“You speak as if you’ve spoken with him directly.”
Felix continued, ignoring my attempt to steer the conversation. “Before wedding Astan, she was married to Soal’s son, Tsuri. Are you familiar with the story?”
“Hmm,” I muttered, noncommittal. My heart pounded.
“Soalians tout Tsuri as a being of love and light, but if that’s true, why did his wife have a torrid affair with Astan? Why did she choose Astan even after Tsuri died from healing her?”
Questions I’d asked myself. And yet, in that moment, the answer seemed so clear. “Your argument is skewed.”
Felix blinked with surprise. “Is that so? Please, elaborate.”
“You lay the blame for Briar Rose’s unfaithfulness on the husband she betrayed.” I walked a tightrope here. By defending Tsuri, I could get myself into big trouble. But I couldn’t not point out the obvious, nowthat I saw it. “Whether he is love and light or not, she had a free will, the choice hers. From what you’ve described, it sounds like she had a duplicitous heart. Why not condemnherfor the affair?”
Like me, Felix muttered, “Hmm.”
A trumpet blasted, startling me and everyone else. I stiffened, thinking Astan’s horns were responsible, but I breathed a sigh of relief as the reason presented itself via masked servants who opened a set of double doors to welcome the emperor. He strode into the room with Giselle at his right, Winslet at his left, and Mr. Vyle on his heels. What a sight. They each wore a voluptuous black robe, with shadows draped over their shoulders like fur cloaks.
They said nothing, and thanks to the champagne, I almost laughed at the spectacle.
They stopped at the statue of Bala and stepped onto one of her paws, which now faced up with its claws flared, providing the perfect protective railing. That paw raised until the foursome looked down upon us. While others oohed and aahed, I vacillated between shock and horror.
Though silence reigned throughout the chamber, everyone reverential, the emperor raised his fist in the air in a demand for quiet. “Many in this room will soon be presented with the honor of a lifetime. The possibility of hosting a god, their power ours. Those of you selected will have a seat at my table and wield abilities beyond imagining. I know, I know,” he said. “Many of you have only just discovered these gods are real and that they wake.”
Astonishment charged the air. A single phrase snared me.Their power will become ours.Ours, he’d said, not theirs. He meant to accept a god, as well, but which one? Not Astan, the leader, since that “honor” (currently) belonged to Cyrus.
“Look past your shock,” he said. “Listen for the call ...”
My ears twitched, and my brow wrinkled. There was nothing, no sound.
Wrong. A soft melody drifted over the airwaves. A familiar, haunting song hummed by ...
“Arden Dawn Roosa . . .”
My gaze zoomed back to Briar Rose. The sound had come from her, her vocal cords trembling the slightest bit.
“Arden.” She angled her head toward me and blinked. Her stony gaze peered into my soul. “Not as lovely as the high princess, but able to do what she never has: inspire loyalty in a king. Well, a future king.”
“You’re speaking. You’re a statue, and you’re speaking.”
“Yes, but only in your mind, just as you are speaking in mine.”
I shook my head, attempting to dislodge her. Had to be the alcohol.
My gaze swept the room, landing on Roman. He stood in front of his look-alike statue, staring up, quiet, utterly entranced. In fact, everyone stood in front of a statue, staring up. Trainees and royals alike. Cyrus had returned, and he, Felix, and Summit stood in front of Astan. High Princess Lolli now pressed at my side, focused on Briar Rose.
What was even happening right now?
“Let me know you,” the goddess said. She shifted her position and extended a flower down to me, as if in offering.
Queasy, I rasped, “You think to choose between the high princess and me.”
“I do. The problem is, Soal seeks to recruit you.” The barest tendril of hatred slipped into her tone. “He’s erected a hedge of energy around you, preventing me from performing a proper read.”
The queasiness worsened. She sensed Soal. How long until she and the others realized he protected me not because he desired to work with me but because he already did? “Let me make your decision easier. I refuse to host you.” Perhaps the wrong thing to admit to her face.
Her chuckle tinkled like bells, the amused sound seemingly genuine, telling me she was unoffended by my refusal. “That’s because you haven’t yet realized the truth about Soal. How dangerous and deceitful he is. How we are the only line of defense capable of defeating him.”
“And yet you didn’t defeat him,” I reminded her. “Even now, you’re trapped in stone because he bound you.”
