pick a new name for her.”
“Oh.” Amara frowned. “I didn’t mean that gift.”
Neela cocked her head. “Then what gift did you mean?”
“This gift.” Amara drew her wedding dagger out from beneath the folds of her skirt and pulled her grandmother into an embrace. “Thank you, madhosha. Thank you so much.”
Then she sank the tip of the blade into her grandmother’s chest. The old woman gasped, stiffened, but Amara held on.
“You poisoned the wine,” Amara whispered in her ear. “I know you did. But even if you didn’t, this still had to happen.”
She yanked the blade out. The front of her golden gown was now stained with her grandmother’s blood.
Neela stood there for a moment, her hand pressed to her chest, her eyes wide with disbelief.
“I did everything for you,” she managed.
“I suppose I’m just an ungrateful grandchild,” Amara replied as Neela fell to her knees. “Always thinking of herself and no one else.”
“This isn’t over,” Neela gasped, but her words grew weak as her blood flowed over the floor. “The potion . . . the resurrection potion. I’ve taken it. I will live again.”
“That potion requires one who loves you more than any other to sacrifice their life in exchange for yours.” Amara raised her chin. “That might have been me before today. But no longer.”
Neela dropped to her side, and the life faded from her gray eyes.
Amara then turned to Felix and Amara, standing in the doorframe, staring at her as if she’d just performed the most incredible feat of magic they’d ever witnessed.
“I really hate to admit it, but I think I’m impressed,” Felix said, shaking his head.
Nerissa had no such reaction as she moved quickly to the cradle and picked up Lyssa.
“Take her and go,” Amara said, surprised that she sounded so calm. The dagger she held continued to drip her grandmother’s blood to the floor. “I have some things to clean up here.”
Nerissa shook her head, then opened her mouth to say something in reply.
Amara held up her hand to stop her. “Please, don’t say another word. Just go. Take Lyssa back to Lucia and tell her . . . tell her I’m sorry. And if you see my brother, tell him I know he hates me and always will, but that I . . . I hope one day to make amends even though I have no idea how I’ll do that. Now just go, before we waste any more time.”
Nerissa’s eyes had turned glassy. She swallowed hard and nodded.
“Farewell,” she said, and then she and Felix disappeared with the baby.
And Amara, alone in the room with the body of her grandmother, waited to see who would arrive first.
A rebel to kill her.
Or a guard to arrest her.
She knew she’d more than earned either outcome.
CHAPTER 30
CLEO
AURANOS
Cleo knew Magnus would follow, just as he had when she’d gone to the festival. And if he found her before she reached the palace, she knew he would try to stop her.
And the city would burn.
She couldn’t let that happen.
Cleo held tightly onto Enzo as he raced his horse across the green hills and valleys of the Auranian countryside until her beautiful city finally came into view.
She gasped at the sight before her.
The City of Gold had greatly changed since yesterday.
Frightening, thick green vines now covered the golden walls, reminding her of the blue lines on her skin. The vines looked as if they had been there for years, growing from a deserted and untended garden. But they hadn’t been there before, not at all. The walls had always been clear of any debris.
This was new.
“Earth magic,” she managed to say aloud.
Enzo nodded grimly. “Olivia has been changing the city to please hersel
f.”
“The Kindred have taken over completely in such a short time.”
“I’m afraid so,” he said. “They control everything within the walls. Citizens who aren’t now imprisoned in pits Olivia created or cages of fire are hiding in their homes and businesses, afraid to come outside.”
Kyan wanted everyone to know of their existence, Cleo thought. And to fear their power.
The main gates themselves were coated in flames. Cleo could feel the painful, intense heat even thirty paces away, as if she’d stepped close to the face of the sun itself. Enzo’s horse wouldn’t take another step toward it, bucking in protest until they finally had to dismount it.
There were no sentries stationed above the fiery gate or to the sides of it.
“How do we get inside?” she asked.
Just as she spoke the words, the gates opened all on their own, allowing entry into the city.
As the flames parted, Cleo saw someone waiting for them. Lucia’s long, raven-black hair blew away from her face.
“Don’t worry,” she called out to them. “I won’t let the fire burn you.”
“Lucia . . .” Cleo said, stunned.
“Welcome,” Lucia said, spreading her arms. She wore a plain black cloak that bore no embroidery or adornments at all. “It’s nice of you to finally show up. I’ve been waiting here for a while.”
She sounded so calm and collected, as if this weren’t a nightmare come to life.
“You’re helping him,” Cleo said, the words painful in her throat.
“He has Lyssa,” Lucia replied simply. “He won’t show her to me, won’t confirm that she’s fine. But he has her. And therefore, he has me as well. It’s as simple as that.”
Cleo wrung her hands as she walked through the entrance and into the city. Enzo stayed at her side. True to Lucia’s promise, they didn’t feel the heat of the flames anymore, even though the opened gates still burned.
Cleo hadn’t seen Lyssa at the temple. Perhaps she should have demanded that Kyan show her the baby to ensure her safety. Instead, she’d been too focused on her own well-being.
She could have prevented all this.
“You . . .” Lucia addressed Enzo. “You’ve done what Kyan asked of you. Now leave us to speak in private.”
“I won’t go,” Enzo said gruffly. “I will protect the princess from anyone who means her harm.”
“That certainly must be a long list by now. I’ll say it again: Go away.” Lucia flicked her hand, and Enzo staggered back toward the flames.
“Stop it,” Cleo snapped. “Don’t hurt him!”
Lucia raised a brow. “If he does what I say, he won’t come to further harm.”
“Princess . . .” Enzo said, his voice pained.
Cleo’s heart pounded. “Go, do as she says. I’ll be fine.”
They both knew it was a lie. But Enzo nodded, turned, and walked directly toward the palace along the main pathway to the entrance.
“Come with me,” Lucia said. “We’ll take the long way.”
“Why?” Cleo asked. “Doesn’t Kyan want to know I’m here?”
“Just follow me.” Lucia turned away from Cleo and strode in the opposite direction from Enzo.
Cleo forced herself to move. She had to be brave.
Finally, the water Kindred said from within her. This long and tiresome journey is almost at an end.
Not if I have any say in the matter, Cleo thought fiercely.
She followed Lucia along the city’s main concourse. Tiled with sparkling stones, the concourse was usually filled with citizens going about their daily business. With carriages and wagons bringing both guests and wares to the many businesses and the palace itself. Its emptiness was so eerie, Cleo felt a shiver run up her spine.
“Please! Please help us!”
Cleo froze at the mournful sound of cries coming from a deep pit in the ground ten paces away, at the edge of a grassy garden.
Legs stiff, she moved to the side of it and looked down at thirty faces looking up. Her heart wrenched.
“Princess!” The trapped Auranians reached up toward her. “Please help us!”
“Save us!”
Cleo staggered back from the side, her breath now coming in gulps as she tried not to allow her fear and desperation to overwhelm her. “Lucia,” Cleo barely managed to speak. “You have to help them.”
“I can’t.”
A sob rose in Cleo’s throat, but she refused to let it out.
Lucia might be helping Kyan in order to save her daughter, but at what cost? Thousands of people called this city their home. Countless others would be visiting for the day.
Kyan would kill them all.
“You can!” Cleo insisted.
“Trust me, they’re safer in there than anywhere else.” Lucia’s expression was grim. “Kyan arrived in this city in a foul mood. He burned fifty citizens in a single burst of his fire before Olivia created pits like this.”
Cleo stifled a gasp. Kyan’s foul mood was surely because she’d run away from the temple. And now fifty citizens were dead.
She tried to find her voice in the face of this realization. “Olivia is trying to help?”
“I wouldn’t say that.” Lucia exhaled shakily. “I think she’s simply trying to keep Kyan from becoming distracted from the task at hand.”
“Which is?”
“Kyan wants me to perform the ritual again,” Lucia told her.
“The ritual?” Cleo repeated. “No. Lucia, no! You have to listen to me. You can’t do this.”
“I have no choice.”
“You do have a choice. I can help you defeat him.”
Lucia laughed. “You don’t know Kyan like I do, Cleo. He can be charming when he wants to be. Curious about mortals and their amusing behavior. But he’s not a man who can be reasoned with. He is fire, and it’s in his very nature to burn. The others are the same.”
“You’ve seen them.”
Lucia nodded. “They’re all at the palace waiting for you. I thought I might be able to reason with Olivia, that she might have some kind of maternal instinct and want to protect Lyssa. She is the earth Kindred—that magic is what makes healing and growth possible. But she’s not like that. She’s just like Kyan. She wants to use her magic for evil. And she will destroy everything on a whim. Mortals aren’t important to them, not individually. We’re . . . like insects—annoying pests that are easily swatted away.”
Cleo waited for the water Kindred to add something, but it stayed silent.
Perhaps that meant it agreed with everything Lucia said.
Cleo wasn’t surprised by any of this. Last night, Kyan had pretended to be kind as he’d offered to help her through this—as both Olivia and the water Kindred had called it—“transition.”
But Kyan gave her no choice in the outcome.
He would win. She would lose.
“Is Lyssa here?” Cleo asked. “Have you see her?”
Lucia’s expression grew pained, her sky-blue eyes filled with anguish. “She’s here, I’m sure of it. But I haven’t seen her yet.”
“If you haven’t seen her, how can you be so sure she’s here?”
Lucia turned a glare on her, one so sharp that Cleo nearly flinched away from it. “Where else would she be? Kyan has her—he’s using her to keep me in line. And it’s working very well.”
Cleo’s stomach sank. Lucia sounded so despondent, so hopeless. Yet she’d also never sounded more dangerous.
Part of Cleo had begun to doubt that Kyan had taken Lyssa. She would have seen some sign of the baby last night at the temple.
Surely, Nic would have known about her.
But if Kyan didn’t have her, who would?
It didn’t make any sense.
“When did you come back?” Cleo asked more tenta
tively now.
“Kyan summoned me earlier today.”
She frowned. “What do you mean he summoned you?”
Lucia paused as they passed the city gardens. A portion of the hedges were shaped into a maze that children could run through, searching for a way out the other side. Cleo knew it reminded Lucia of the ice maze back at the Limerian palace.
She saw a very familiar emotion cross the sorceress’s blue eyes.
Wistfulness. It was the same ache Cleo felt for a simpler, happier time.
“I was with Jonas and . . . I felt it here.” Lucia pressed her hands to her temples. “My magic—it’s fully connected to theirs. In an instant, I knew where he was, and I knew he wanted me to come to him. I didn’t hesitate.”
“Where is Jonas now?” Cleo asked.
“I don’t know.”
There was something in the way she said it . . .
“Did you hurt him?” Cleo demanded.
Lucia turned a bleak look on her. “He’s strong. He’ll survive.”
For a moment, Cleo couldn’t speak. “You could fix this, all of this. You are a sorceress. You could imprison them.”
“I would be risking my baby’s life if I even tried.”
Cleo grabbed her arm, finally getting angry. “Lucia, don’t you get it? Your baby’s life is already in danger. But the whole world will be in danger if you do what Kyan says! You know this already, yet you’re still siding with a monster. Perhaps you’ve just been looking for an excuse all this time to join his side. Is that it?”
Outrage flashed in Lucia’s gaze. “How can you say that?”
“You are your father’s daughter. You only want power, and if that power is given to you by an evil god, you’ll gladly take it.”
“Wrong,” Lucia growled. “You’ve always been wrong about me, so quick to judge from your perfect golden tower and your perfect golden life.”
Cold anger flowed through Cleo then, and ice formed at her feet, expanding out to coat an abandoned carriage on the side of the road.
Lucia looked at it with a frown. “You can control the water magic within you.”
Cleo fisted her hands at her sides. “If I could, you would be a block of ice right now.”