“You are,” she whispered, feeling the table full of guests blur around them.
But then, hadn’t she let Eris kiss her? The very girl who kidnapped her, then ordered Jemsin’s men to torture her?
More important: Hadn’t shelikedkissing Eris?
If she were honest with herself, as she stood on that balcony with Eris wearing that stolen soldier’s uniform, she’d wanted to kiss her again.
Maybe Dax was right. Maybe there was something wrong with her.
Safire upheld the law; Eris flouted it. Safire hated pirates; Eris worked for them. Safire loved her cousin; Eris was currently hunting her cousin down.
She thought of that moment in the rowboat, when Eris learned Safire couldn’t swim.
I won’t let anything happen to you.
And that moment in the alley, surrounded by men who wanted to hurt her. It was Eris who’d come for her.
Don’t let go.
But how much did it matter?
And who was Eris, really?
Safire didn’t know. No one knew.
But Dax was her cousin. And not just that, her friend and her king. As children, he’d taken the brunt of Jarek’s abuse when hecould. Not so long ago, he’d fought a war at her side, then made her his commandant.
Safire couldn’t—wouldn’t—go against him. They were supposed to be on the same side. They’d always been on the same side.
“Where are you going?” Dax asked as she rose from the table.
“I need some air.”
Thirty-One
Eris walked the lamplit streets of Axis feeling like she’d swallowed a prickle fish.
After jumping from that balustrade, she’d landed on the balcony one story below. Hurt by Safire’s betrayal, she wanted nothing more than to step across. But as she’d slashed the spindle over the balcony tiles, the silver line shimmering before her, the voices above made her pause.
Hidden by the fog, Eris listened.
The next time she seeks you out, I want you to kill her.Is that understood?
The memory of Leandra’s icy voice made Eris shiver now. But it was nothing like the gaping wound that opened in the wake of Safire’s answer.
Understood.
Eris’s hand had shaken as she finished drawing the silver line. Her vision blurred with hot tears. She should have been focused on the labyrinth as she stepped into the mists. But the hurt and loneliness and utterlostnessoverwhelmed her, and all she couldthink about was Safire’s answer to Leandra’s question. All she could see was the horrified look in those blue eyes as Eris stupidly blurted out her true feelings.
Which was how she’d stumbled out into the grid of Axis’s streets instead of Across. And now that she was here, free from the empress and her soldiers and most of all, Safire, Eris had changed her mind. She didn’t want to go back to that haunted lonely labyrinth, with nothing but a ghost to keep her company.
Safire was right. Eris had no one.
Her footsteps echoed on the cobblestoned streets now, which were empty and quiet as midnight crept closer. After years of running from these islands, after swearing she’d never set foot here again, Eris stood in the heart of the Star Isles. Surrounded by her bitterest enemies.
One of them bitterest of all.
Past the fountains and the lit lanterns and the storefronts, through the boughs of the scattered trees, Eris’s eyes were drawn upward to the highest structure in Axis—even higher than its twin, the empress’s citadel.
