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All the same, the answers Bard provided only made me realize how big a problem I have on my hands. The Proxy Vow solved nothing. For us or for them. It was merely a Band-Aid.

And Alwar’s plan was to hit the restart button? Why? Eventually, both worlds will end up right back here again.

“So? Is Bardolf at peace with us, with his new role?” Tiago pushes, yanking me from my heavy thoughts.

No. Not even a little. There will be hell to pay for all of you, but I’m done. I have to pick a side, and I pick us. Humans.

I choose all the people in my community who were there for me despite their animosity for Grandma Rain. All the people who have no clue that their lives are balanced on the edge of a razor blade. They were the missing piece of the puzzle for me; realizing that I’m the only one who has my world’s back. Me. That’s it. There is no cavalry. No hot guy in a red cape with greased abs. Lake Norfolk is the only one on duty at the 911 call center. Sort of like my old job, but with monsters and a thousand times scarier.

“Sure. I guess Bard’s okay with his new role,” I say. “He wasn’t himself anymore. Didn’t really talk much about you guys,” I lie.

“I am pleased to hear this. Our past was not a pleasant one. We each did what we must to survive and keep the kingdom intact.”

He means that Bard backed his mother. The other brothers backed the father.

I play dumb, because Bard’s final words left zero doubt where to place my cards: “There are scores to settle, Lake,” he said. “And the No Ones are through with being slaves to the Blood King—to anyone. We will no longer serve as the enforcers of vows. We will decide who to take, and we alone.”

“You mean you’re going to break your own vow?” I asked.

“Who will punish us, Lake?”

Nobody.

So if the No Ones are out, what does that do to all the vows captured in the scriptures written on Benicio’s skin? Only honorable people, like Alwar, will keep their word.

Still, Monsterland is about to descend into chaos.

Unless someone stops it. But how?

After another day of marching, our party finally arrives to “the ocean.” It’s nothing like mine at home. This one is thick and syrupy and the color of tar. It smells like it, too. I finally get why the water from River Wall Manor is so crucial to their world.

“So, things live in that muck?” I ask Tiago, watching the viscous waves ride the blackened shoreline in slow motion. Above us is a blood-red sky with burnt-orange clouds. It’s haunting.

“Many things.”

“I’m good with not knowing what they are, in case you were feeling like giving me a lesson on Monsterland oceanography.”

“I was not.”

Tiago falls silent for a long moment while I watch our war posse start to assemble fishing nets from reeds growing just beyond the black sandbank.

I can almost taste his anxiety. He’s been like this since my return from the meeting with Bard. Maybe he suspects Bard told me more than I let on.

Or he didn’t expect my return. It’s no secret Tiago doesn’t approve of my marriage to Alwar. If that’s true, then right about now, Tiago’s worried. If I survived the No Ones, then maybe I have a chance of surviving a discussion with the Mountain People. Maybe he doesn’t want that. Tiago would be next in line for the throne if Alwar isn’t freed and I’m dead.

I’m not saying he wants Alwar killed. I’m saying that whatever happens, he wants me out of the picture.

I have no choice but to punt. “You might as well tell me what’s grinding on your nerves, Tiago. At this point, you have more to gain from trusting me than lying.”

“What do you mean?” His dark brows shrug.

“Let’s not bullshit each other, okay? You don’t want me as queen. I only agreed to the role to give the War People a fighting chance.”

“And?

“Now we’re here. I’ve come to ask the Mountain People to let Alwar go. I’ve come knowing they’ll probably kill me.”

“And?” He says it like he just couldn’t care.

And I’m testing you. So far, you’re failing. “If there’s anything I can do to increase my odds of living and saving your brother, now’s the time to tell me.”

That War Man back in the great war hall mentioned they have a parcel I could grant the Mountain People, but it’s small, covered in garbage, fecal matter, and whatever else they throw out. And it has no access to the stream. In other words, nobody would ever want to live there. If Tiago has good intentions, he’ll point out that offering this “crappy” land is a bad idea. He’ll warn against it and suggest something else.

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