“I haven’t entertained Astan’s thoughts,” I retorted, offended by the very idea.
Domino didn’t argue, just motioned to my book. “Fear is a lock, not a key.”
“I’m not afraid,” I growled. But wasn’t I? Riotous thoughts churned at the fringes of my mind. I was now engaged to Cyrus, even though I’d read a snippet suggesting we would soon become enemies. What if I read somethingworse?
“The pain you experience following the right path will never compare to what you endure when you don’t.”
Okay, so, he obviously knew about the engagement. “You’re not helping matters.” I shoved the words through clenched teeth. “This is life and death, and you are spouting pearls of wisdom rather than answers.”
“You will never advance to victory if you cling to the defeat. Is that plain enough for you?”
I licked my lips, the hesitation a bittersweet tinge on my tongue. Victory meant trusting Soal, no matter what. Could I really break things off with Cyrus if the god demanded it? Love for the prince roared inside me, a savage, untamed force unwilling to surrender to time or reason. But ...
To save his life, yes, I could break things off. Forever, if necessary. So. I did it. I pulled the trigger and made the decision. Whatever I read, whatever the book told me to do, I would do, even if I must part with the man I loved. His life mattered more than anything else. Better to have loved and parted than be the reason for his eternal undoing.
Determined, I refocused on my book and gave a little squeal. The code had returned. Guess I’d made the correct choice.
After drawing in a resigned breath, I concentrated on the symbols. They morphed into letters and words, no struggle required. Excitement came rushing back, twice as intense. I set the book on the table and read. And read. Page after page opened to me, recounting a scene frommy past, filled with details I’d missed in the moment and threaded with hints of what the future held.
The more I read, the wider dread opened its jaws, preparing to gobble me whole.
When I came to the end, I sat frozen, blinking at Domino, my mind like a shattered mirror, with jagged pieces just out of reach, reflecting too much and too little all at once. However much time had passed, he hadn’t budged.
“You know what I read,” I croaked.
He didn’t attempt to deny it. “Yes.”
“Felix shot me.”
“Yes,” he repeated.
Tears seared my eyes as I read the passage again.
High Prince Summit shouts, “A high prince is dead, fall back, fall back.” His voice cracks with panic as he herds soldiers toward CURED’s vans.
My heart threatens to seize. Not Cyrus. Please, not Cyrus. The very idea nearly paralyzes me.
Domino finishes calling for more elites and charges back to the field, wind flaring his robe as he waves the newcomers to their assigned positions.
High Prince Felix spots me. He may be behind me, but his thoughts curdle the air between us. He raises his harbinger. Hesitates. And squeezes the trigger.
Agony sears my midsection. I crumple, the world tilting sideways. As I hit the ground, my blurred gaze snags on High Princess Lolli. In that moment, I’m certain. It had to be her.
“Why?” I croaked. I’d had an enemy, and I hadn’t known it.
“Felix’s reasons are his own, but I have permission to tell you he’s a Soalian who verges on reinfection. A rogue.”
“Felix is Soalian,” I echoed, shocked to my core. “And he decided tomurderme.”
A tender sorrow crept into the librarian’s eyes. “Every human faction has those who are good and those who are bad. We are no different.”
But. Cyrus’s brother wanted me dead.
I swiped at my burning eyes and jumped to the end of the passage, where the true horror lurked.
As I stalk through the base, my focus remains on Lolli. I fail to notice the fury in Felix’s eyes as he reclines against the wall. He’s certain his bullet hit its mark. Knows I was healed supernaturally. But by Soal or Astan?
Felix shifts his concentration to my companion, his decision clear. If he cannot kill me, he must take out his brother before the coronation.
