Page 148 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
Despite it all, a ripple of alarm drummed through me. I felt the advisors’ beady eyes boring into my back like knives.
Whatever spectacle they had wanted to achieve with the Oracle hadn’t succeeded.
I’d defeated their plans today, but they would strike again. And next time, they’d make sure I never awoke again.
Chapter
Forty-Seven
EVIE
“And then, when she announced you will protect us,” Leesa cooed as we headed back to our home, the streets now empty. The Capital had its curiosity sated, the torches had been snuffed out, the gates had been closed, and Phoenix Peak was silent once more.
I’d stood on those temple steps, shoulder to shoulder with Zandyr, watching over them as they hurried back to their houses safely.
We had to keep a cold distance between us as the advisors stalked our every move, but this strange connection we had allowed us tofeeleach other. Faintly, but there was something there, at the edges of my mind, that I hadn’t sensed before.
The sensation was…daunting, yes. But I liked the weight of it against me.
I enjoyed the idea of himthere. It made me feel like we would be facing all of this together.
The pressure of leading. The schemes of the advisors who’d sent a pair of sickly-sweet smiles my way as they left.
“Such a show.” Banu had tilted his head in a mock bow.
I deigned to look at him from the corner of my eye. “Was it everything you’d hoped it would be?”
Banu’s smile widened, sharp teeth on display, as if he wanted to take a bite out of me. “Very revealing.”
I’d suppressed a tremble. What had he seen?
“It was pointless, Banu,” Zandyr had said with all the boredom in the world. But rage pulsed through him so hard, it heated up the side of my body closest to him. “We all know what’s going to happen, Oracle or not.”
How could Banu’s grin turn even more sinister? “Clans decisions always benefit from reassurance, Your Highness. Especially when we have just dealt with a breach in our sacred Archives.”
I didn’t move a muscle, though my face wanted to twitch in a victorious grin.
“Such a shame that.” Valuta slid up to Banu, Kaya trailing behind with her head down, the perfect pious daughter. “What mindless, selfish being would cause such a ruckus?”
“Someone who could.” I’d clenched my jaw. They either didn’t know the scrolls were missing or had discovered their absence and were hiding it. What for? “It’s a miracle no other heinous thing happened.”
Like dying as the vines impaled me. I’d covered my sudden tremble with a warm smile toward Kaya.
“Hey,” I’d said gently.
“Hello,” she’d replied, not raising her eyes. She’d looked like a strong gust of wind would knock her down. A damn miracle the Oracle’s magic hadn’t–or messed up her hair, which still looked shiny and perfect and tall.
“Our daughter is feeling the stress of the past weeks.” Valuta had cooed, encasing Kaya’s shoulders with her bony fingers. “She needs her beauty sleep, we shall retire.”
“Of course, children are the most important,” Zavoya had said with all the might of a true queen and the compassion of someone who should have raised her own son better. “Which reminds me–Zandyr, may we have a word?”
Another bolt of fury speared the connection between us. “If the king and queen demand it.”
“Your parents areasking,” Zavoya had said gently.
He hesitated, tugging on the invisible rope that somehow tied us.
At the bottom of the steps, Leesa, Goose, and Adara waited. I nodded imperceptibly at Zandyr. We would see each other later, away from prying eyes.
