I’m queen,she thought.I can do as I wish.
You’re not acting like a queen.Essie’s thoughts were getting fainter.You’re acting like a... scared... selfish... child.
That stung.
In answer, Roa sent a stab of cold at her sister’s hawk form. Essie sent her version of the same feeling back—only sharper.
Just before Poppy halted and stepped into the trees, the white hawk screeched. Roa felt a painful tug and stopped them both, frowning hard. She looked over her shoulder to see Essie—a speck of white in a carnelian sky—still battling the wind, trying to get to her.
A second, sharper tug came. Roa sucked in a pained breath. She squeezed Poppy’s reins in her fists and sent her thoughts into her sister’s mind:If you’re trying to hurt me, it’s working.
Essie didn’t respond.
Roa had thought Essie would understand. Essie knew better than anyone what it was like to be trapped. But just like Roa’s friend, Lirabel, Essie seemed to side with Dax more and more these days. As if his ridiculous charms were working on them, too.
A little angrily, Roa turned away from her sister. She didn’t wait for Essie to catch up, just retreated into the trees without her.
Essie would find her. She always did. The bond hummed between them, bright and strong, keeping them linked. Roa could always sense her sister—could feel the shape of her soul. Even if a desert lay between them.
Jacarandas bloomed here. Their purple flowers carpeted the ground, more beautiful than any palace rug. Roa breathed in the sweet smell of them as Poppy rode up to the entrance of the House of Shade.
Corrupted, people called this place. A man had died here, a long time ago now, and his loved ones hadn’t performed the proper rites. They hadn’t broken the bonds between the living and the dead. So, on the Relinquishing—the longest night of the year—the man’s soul became corrupted and he slaughtered his entire household.
Or so the story went.
Corrupted spirits were dangerous things. It was why the rules for relinquishing needed to be upheld.
But even if the story was true, the man’s spirit had long since moved on.
After dismounting and tying Poppy to a branch outside, Roa stepped through the crumbled entrance of the ruined house. As she walked through the roofless halls, Roa thought of that empty chair. It was an obvious insult. But Theo had been insulted first. Sky was the only Great House who votedagainstRoa helping Dax in the revolt. And in the scrublands, a unanimous vote was needed before anyone could march an army across the sand sea. Roa had broken scrublander law to do what she’d done.
And then she’d broken Theo’s heart.
Roa checked every room in the ruined house. All were empty. She checked them again.
He didn’t come,she thought, her heart sinking.
Theo hadn’t wanted her to help Dax. He told her that if she left, she wouldn’t come back.
You were wrong,she thought.I did come back.
She was here now, wasn’t she? She’d been here in this ruin—their usual meeting place—waiting for him for five nights straight.
And for five nights straight, he didn’t come. Because Roa married Dax. Because Roa was queen now.
It was too late for her and Theo.
As the wind rattled the canopy above, she climbed up onto the windowsill of a half-crumbled wall. Leaning back against the cool and dusty stone, she pressed her face into her hands.
You’re queen now,she told herself.Queens don’t cry.
It was something Essie would say. If Essie were here.
As she waited for her sister to arrive, Roa thought of the shame in her father’s eyes. In all their eyes.
Maybe it was better this way. She wasn’t sure she could bear that same look on Theo’s face.
When a hundred-hundred heartbeats passed and Essie still hadn’t shown herself, Roa looked up to the canopy. To the patch of darkening sky beyond it.
