“Did you give a ring to two boys and tell them to come find me?” I narrowed my eyes, not forgetting she had called me a prince when I’d first walked in. There was no point in dancing around it.
She met my gaze solemnly, her coal eyes burning. “I did. Where are the little scamps?”
“Dead,” I returned, almost a snarl, remembering again the weight of their bodies, the whiteness of their hands when I’d stabbed them through the heart.
Tal stood at the tone of my voice, and the snap of his blade pulling free from its sheath sang through the room, though I didn’t glance in his direction.
The witch’s gaze didn’t change. “You killed them, then?”
“You didn’t give me a choice.”
“My boy, there are always choices. Resistance is an exercise in choices. Revolt? Hide? Protect? Live?” She took a step toward me, a vicious smile curling her lips. “We are, all of us, making choices to ensure the survival of our world.”
“And what was this?” I pulled the key from underneath my coat, the gleaming, ornate gold object incongruent with the muted colors of the room. “Why send them to me?”
“To see what sort of choice you would make, Prince.”
My eyes flickered to Tal then, but his face was blank, looking between me and Baghisha. He knew who I was, who my family was, of course. Most of the higher-ranking rebels in the Red Jasmine knew my real identity—it was the basis for forming the insurgence—to get the Court to rally behind a leader and free River from the brutal rule of Salt. But while we were organized rebels, we still couldn’t fight Salt when they had magic protections preventing us from doing so.
“And did I make the right one?”
“It looks like you took the ring to the River, so I have to assume you did.”
“The key is for a door in River then? Is it a way to get into Tirich Mir?” I took a step toward her, excitement rising in my chest.
But the light in her eyes dulled, and she shook her head. “No, young Prince, it is not a way to break the curse on the Golden Palace.”
“You need to stop calling him that,” growled Tal. “If you don’t want Salt overhearing you and executing Kiyan at dawn for his royal blood.”
“Easy, Tal.” I held up a hand before swinging my gaze back to Baghisha. “What is the key for, then? Why risk giving it to me?”
“You don’t recognize the jasmine flower at the top? You modeled your entire revolution after her.”
“Queen Azari,” breathed Talal, his tone filled with reverence at the mention of the long-dead fae Queen responsible for erecting the wall next to the human lands and protecting all of Peristan from the darkness spreading to us. I’d been thinking about her much more than usual after seeing her lost haath phool on the hand of that human girl.
Queen Azari was also the peri Queen responsible for the curse on Tirich Mir, trapping the royal family in the Golden Palace with no way out. Given that, I had mixed feelings about her, despite the esteem the River Court held her in.
“It’s the key to Queen Azari’s vault?” I folded my arms across my chest. “Where is it?”
Scholars across all peri courts had been looking for her vault for years.
Reza and the Salt Court had been looking for her vault for years.
It was the place where she hid her most powerful object—the crown she’d imbued with her immense magic. Something that would potentially flip the balance of power.
“That I can’t help you with.”
The witch’s eyes slid away from mine, and I snorted, incredulous.
“You give me a key to a vault I can’t find. Promised a power we won’t ever have. And you sentence two boys to death. For what? To play a game?” I turned away from her, disgusted. “You stayed in River, when the other churails left us. Maybe you should have left too.”
“I am part of this land, just as you are,” she whispered. “I’ve made mistakes here just like you. And I am trying to repent for those mistakes. Your magic is rooted in the earth of this Court. The River flows through your veins. You can stop this. You can find the vault and take the relic created by Azari to free River. Iknowyou can.”
“The peris in River are living in a nightmare, and we can’t depend on finding a power that has been lost for centuries. We need to do somethingnow.”
I strode toward the door, with Talal close behind me.
Baghisha stood in her little hut, her glowing eyes following me out. She looked as though she wanted to say something more, but didn’t have the words.
