Briar gives me a long, searching look. Her frown is etched deep, but she knows me well enough to tell when I’d rather be alone, so she doesn’t follow when I turn and walk away.
I end up on the path Reave and I took the other day, strolling along the creek to the same small sitting area as before. Settling down on the bench, I stare at the moon’s reflection in the rippling water. My thoughts race. I absently trace the symbol Malachi and I shared—once a source of comfort.
Now it just makes me more confused.
At some point, you have to move on from the ones you’ve lost. I know that. If I’d carried every piece of my parents, of Mal, of everyone who’s died…the weight of it all would have pulled me under long ago.
But sometimes it feels a little like betrayal, allowing myself to keep living in spite of them. To laugh, to love, to hope. And this…whateverthis isthat’s stirring in my heart whenever I look at the king…how could I possibly let myself feel it?
Mal hated this kingdom and its rulers even more than I did. Part of the reason there was such violence in the home he fled from was because of Mouren’s relentless, destabilizing attacks; they weakened his kingdom enough to allow Queen Meira an opportunity to steal the throne. All the violence that followed with her rising regime can be traced, however indirectly, back to the very kingdom I’ve been feasting and dancing in.
So much violence.
There have been far too many moments lately where I’ve forgotten about the death and destruction Mouren has caused our world. Because the palace is warm and bright, and Reave is polished. Calculating. He doesn’t ravage the way one expects a monster to.
But I watched him methodically kill dozens of people on the very first night we met.
I’ve let him methodically carve his way deeper into me, too, and until tonight, I didn’t realizehowdeep.
And that’s arguably more dangerous than a raging dragon—a killer who doesn’t announce himself, a serpent who bites quietly enough, softly enough that you don’t even realize it’s injected its venom into you.
So I don’t know why I’m not sprinting into the distant woods and trying to disappear, or why I continue to sit on this cold, hard bench, even as Reave approaches me.
He doesn’t say anything at first, silently gathering up stones and tossing them into the water.
“Are you here for your coat?” I finally ask.
“Keep it. It looks better on you, anyway.”
I shake my head, steeling myself, determined not to fall for any more of his flattery. Dragging the toe of my expensive-looking shoe around in the mud, I say, “I know it was probably a breach of contract, slipping away without your permission.”
He straightens, tossing a rock up and down in his hand as he considers my words. “As we’ve discussed at length, it was a poorly constructed agreement. So I really have no choice but to let it slide.”
I exhale a slow breath through my nose.
“Come on,” he says after a pause, throwing the rock into the creek and offering his hand.
I stare at him without moving.
“We have a dragon to unchain, don’t we?”
Right. That. It’s the only thing I would have been willing to get up for, I think—the thought of going to Sesca. I’ve been so preoccupied with preparing and surviving the Sun Harvest Feast that I’ve seen very little of her since our visit the other night. Her cryptic words about me, about the stateof my soul and otherwise, have kept me at a distance too, if I’m honest; I still don’t know how to respond to any of it.
But facing her can’t be any more confusing than spending another moment alone with the king.
Slowly, I take Reave’s hand and let him pull me to my feet. His hold lingers just a touch longer than necessary, but I don’t dwell on this. My focus shifts to the distant coliseum, and that’s where it stays.
Neither of us says a word during the long walk to reach it.
While he gathers the servants and tools necessary to properly unbind her, I step into the arena alone.
Sesca rises to her feet at the sight of me, slinking down from her platform, golden eyes shining faintly in the low lighting. As if she can feel the swarm of unsettled emotions tormenting me, a wave of warmth sweeps out from her, wrapping around me like an embrace.
I take the first somewhat calm, normal breath I’ve taken all evening as I come to a stop in front of her, my hands jammed into the pockets of Reave’s coat.
“I’ve come to set you free.”
She cocks her head.
