The Queen held out her hand for Azari’s crown, and I gave it to her without thought.
I’d welcome any help if it meant destroying the wall.
She took it from my hands, then lifted it toward her head, but stopped.
“This isn’t right.” She frowned down at the object. “This isn’t how Azari’s crown should feel.”
“What do you mean?”
She blinked up at me. “All peris in the Court of River have the power of life. But some have different affinities within that power—Kiyan’s is growth and creation, mine is sensing and crafting the spark of power in a magical object, just like Queen Azari. The crown has magic in it, yes, but it is very weak. No more than any other minor relic imbued with life magic.” She frowned down at it. “I don’t know what this is, but it isn’t the Queen’s crown.”
Everything I had gone through, all the work we had done, the battles fought.
Torture, resistance, losing my mother.
All of it, for a fake crown.
Despair flooded me, eating at my gut. Panic burst at my chest, desperate to get out.
No.
No, no, no.
It couldn’t be. Not this.
I never imagined I’d get here and the damned thing wouldn’t work.
“Could its magic have been taken?”
She looked over the crown. “I don’t think so. The magic was forged into it when created. It has a thread of magic, but I doubt this was made by Azari. Because her crown is connected to the entire Court, and the wall should answer to it.Ishould answer to it. This crown was never hers.”
I shook my head. “This can’t be happening. First Kiyan and now this?” I could feel my control slipping, desperation setting in.
I’d pegged all my hopes on this—I’d lost the man I loved, put my nani and cousin in danger, likely caused the death of my whole village.
All for this.
And it hadn’t even worked.
A noise in the distance caught my attention, and I turned my gaze down the River.
The same cursed woman who had helped pull me from the water stood downriver, looking at the Queen and me.
No, she wasn’t looking at the Queen, she was only looking at me.
“Who is she?” whispered the Queen.
“She’s one of the cursed, the zulmi. She helped me when I first came here,” I answered her, not taking my gaze off the woman.
Something about her had caught my attention, something I hadn’t noticed before.
There was a thick golden bangle on her wrist.
I walked toward her slowly, my heart pounding so loudly it drowned out the rushing river beside us.
The old woman watched me, her eyes homed in on me, as I got closer.
Kiyan’s voice was in my head—there’s part of them still in there, waiting to get out.
