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Hope.
Then the Spirit on the street. The music singing that my sister remained close. The guilt enough to wish me back into death.
Compelled to move, to act, I grabbed Eydis’s journals and ran.
Truths gathered on my tongue. Had death freed me or would telling my own story risk my throat to close again? My steps slowed. Death supposedly broke all bonds, but I had been cursed by the undead divine necromancer ruler. The memory of dying, of fighting for air, locked my jaw as I entered the top floor.
My grandmother was behind the desk, the cat at her side.Did she sleep as little as the dead?
From the journals, I knew becoming high priestess changed you somehow. Perhaps Morovara was less human than she seemed. I had no idea of her age. No knowledge of her beyond Lumi rejecting her offers and that she had been High Priestess of Tal for as long as I could remember. I had no reason to trust her, but trust did not comefrom reason, it came from the heart and necessity; it was a leap into the dark believing they would catch you.
And I was already dead. There was nothing left to lose.
“What happened on the Day of the Dead three hundred years ago? Are there more journals?” I blurted out.
“It seems this is a day for guests,” she said as someone cleared his throat behind me.
I spun. He leaned against the wall next to the doorway I had just rushed through, storms in his eyes.
My heart jumped, might have stopped, as everything I was running from crashed together. I remembered his mouth against mine. The taste of his skin. I wanted to repeat it all, uncaring of the audience. I wanted him condemned and hanged like I’d been. And it all hurt like shards slicing into my heart.
Morovara only nodded respectfully. Perhaps when you reached her age it took more than an irate king to ruffle you.
“You were supposed to leave Tal.” His serious eyes dug into me, hard face in place. “I ordered it.”
I flinched at the hard words, but before I could answer, Morovara rose.
“I’m sure you did not come all the way here to argue with my great-granddaughter. What can the Temple do for the Crown?”
“Yourgreat-granddaughterstried to kill me? Infiltrated my life and molded my emotions? Is this another trap? Who better to be behind this all than the high priestess herself?” His beautiful lips twisted as he faced me, something in his eyes breaking. “Is this who you’ve been unable to betray? Did she curse her own descendant or was that pretend as well?”
“You think I killed my own sister in some kind of ploy?” The tender feelings evaporated. I marched up to him, finally accepting the anger that rested just below the surface. “All this has nothing to do with you or gaining your trust. You’re as much a tool as any of us.”
“A tool? I’m king.”
“Up there on the palace hill before your bone soldiers, you’re king. Here you’re just a man, like you said you wished to be.”
“You know all about my wishes, don’t you?”
A cold laugh erupted from my throat. “I never used my magic beyond saving your life, and the only emotions they shared with me were also painted across your face.”
“Magic you hid—”
A struck gong cut us both off. We stood close enough to touch. Close enough to kiss or bite.
“Children,” Morovara said, “you both came with questions and I’m an old woman with many responsibilities. The dead will wait for no one, not even the king of Tal.”
Reminded of his position, Dimitri broke our stare. The cold facade returned but his cheeks and neck remained flushed.
“So are you going to kill me? Twist my mind or imprison me?”
She chuckled. “Ask your real questions. No harm will come to you or my great-granddaughter if I can help it. I’m not your enemy.”
Dimitri considered us both and I could see the moment he decided not to push it. He was not dismissing his suspicions but saving them for later, like a piece in King’s Conquest sidelined but ready for a future assault. How well I had come to know his gorgeous, unreadableface.
He pulled a folded paper from his coat pocket and passed it to Morovara. I did not need to see it. I had carried it and its accompanying words around too long.
“Priestesses have been coming to the Goddess’s Garden for years to obtain this flower. Do you know it?”
