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“Let me out of these chains!” I spat. “I can’t just lie here like this!”
“I don’t think that’s wise,” she sighed. “We still don’t really trust each other, do we?”
I laughed mirthlessly. “Well, gee, Lysandra. You seem really swell and all, kidnapping me and moving me across almost two kingdoms while I was out, but yeah, I’d say it’s going to take some time before I warm up to you.”
She cracked a bemused grin at me. “You might, you know? Stranger things have happened.”
I snorted. “I highly doubt that.”
She studied my face for a moment, as if debating whether to get into it. Her desire to tell her side of the story won out.
“Have you heard of the Anti-Order?” she asked.
My neck stiffened more, a feat I didn’t think was possible, and yet I was sure if I moved it an inch, it would snap in half.
What fresh hell is this now? The Anti-Order? What do they have to do with anything?
“I can tell by your expression that you have heard of them,” Lysandra purred. “What do you know?”
I swallowed and told her what I could remember from the bits and pieces of news I’d read online. I hadn’t paid much attention, the story hardly making a blip in Goldhaven after it had happened.
“They were the faeries who were working with Agnan in the Order of Souls,” I rushed out. “They were all loyal to the Order until Queen Mirielle of Silverhold rehabilitated them, and now they work looking to find anyone against the kingdoms. Then they became the Anti-Order to ensure that this never happens again.”
“And what do you know about the Order of Souls?” she pressed.
What bullshit pop quiz is this?
“The same as everyone else, I guess,” I hemmed. “They started when the Original Family ruled the whole world and eventually were responsible for taking them out.”
“Why?” Lysandra was reminding me of my ninth-grade math teacher, firing out one question after the other.
“Why, what?” I retorted bitterly.
“Why would the Order need to do that?”
Because they’re crazy and a cult?I almost said, but I intuitively knew that was the wrong answer.
“To… to get rid of all the monarchies,” I replied slowly. “But they’re gone now. The Alpha King of Silverhold killed Agnan.The Order of Souls dispersed. The remaining members went through deprogramming and detoxification to rid themselves of Agnan’s influence.”
“Well… that’s what Grendel—I’m sorry, what Mirielle wanted, yes,” Lysandra agreed, a bitter expression falling over her face. “That is what the Queen of Silverhold is calling herself these days, isn’t it? She never did go back to her real name?”
I tried to shake my head in ignorance, but even that didn’t work well with the invisible chains keeping me down.
“I don’t know. I don’t know her. All I know is that she used to be under Agnan’s control, too.” Lysandra rolled her eyes, and apprehension snaked down my spine. “You’re from the Order of Souls?” I asked, still perplexed. “Are you part of the Anti-Order, too?”
“In a way,” she agreed. “I was, and then I wasn’t… well, according to anyone who asked, anyway. I remained with my crew in the orphanage through their changes and stayed with this so-called Anti-Order, much as it churned my stomach to go against my own and serve the very royals that we were trying to eliminate.”
“I don’t understand the Order of Souls,” I grumbled, more to myself than Lysandra. “Why have you always been so dead set on removing the monarchy?”
She scoffed. “Because no one should have to answer to a king!” she roared, her face flaming with anger. “The continent belongs to all of us!”
“The kingdom does belong to all of us. The king works for the residents!”
“You’re naïve if you believe that,” she grumbled. “They really have you twisted up, don’t they?”
I rolled my eyes. “Didn’t Agnan want to kill the royals, so he could rule himself? Isn’t that the same thing? Everyone would have to answer to him, which is the same thing as answeringto a king. You’re serving someone who goes against what you’re fighting for.”
The female’s eyes widened. “You have it all wrong.”
