“Don’t lie, Samson. Not to me.”
“He believes in you, you know? In his own, twisted way. I see it,” he added, when she glanced at him, “when he gets that quiet, dark look. You know it. I’ll see him kind of… recede during meetings and I know that he’s thinking about you.”
“That doesn’t mean he believes,” she said. “My father refuses to teach me because—” And it was there, on the tip of her tongue.Because he does not wish to give up the throne. Because he wants control. It’s always been about control.
“Because of sometwistedreason,” she said. “And no Ravani heir can rule without fire.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say it’s too late,” Samson replied. “I read that Queen Jumi only managed to sit in the fire on the day of her coronation.”
Elena stayed quiet. The numbness in her hands began to ebb away, replaced with tiny prickles of heat traveling up her palms.
“I should leave,” she said.
“You know, the Arohassin once instructed me to shoot an innocent woman in the back,” Samson said. He stared up at the Phoenix and its sharp, red eyes. “I couldn’t do it. So Yassen did it for me and tried to cover it up. But they knew. They meant to punish us both, but I took it. It was my fault anyway. Twenty lashes, ten for me, ten for Yassen.
“The pain was horrible. I lay on my stomach for two weeks wallowing in misery and self-pity. Plagued by fever and nightmares and doubt. I wondered if I should have just shot the girl. But by the time the two weeks were over, and the bandages came off, I knew I had made the right decision.”
He looked down, his dark eyes boring through her.
“Sometimes, the moments that define us are the moments in which we spare ourselves. They force us to examine who we truly are and what we stand for.” He reached behind her and gently took her hands. Uncurled her fists and traced her skin. “Don’t lose hope. Maybe you’ll look back and see how this was the moment you decided to give yourself a little mercy.”
Elena stared at him.Mercy.She had never even considered whether she deserved mercy, much less if it was something she could offer herself. She regarded her fiancé curiously. For all his pride and feats of war, Samson Kytuu was far more poetic than she had imagined. Gentle, even.
“And does that moment define you still?” she said.
“More than you know.” He kissed her burnt fingertips. “I’ll see you in the city, yes?”
She nodded, and Samson gave a low bow. As she descended the staircase, Elena looked back. Samson stood beneath the Phoenix, gazing into the still fountain.
She wondered what he saw in his reflection—wished she had asked.
CHAPTER 22
LEO
Oh Wanderer! What you seek lies within these veins. Look! You carry the story of the world.
—fromThe Odyssey of Goromount: A Play
Iwant you to kill the priests,” Leo said to Ferma as she bowed before him.
Ferma froze, stunned. “But, Your Majesty.” She looked to him in disbelief, as if hoping he would rectify his statement, but Leo only stared back, hard and unflinching.
“They’ve conspired against the throne, and I have burned their names in the sand,” he said. “Now go.”
“It is theorder.”
“And I am your king. Do you serve the throne or the order, Ferma?”
Emotions warred across her face, dark and terrible. Her mouth twisted in distaste, the strands of her hair coiling like serpents. For a moment, Leo thought she was going to attack him, but then the Yumi stepped back.
“As the king wishes,” she said, and her voice sounded like branches snapping in half. She did not need to hurt him. He could feel her judgment, sharp as knives.
Her hair slashed through the air, through necks and legs, spilling blood down the mountainside. Where his guards had balked, the Yumi was ruthless and efficient. She quickly butchered twelve priests, leaving only eight. Leo watched as a priestess bolted in his direction, but Ferma whipped around, her hair swinging behind her and slicing into the priestess’s back. The priestess’s eyes widened as they met Leo’s.
He saw her hatred, her pain, but mostly, he saw her fear.
Ferma withdrew her hair, and the priestess sagged forward like a puppet, her eyes, lost and empty, staring upward.
