Page 20 of The Rebel and the Rose
Coward.
Failure.
Scrubbing the wet of her cheeks, she shook away the shame of another failed meditation, the uneasy sense that her magic was angry at her.
In the warmth of her fist, the stone had changed from grey to gold. It hadn’t been for nothing, then. But it didn’t feel like nearly enough either.
‘Is this what you wanted?’ she said, holding the golden stone up to the sky.
There was such a silence inside her now, the stillness unnerving in its own way. She tossed the stone into the grass, where it shone like a nugget in the earth. Another cheap trick, just like the rose. A morsel of light that would eventually crumble to ash. When she tried to make another, nothing happened. Her magic had gone quiet again, that door inside her firmly closed.
What was the point of it?
Was there a point at all?
‘Did I just see you shaking your fist at the sky?’ Sera jumped at the sound of Theo’s laughter. ‘What did that bastard moon do now?’
Saints, save me. ‘You’re hallucinating,’ she said, turning to look up at him. ‘What are you doing up?’
Theo was in his nightshirt and a pair of cotton trousers; his feet bare on the wooden slats. ‘Paola returned from the city an hour ago. We were talking in her bedroom.’
Sera perked up at this morsel of news. ‘How did the trial shipment go?’
‘Do you want the good news or the bad news?’ When she didn’t answer, only groaned, he said, ‘Half the batch made it to the city. The other half exploded on the drive.’
‘It’s still too volatile,’ muttered Sera.
Theo lowered himself down to the step. ‘We’ll keep working on the recipe. Decrease the batch size until we get it right.’
She chewed on a hangnail. It was hard not to feel impatient, to spend so long on a batch only to have it fail at the first hurdle. If they flooded the city with exploding vials, the Daggers would laugh at them. The king’s eye would turn on their Order, and the people of Fantome would lose trust in the Order of Flames before they even learned of their true purpose.
‘The good news is, demand is even higher than we thought,’ Theo went on. ‘Paola says rebellion is brewing in Fantome. The king is losing his grip on his people. Ever since the Aurore fell, trust in the royal family has plummeted. The people are frightened. They feel betrayed. The Iron Keep has been all but emptied and the city is crawling with overzealous nightguards. Word on Merchant’s Way is the Daggers are busier than ever. Killing anyone who dares speak ill of the king.’
Sera’s stomach twisted. ‘If the people are starting to revolt against him, then the rest of Valterre will soon follow.’
What did that mean for her Order’s mission? For the very fate of the kingdom?
Not for the first time, Sera felt the threads of destiny twining around her.
Theo rubbed at the dent between his brows. ‘It does beg the question… is now a good time to put a new weapon in the hands of the people of Fantome?’
‘When else but now?’ she shot back. ‘I can’t think of a better time to empower them. To give them something to fight back with. Toprotectthemselves with.’
‘If the Daggers cede their control of the city, the people there could overthrow the king,’ said Theo. ‘I’m no monarchist, but the House of Rayere has ruled Valterre for hundreds of years. The king’s army secures our borders from the grasping hands of Urnica and Farberg. A kingdom needs a leader. To topple the Daggers is one thing, but to move against the king—’
‘We’re not moving against the king.’ At least not deliberately. And what did they care for the House of Rayere, greedy and self-interested as it had always been? ‘Let the king keep his army. We’re only moving against the power of Shade. Fantome has been in darkness for far too long. It’s time to set it free.’
Wasn’t that reasonable?
Wasn’t it about time?
Theo hummed. ‘There’s more.’
Of course there was.
Sera braced herself.
His gaze was fixed on that shining nugget in the grass. ‘Paola says there are rumours of a new revolutionary stirring in Fantome. Someone who intends to unite the people of Valterre. They’re calling him the People’s Saint.’
