Nerissa’s jaw flexed.
“But your wards wouldn’t let me in,” Veskor said, voicerasping. “So I left a message in a bottle. A note. I didn’t know who would find it.”
The crowd broke into loud mutters.
Benedict went rigid.
“The draken Anar found it,” Veskor said.
Canavar inhaled sharply.
“He left the island while I slept. Vampyres attacked him on the continent.” Veskor said quietly.
We waited for him to continue.
“I found him afterward,” he whispered. “I put him in the ocean. It was the only burial I knew. I couldn’t dig a hole myself and I didn’t want the buzzards to get him. I … I’ve seen what buzzards can do.”
Nerissa covered her mouth.
No one moved.
No one breathed.
Then Perri wriggled free from her parents, ran to Veskor, and wrapped her tiny arms around his leg.
“He’s GOOD,” she declared, glaring at every adult within reach. “He SAVED ME.”
The crowd erupted again into arguments and shouts, whispers and accusations.
“Kill him!”
“Spare him!”
“Exile him!”
“But he saved her!”
“He caused this!”
“He didn’t mean to!”
“He’s dangerous!”
“Broken!”
Beside me, Benedict tensed. I grabbed his wrist and Ronan stepped forward.
“He stays on Lyoness. He is one of us,” Ronan challenged the crowd.
My heart soared, and Benedict jerked in surprise. I stepped toward Veskor, who was shaking. His eyes locked on mine: defiant, wary, utterly lost.
Veskor bowed his head, before his knees gave out. He fell on his hands, but didn’t raise himself. Instead he slid along the ground, prostrating himself before me and the mercy of his own people.
I hesitated as every eye on the island shifted to me.
This was it.
Would I prove my worth as Queen of the Drakens or be revealed to be the weak human girl I’d always believed myself to be?
