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“If I destroy the royal bloodline, it will destabilize the naga,” she says. “There’ll be civil war, chaos. Humans will be able to rebel.”
“That’s your plan?” I reply. “You want to destroy the entire royal bloodline? Do you know how much death you’re talking about?”
“Do you know how many humans have died because of your precious royal bloodline?”
That was a miscalculation. As she says it, the fire becomes hotter and bluer.
Another mistake like that and that might be it,I remind myself. Killing Zalith is the easy thing. It’s what she’s prepared for. Letting go is hard. It’s vulnerable. It means trusting us. And she has every reason not to do that.
Every reason except one. I love her. And I won’t let anything bad happen to her.
“It’s one thing to kill people you can tell yourself deserve it,” I tell her. “But if you want to end the royal bloodline, you’ll have to kill more than princes who are already in power. Rory is pregnant with Zalith’s children. Will you kill them?”
She looks confused. “No. No, of course not. That’s not what I mean.”
“But they carry the blood of Prince Zalith. If he dies, they’ll be among the heirs to the throne.”
“But they’re different. They’re babies. They’re innocent.”
“Then someone can be a member of the royal bloodline and still innocent? It’s their deeds that corrupt them, not their birth?”
“Of course!”
“Then what has Prince Zalith done? When has he shown anything but a true desire to help humans?”
She stands frozen, uncertain. I risk taking a step towards her. Her eyes follow my movement, but she doesn’t strike or make any move to prevent me. Still, I don’t risk another step. Not yet.
“How long am I supposed to live off promises and intentions?” she says finally. “My parents are both dead. They were both taken from me. Can good intentions make up for that? Can promises raise a child?”
“No,” I agree. “No, there’s nothing that Prince Zalith can do to fix things that will make up for what’s been taken from you. Not even being struck down by a fireball in his own study.”
“It’s not fair,” she says, her voice on the edge of cracking.
“No, it isn’t fair. But we can make it more fair. For other people.”
“But they’re still dead!” She’s barely holding it together, and yet the fireball in her hands is only becoming more powerful. “What has he had to suffer? He grew up like a royal and he never had to leave his parents!”
“Will they still be dead if you kill him?”
There’s another pause. I wonder if that was a cruel thing to say. I wish she didn’t have to go through this alone. I wish that fire weren’t there, because I want to wrap her in my arms and hold her and make her feel like the most loved, cherished woman in the whole world.
I risk another step towards her. Her jaw clenches, and I freeze.
“It’s an enormous amount to deal with,” I tell her. “More than should ever have been put on you. And even making things better won’t fix that. But wecanmake things better. For you and for all the humans of the naga realms. And for the rest… for living with the rest… You don’t have to do that alone.”
She looks at me. Her lip flutters as if she’s going to say something, but she doesn’t.
“I want to be there with you and for you. I want to help you bear everything that you’ve been given to bear. Most of all, I want to make you happy. You deserve to be happy. You are more than a tool of vengeance. You are a woman. You are Lorelai. And you deserve the world.”
Another step. Just one more, and I’ll be able to stand between her and Prince Zalith. Will that change things? Will she kill me in order to get to Zalith? I’m not sure.
I think a part of her would. But it’s not the only part. There’s another part that’s softer. A part that believes in me, and in Zalith, and that things might be better someday. That’s the part I’m trying to talk to.
“I want to believe what you’re saying,” she says. Her hands are shaking. Still, the fireball hangs steady, even growing.
“I mean all of it,” I assure her. “I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“I want to believe it,” she repeats. “But I don’t know why you’d say it about me.”
