We’d been meeting every night, discussing our goals for what we wanted after the war. Besides abolishing rank, Brighta didn’t have a structure in place that would work for both kingdoms, and if we wanted to change Tennebris and Lux, we had to figure it out.
I understood the need for the meetings before. I knew they were important, but to sit here and talk about it now after everything we just saw…
“You can’t be serious?” I spat. Dravenburg glared at me. I knew he never cared for me, and at the moment, I’d be dead if looks could kill. I realized it was where Savannah got her scowl from. But I didn’t hold back, leveling a stare of my own. “You want to sit here and continue to talk about our goals? You want to wait a week and do nothing when people are dying right now? We need to attacknow. We can’t wait a week for—”
“Miss Rumor, I highly suggest you learn to hold your tongue on matters you clearly do not understand.” His voice sent chills down my spine. His words felt like a dagger in my back. How could he be so heartless? “This is awar,” he spat the word in my face. “It needs to be calculated. We need to act on facts and clearly devised plans. We cannot make decisions based on emotions alone. We need time to formulate a calculated move so that we have no surprises. The Lux King is murdering these people as bait. He knows once we witness what has been happening, we’ll walk into his perfectly constructed trap. So forgive me if I do not want to risk the lives of everyone in this camp because you can’t wrap your head around the fact that people die in a war.”
I was fuming. Tezya’s hand found its way back to my thigh. I could faintly hear him enter my mind,Relax, Rumor. Breathe. You need to breathe.
But Dravenburg didn’t stop his speech, his eyes didn’t leave mine either as he continued on. “You’ve been discussing governing options for weeks now, but are nowhere closer to finding a solution. You cannot expect anyone to want to join you if they don’t even know what they’re fighting for. Obviously, you want to stop the death and maltreatment of the lower ranks. That has been the premise of Brighta since it started as a refuge, but what are you going to suggest in the interim? What will you offer those who might be willing to risk their lives and assist you? You will find that many people will not be willing to die for half-ass plans, and what has been working here will not work in Tennebris and Lux.
“If you don’t know exactly what you’re fighting for—if you don’t know exactly what your end goals are—you’re only setting yourselves up for failure. You can’t wait until after a war to decide next steps. You’re at your weakest once the fighting ends. It’s the perfect time for people to crawl out of their shadows and attack, and then sooner or later, you’ll be right back to whereyou started, and anyone who lost their lives would have died for nothing. So I’ll tell you again, you must figure out your goalsbeforestarting this war. You have a week. You can’t keep pushing off topics because not everyone agrees. Take votes and start making the hard decisions. You will not please everyone.”
A long stretch of silence ran through us. I was fuming, forcing myself to take slow breaths and trying to stop picturing all the vile deaths I just witnessed, trying not to picture Miles among them.
Dovelyn finally spoke, “It’s clear we should only have one kingdom after the war. This camp is proof we can coexist, and Tezya is proof our kind can mix.”
“Okay, that’s a start,” Dravenburg said before moving onto the next question.
Two hours later, the thing we struggled the most with was what governing system we would use. We couldn’t decide if we should still have a king and a queen. Dravenburg strongly recommended that we keep rulers and the Council the same, suggesting the more radical changes we implemented, the more likely people might not agree with us. That we should start slow and not change everything at once. We also had no idea what to do about the Trials.
Dravenburg finally sighed and said, “What kingdom will you take over? Will you live in Lux or Tennebris?”
A strange silence swept over us. If we only wanted one kingdom after this, if we wanted everyone to live together, we had to pick. But which one?
It was Sie who finally spoke, “Neither.” Everyone turned to look at him. He had been quiet the entire meeting, not uttering a single word during the last couple of hours until now. He just sat there deathly still, taking everything in. And for some reason it made me question what would happen to him after everything was over. Was he quiet because he didn’t think he’d still be here? Did he think he’d die fighting because of the target on hisback? And then something else clicked in my mind—if we won, would we be able to set his record straight? Would we be able to convince everyone it wasn’t him who had been killing their loved ones? Or would they demand his blood in retribution?
“I don’t like the idea of your kind taking over another area on Earth. You have two places you already claim. Three if you count your prison, surely you can decide between the two kingdoms—”
Sie cut him off. “You should start over on Allium.”
Everyone stilled, all shocked by his statement to go back to our old planet, but all I could think about was how he saidyouand notwe.
It was Savannah who finally asked, “How?”
Sie swallowed, his jaw ticked, as he met my gaze for one millisecond before turning his attention back to the mortal leader. “The AASP is in Tennebris, located in Backerly—”
Rainer interrupted. “The AAA-what?”
Sie narrowed his eyes, but it was Peter who answered. “It’s the Allium Advenian Space Program.”
Rainer nodded, but Sie didn’t bother to look before he continued. “When I was the prince, I visited their facilities. They have a means to go back, and their research discovered the planetshouldbe habitable again.”
I lost my breath. My mind whirling back to when we went on our tour. When Sie first met Miles, he had said,“I would like to check out your research.”
I hadn’t realized he actually went. I hadn’t realized he took Miles up on his offer. And the fact that he’d done it. The fact that Miles succeeded. Tears welled in my eyes that I couldn’t hold back. I tried to focus my vision, but all I saw was black hair with bright red roots and shaking hands. I watched Vallie sprint out of the tent.
The conversation I had with Miles the night I was leaving for the Tennebrisian castle haunted me.
“Maybe you could fulfill our childhood fantasy of finding us a planet to live on,”I had said to him as I hugged him goodbye.
“Anything for you,”he replied.
My heart stopped because he actually did it, but he wouldn’t be able to come with us. It wouldn’t be him, Vallie, and me like we had always planned, like we promised each other as little kids.
I zoned out the rest of the meeting. I couldn’t focus. I knew they decided on looking into the AASP’s research, but I wasn’t sure what else was said.
All I could think about was how I lost the only family I had ever known.
