“Then you can tell us your initial findings before I depart for Ravence.” Elena stepped forward, but it was Samson that Jaya watched. It was his look of pure, utter pain that suddenly made her twist in sympathetic agony.
Elena held up her hand, and a flame flared out with a soft hiss. “Sam.”
When he did not move, she softened her voice a fraction. “Please.”
With a deep sigh, Samson came forward. He held his palm under hers, and Jaya watched, her breath held, as a second flame burst to life. They were so bright compared with the darkness of the hall that Jaya had to look away for a moment, blinking rapidly. When she turned back, she saw the flames twine together.
Quickly, she raised her orb. Held it over the dancing, growing fire.
“Easy,” she whispered.
The heat of the inferno beat against the back of her hand. It felt like a needle, piercing her flesh. Jaya bit back a hiss of pain as she brought the orb closer. “Easy.”
Elena guided her hand up, Samson following, and together, they tucked the flame into the orb. Jaya snapped it shut quickly, and then hugged it to her chest, afraid they would change their minds.
But Elena only stood there for a moment, stock-still, as she watched the intertwined fire in the orb.
“Take good care of it,” she said, her voice oddly distant. She left then, her sari fluttering behind her like a dying, fading flame.
Samson hesitated. Jaya noticed how his eyes tracked her down the hall, how he always searched for her in any room they entered. She did not know if Samson Kytuu loved their queen. But perhaps that was love—obsession. The desperate urge to make sure the one thing you desired most was always within your reach.
They stood in silence, and when Samson finally spoke, his voice cracked with the weight of unsaid emotions.
“Be careful, Jaya,” he said, looking down the hall at Elena’s fading form. “Fire is more than just power. It is resonance. It drives us to do mad things.”
And with that, he followed in pursuit of the queen.
Jaya watched him go, her neck crawling with that strange sensation of being watched, but when she turned, there was no one there.You’re being paranoid.She hugged the orb closer. Dully, she felt a pang of guilt, then moved quickly to bury it. She thought of Div, of the freedom they would have, the one almost within their reach. The flame beat against the orb. Its heat pricked her skin, but Jaya only held on tighter.
CHAPTER 65
ELENA
Our stories are full of fools who, in agony, drive the blade deeper and call it love.
—fromThe Legends and Myths of Sayon
She slipped out of the palace, following the moonlit canals toward the shore. The moons, yellow and soft like the heart of a lotus, swelled over the horizon. Music trilled in the distance as the city celebrated, but unlike before, Elena no longer felt the urge to dance.
A large park floated along the port, and beyond it, Elena could see the silver stretch of the beach gleaming like an oiled blade. Her steps slowed. For a moment, Elena stood transfixed as the tide crashed into the shore with steady, even sighs. But then her gaze drifted to the killdoms out in the bay, and the moment passed. She shuttered her wonder.
Just one more night, and then we can all go home.
Elena walked down the hillside to the park. She had time before the hour, and she knew, as she wandered through the still gardens, that he would come. She knew before she even felt the faint edges of his Agniflickering in her mind’s eye. Birds of paradise fluttered in between the trees, and Elena kept her eyes trained on one as she felt him approach.
“Elena.”
She closed her eyes. Drew in a bracing breath, and then turned.
There was no warm light in his gaze now, no flirty smile. He stalked forward with the slow gait of a predator, and she thought, dully, that this was the Samson Kytuu she knew. Not the tender, beautiful man who asked her to dance and dressed her wounds. Her Samson was a monster.
“Why are you following me?”
“Why are you running?” he asked.
“I am not running,” she said, and he stopped a pace before her. She could see the silver glint of his urumi. Ironic, that they both wore weapons around their waist.
“I think you are,” he said. “I think you’re afraid, but I don’t understand why.”
