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I swallowed.
“Good!” He let go.
I spluttered, gasping for another chance at life.
“Get away from him!”
Razak’s head jerked up. “Justice? Really?” He sighed, rolled his eyes, and stood. “You just don’t know when to quit.”
I twisted onto my side and blinked hot tears away. Noemi stood halfway between us and the door, looking fierce in her blue robes and red hair. He’d kill her, like he’d killed Ines. “Run,” I croaked. The wind gusted through the door behind her, flapping her gown and sweeping sand around her boots.
I’d witnessed Ines’s death, I couldn’t watch Noemi’s too.
“Feisty thing, aren’t you?” Razak was saying, swaggering toward her. I didn’t see a blade on him, but he’d kill her with his bare hands if he got close enough.
“Leave Lark alone, you’ve hurt him enough!”
“Noemi…” I rasped. What was she doing?
“What happens in my court is of no business of Justice,” Razak said.
“Justice oversees all!”
“No, it doesn’t. You’re just another puppet, desperately trying to hold the shatterlands together when all around, it falls apart. You think Dallin will one day return and tell us all how good we’ve been? Dallin doesn’t exist, and if he did, he was just a man. Justice, War, Love, it’s all insignificant. Only Pain matters.”
“W-what do you mean?” Noemi stuttered.
“Ask your queen, she knows. Justice has always known our courts are pointless. They hid the truth. Zayan told you it’s about the crowns, and Justice did nothing with that knowledge. Because they know, Queen Justice Solielknows! And she knows I’m coming for her crown next.”
Drums.
I heard drums. Loud and… coming closer.
They needed to get here quicker.
Razak would have a way out of this. He always had a way out. He wasn’t behaving like a man about to face the wrath of War. He acted as though he’d already won.
“Stop right there,” Noemi demanded. “I may not be Justice Ines, but I have authority. You, Prince Razak, Court of Pain, shall be judged and all evidence weighed against—”
Razak’s sharp laugh cut her off. “I do not recognize your justice, and I do not abide by your laws.”
Closer, just a few strides between them. If I reached out, from my position on the floor, I could cup them both in my upturned palm.
Noemi blinked too quickly, her nerves showing. She was an aide, not a noblewoman. She didn’t swing swords, or carry poison. She had no authority, despite her words. Razak was going to kill her.
“Where is the crown?” she asked, conceding a step, showing weakness.
The crown?
He’d had it with him when he’d fled, but not now.
I struggled to get my hands under me and lever myself off the sandy floor.
Razak tutted and tick-tocked a finger. “You are not equipped to play the game of gods, little girl.”
The drums grew so loud that the sand all around jumped with their every beat. War’s warriors were almost here.
Where was Razak’s escape plan? I’d ruined his plan to poison everyone. But he’d have a failsafe, a way to wriggle out of being caught. Yet he stalked Noemi as though he had all the time in the shatterlands. Did he not hear the drums coming for him?
