Elena turned it over and saw the Cyleoni black gada engraved on the back. A palace-grade pod. With a dull pang, she remembered the Phoenix engraved behind her and Leo’s own pods.
“Thank you.” She slipped it into her pocket. “I will see you soon, then, yes?”
Syla bowed. She bowed stiffly in return, and when the ramp of the tanker lifted, she found the king gazing up with the pinched, thoughtful expression of a man who had bartered his silver for gold and questioned its shine.
You will dance along with me, as long as I need.
They returned to Magar under a leaden sky. Dark, heavy clouds had crept down from the mountains, bringing the promise of a storm. Elena turned her face to the wind. In the desert, the aroma of dry stone and sand preceded the rain, but here in the canyons, an electric tang, rich and sharp, knifed down her throat, more taste than scent.
Visha, Chandi, Kruppa, and Akino waited for them, but she ignored their questions, striding past the cruisers. Samson called after her. But she only hurried down the canyon, and soon, his voice rang hollow within the boulders.
Heavens help me, Yassen.She gripped his holopod, her fingers trembling with rage.I want to claw his face off.
A light drizzle began to fall by the time she reached the temple. To her surprise, she found Samson already sitting on the steps.
“How—”
“I knew this would be the first place you would go.” His urumi flashed around his waist as he rose to his feet. “So I took a cruiser, like a sane person.”
He leaned one hand on a pillar, the other resting right above his blade. “Why are you running from me, Elena Aadya Ravence?”
Around them, passersby paused. A few hailed the Prophet, while others stopped to consider the scene: her, standing at the edge of the courtyard in the soft rain; him, waiting under the temple entrance with a weapon around his waist. Blocking her way. Elena considered turning away then and avoiding a spectacle. But she would be damned if she was going to allowhimto bar her from her own temple.
“I am not running,” she said, her voice thin with strain.
Samson stalked forward, each step slow and measured. “Then why are you avoiding me?”
I am avoiding an idiot who just bartered my country for fucking steel.
Gradually, with great effort, Elena forced her hands to uncurl. She counted to three, then to ten. Then, “Get out of my way, Samson.”
Samson stopped just on the other side of the gate, but he did not move out of her path. “You might think I overstepped, but I am ensuring victory forbothour countries. Ravence and Seshar.”
The roar of cruisers made her turn, and she saw Kruppa and the others arrive. The priestess began to walk toward the temple and stopped, frowning as she saw Samson standing within the gates.
“Blue Star,” she began.
He chuckled, his voice a low whisper so only Elena could hear. “See how even your own have come to regard me? Worship me? I am your Prophet and command your fires. I am not your enemy, Elena.”
Her eyes slowly slid to Kruppa. “Leave,” she growled.
“Your Majesty—”
But Elena’s gaze did not falter, and the priestess shrank back. Out of the corner of her eye, Elena saw Chandi lean forward with a taut alertness, almost as if she feared that Elena would harm the precious Blue Star. The thought made her smile.
Samson clocked it. “Does that amuse you?”
“Your hypocrisy amuses me, O Prophet. You call yourself powerful when your very power comes frommy people.” Her eyes found his. “Your Eternal Fire is built upon the beliefs of the Ravani.”
“You mean your false god?” He looked up at the Phoenix soaring upon the temple spire. “How many times do I have to explain? There is no Holy Bird. There never was. You have fallen for a lie, but just like Leo, you’re too stubborn to see it.”
“Do not say his name,” she said.
At this, Samson’s smile twisted into a vicious, vindictive sneer. “Do you know what he told me? That your people would never accept me. ButIcommand your Eternal Fire.Iheal your burned.Ibrought the army that freed this city.”
It struck her then. Samson was right. Hedidcontrol the Eternal Fire.He had done so on the day it had tried to attack them, and he had done it on the day her father had burned. Samson had killed her father. Samson had unleashed the Eternal Fire upon them all.
She trembled with the realization, and when she met Samson’s eyes, he flinched back from the fury in them.
