Page 123 of Vicious Is My Throne

ANARIA

Cloistered in the duke’s library, I fidgeted with the edge of the fine linen shirt that hung to my knees, half listening to the debate happening around me.

Where to go from here.

Whether to assemble the weapon now or wait.

What the easiest route to Corvus’s cave was and how to get inside without him knowing.

We’d eaten our fill of the food Tavion and Tristan had scavenged from the Descendant estates. We still had enough for breakfast tomorrow and to fill our fine, well-tailored pockets for a day at most.

The downside was everyone was dressed in the duke’s clothes.

Even me.

Everywhere I looked reminded me of him, of servitude and cruelty. The Mistress’s abuses. Of a few stolen, happy moments with Ember. There was no escaping those memories, not here. And this wing of the castle, deemed the safest by Zorander and Raz, would be our refuge until we left.

Outside, the ash had stopped falling before dark, blown east on a cold wind that smelled faintly of flowers.

“Jasmine,” Tavion had muttered on his way back inside, discarding his cloak into the room now crawling with blight, tendrils snaking up to the ceiling. “The wind smells like jasmine and amber.”

Everyone had traded these pointed, meaningful looks, leaving me sighing because I had no idea what they meant. I spent most of tonight staring at the long, engraved box on the table between us, the weapon waiting inside, ready to be reunited with the pendant hanging between my breasts.

The smaller boxes with the keystones had been retrieved and were separated into opposite corners of the library, but every time I stepped into this room, my teeth vibrated from the stones…talking to each other.

Except for the one in my pocket which was worrisomely inert.

I wondered if I’d…broken the stone somehow.

“What about Stormfall?” Zorander suggested, reaching around to scratch his back. He’d been fidgeting for hours, and even though I knew from experience how badly newly healed skin itched, I’d never seen Zor act so…twitchy.

“Too far to travel in a single jump.” Raz looked closely at his friend, his tone kind. “You and I would both have to carry someone, and you won’t be back to full strength for a couple of days.”

“Back to the Wynter Palace, then,” Tavion muttered, his lips curling.

Since Tavion obviously had as many bad memories of that place as I did Ravenswood, I shook my head. “There has to be another option. We can’t only have one choice, and a bad one at that.”

“The wind’s carrying the blight into Caladrius. Chances are the rot reaches all the way to Meridian Bay by now.” Raziel swallowed. “We have fewer options than we did when we arrived. I second the Wynter Palace, though fuck knows what we’ll find once we get there.”

“I’ll fly Finnian and Kael west at dawn, dropping you as far outside the blighted area as I can manage.” Tristan set a bag of coin in front of them with an impressively heavy clunk. “This will get you on a boat. My advice? Head across the Marianus Sea and never look back.”

“Any hope for our friends we left in the forest?”

Zorander met his worried gaze steadily then shook his head. “They had a choice and they stayed where they were. I expect by now they’re either trapped or overcome completely. We can’t risk going into the forest to search for them, Finnian. I’m sorry.”

Kael picked up the coin and disappeared the bag into his pocket. “You always said you wanted to sail across the sea, Fin,” he murmured. “Maybe life can be better over there.”

I closed my eyes.

That’s what I was supposed to do.

Make everything better. Free the slaves and make everyone equal and turn the three realms into a utopia. I wanted to vomit when I realized the truth. I destroyed everything. As thoroughly and completely as Corvus had.

I might as well be known as Anaria, destructor of worlds.

“We’re off to bed, then.” Finnian climbed clumsily to his feet. “These old bones took a beating today, and while your healing magic was impressive, there’s nothing like a good night’s sleep.”

“Never slept in a fancy Descendant castle,” Kael mumbled on the way out. “Do you think the pillows are softer?”

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