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Odessa cleared her throat. “You miss her. We all know that.”
I grimaced in the direction of the pillar I’d been torturing. They’d have had to have been blind not to. “Now’s the point where you say ‘Do you think this is what Morgan would have wanted?’”
Odessa was quiet for a moment. “I’m not particularly interested in that.”
“No? She’s your empress.”
“Only because you arranged it so that she had no other choice.”
The accusation hung in the air.
“No one who desires power should ever have it,” I repeated the refrain I had told myself was ample justification for my actions.
She shook her head. “But that’s just it. You never did. Desire it, I mean. Can you really look me in the eyes and say you did?”
I touched the pillar with my knuckles, resisting the urge to give it another good tap.
“And giving power to one who has no desire for it?” Odessa continued. “Who has no investment in its outcome? Are there any wise proverbs aboutthatsort of folly?”
“She’s invested. She cared about all of this. All of you,” I retorted.
Odessa shrugged. “Perhaps. Perhaps in time she might have. Even so, thrusting the rulership of a continent into the hands of a woman who was just beginning to come into her own power... Well...”
“Well?”
“It seems unwise. I’m surprised you didn’t foresee this outcome. You’re usually...more astute.”
It was a bitter compliment. A jab. I could take it. She was right, after all.
“I didn’t say I thought she’d embrace the position with open arms,” I muttered.
Odessa cocked an eyebrow.
“Didn’t think she’d flee across the world either,” I clarified.
“Part of that was due to Beks,” the dark-haired woman said with surprising softness. “You couldn’t have anticipated his death.”
“Ah, but I should have,” I said bitterly. “That’s just it. She thought I should have. She blamed me for Beks. Not just Javer. And she was right. He was a child. A child I sent to the front lines. A child I allowed to die. She was right to blame me.”
“You trusted Javer’s judgment. You believed him when he said Beks was ready.” Odessa sighed. “No one could have held that boy back. He was...”
“A force to be reckoned with. Sounds familiar.” I punched the pillar again. I couldn’t resist. The column trembled.
Dust trickled down from the gold inlay ceiling.
“I’d prefer it if you didn’t bring the roof down on our heads while I was here,” Odessa said. “Common courtesy.”
“Sorry.” I steadied the pillar with both hands, then glanced upwards.
It wasn’t the only pillar in the room. The structural integrity of the chamber should be all right.
Although, with the recent attack, I supposed I couldn’t be too certain. The palace had lost some structural soundness in spots. In more ways than one.
“Is this what you want?” Odessa’s eyes were still fixed on the pillar. “To bring us down? To watch us crumble?”
“Of course not.”
“And yet you would topple the Siabra court without a care. Even now, we stand on the brink of chaos. Unguided, unled. Our former regent locked in the palace dungeons. Our new empress gone. Meanwhile, our prince spends his days alone.” She gestured to a table laden with untouched trays. “You don’t eat. You ignore friends who try to visit.”
