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“I think you forget who is powerless now,” she said.
I was still clutching my blade, and I lifted my hands to my neck, hoping to stab at whatever magic she used to hold me. But there was nothing to grasp, nothing to pry away.
“You know this is what they wanted? All of us, divided, at war with one another. It’s hard to reach a goal when everyone is fighting.”
I could not form words; my mouth was full of saliva and my tongue felt swollen.
Suddenly, she released me, and I collapsed to the floor, coughing while simultaneously gasping for breath.
“It’s no fun talking to myself,” she said.
“Fuck you,” I rasped, but the words were choked. “What do you want?”
“To restore balance to the world,” she said.
I crawled forward and sat up, wincing as I swallowed, knife still in hand. “What does that even mean?”
“It means people have to die,” she said. “Peace makes no one powerful, Isolde. Even High Coven knew that. It is what tore us apart in the end.”
“Youtore us apart.”
“Vada toreusapart,” Ravena snapped. “She was the one who sent us across Cordova to serve kings in their courts, all becauseshewanted power. That was the beginning of our end.”
Vada was an elder. She had handed me off to Dragos dressed in red, though I’d begged her to let me wear another color. She’d frowned at me, too proud of her work.
“But you are beautiful,” she’d said.
“This color is associated with depravity among my people,” I’d argued.
“But that is not the truth in Revekka. You must respect their customs.”
“Or they could respect mine,” I snapped.Iwas the one with real power.
“Yesenia.” Vada cupped my face between her cold and wrinkled hands. Her palms were softer than mine. They always had been. Vada had never planted her own herbs or harvested them. “We will not survive if we are not docile.”
“Is survival worth it, then?” I asked.
“When you have someone to live for, no sacrifice is too great,” she’d said.
But then we had gone on to give up our power, our autonomy, our lives, and we had lost those we loved anyway.
“You cannot believe that you have true power just because you sit upon a throne and wear a crown,” said Ravena.
“Adrian treats me as his equal,” I said.
“You do not know the man you married,” she said. “Adrian sees a use for you just as he sees a use for everyone else he allows into his life. He just happens to fuck you.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, my fingers tightening around the hilt of my blade.
“You think Adrian wants to be free of Dis?” she asked. “What he really wants is to take her place.”
“What’s so wrong with being a god?” I asked.
“It’s not becoming one that’s the problem; it’s who has to die for him to get there.” She paused, and then said, “But you know he is dangerous. Or at least you did—he’s why you created the book.”
“You’re lying,” I said, but the shock of her words straightened my spine and I hated how truthful they felt.
She smiled and shook her head. “I am many things, but I have never been a liar, Yesenia.”
