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“This is mine,” I told him softly, watching his face change as the truth set in. “Mine to do whatever I want with. Mine to use to bring you to your knees.”
“There are bigger monsters than me out there, just waiting for you, daughter.”
I forced a grin onto my face. “Oh, I know. I’ve met them.”
“Bigger, even, than her.”
I tried not to wonder what he meant by that. Then I didn’t have time to wonder as Carex’s insectile claws clicked and he circled to the right, trying to turn me away from his guard, to give them an opening to attack me from behind. Like I would fall for so simple a ruse.
Like Raz and Zorander hadn’t chided me a hundred times for leaving my right side open.
Enough.
Enough of these games and petty maneuverings.
Enough of wasting time while Zorander and Tristan fought alone on the battlefield below. I sent a shimmering blast of magic straight through the remaining guards, and they scattered across the floor, smoke drifting from their unmoving bodies.
I turned my attention back to Carex. My father.The monster.
My breath grew thin as I contemplated just how deeply he’d damaged these people, this realm. How far down his corruption went. Whether or not there was any saving this realm, even if we managed to outwit the Oracle and defeat the king.
A big part of me wondered if we were just wasting our time.
“You are the real monster, hoarding your power and allowing the magic to become twisted and corrupt in the first place.” My voice narrowed down to a slithering hiss, not the booming, otherworldly voice I’d used with Solok, but more like the Oracle’s serpentine drone. “Youstole this magic. Astragulas Centaria took the magic and the land for himself.”
He snorted. “You stole the magic as well. Do you really think we are that different,daughter?”
“You twisted this realm into something dark and evil. You ruined these people, these lands. You sucked the life out of this place like the monster you are.”
His eyebrows went up, his surprise seemingly genuine as he considered me. “You think this is because of me?” He waved his ruined hand at the wasteland stretching out around the city. “You think this decay ismy fault?” His laugh turned jolting and rough, as if he hadn’t laughed in a millennium.
“Twenty years ago, Caladrius was a verdant utopia, filled with life. That all changed the moment you were born.”
His eyes glittered with malice. “This scourge is on your head, daughter. You stole my magic, and in doing so, took every drop of magic from the land and its people. We had no choice but to cannibalize ourselves, as the land had no choice but to feed upon itself until it was exhausted.”
Some of the prisoners stopped their looting to listen.
“You have caused every bit of misery you see.” The king’s voice rang over the quieting crowd, chaos settling at his commanding voice. “Many of these prisoners were in those cells because they were forced into lives of thievery and crime…because of you.”
His accusation rumbled through me like an avalanche.
He spoke the truth.
I couldn’t pinpoint how I knew it was true, only that it was.I’d done this. I’d ruined this realm and turned these people into monsters. I’d twisted the power into something awful and killed everything that had once been alive.
You are poison. Everything you touch is either ruined or dies.
Not the words of an enemy, but of an ally.
Tristan’s words. And as it turned out…the truth.
Did Tristan know what he was saying? Did theyallknow?
Every eye that had been fixed on the king in hatred and fury now slowly turned on me, and I shuddered at what I glimpsed in their faces.
“I was a child. It was not my choice.” I didn’t call him a liar, because somehow, a thousand small, innocuous details came together to paint a picture that finally made sense.
Tavion’s regret when he told me the views from the Wynter Palace had once been beautiful.
