Page 153 of Witchlight
She cleared her throat, prompting Vivia to whirl about. Her desk chair creaked. Then her eyes popped wide as she spotted Stix at her bedroom door.
Her face drained of color, and she stood so fast, her chair fell with a scraping thump.
“Noden hang me, is this real?” Vivia’s voice was pitchy and strained. It was night outside, so her bedroom’s lanterns guttered shadows across her sun-browned skin. “Is that really you, Stix?”
“Hye, Your Majesty. It’s me.” Stix shut the door behind her. She wasn’t at all surprised to find Vivia’s bedroom unchanged since she’d last been here, despite so much transformation—for better and worse—throughout Nubrevna. And in four steps, Stix had crossed to the center of the same threadbare rug beside the same iris-blue bed she remembered.
There was a new trinket here, though, added to Vivia’s desk: a single iron shackle with a dangling chain. And as much as Stix might tell herself that the reason she’d avoided Vivia in the three weeks since the Great Collapse was because she’d needed to reconnect with the other Six—or at least those that remained…
That hadn’t been the full truth.
And now, Stix couldn’t pretend otherwise.
She dropped to one knee, her fist coming to her heart and head bowing. It forced Vivia to draw up short three paces away. And more importantly, it set the tone—or so Stix hoped—for the conversation to come.
Stix didn’t need to look up to know her queen’s shoulders would be rising. That Vivia’s face would be hardening as she tried to paste on a royal visage.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner, my Queen.” Stix didn’t lift her head. “Duties called me away.”
An incredulous exhale. Stix could imagine Vivia’s shoulders climbing even higher.
“You’re a hero,” Vivia said. “This city wouldn’t be standing if not for you, Stix. Andeveryonehas been searching for you for weeks. Your father, the navy, Cam, and I…Ihave been searching for you for weeks. No, for months.” Vivia claimed a step closer.
But Stix couldn’t make herself look up. Not yet. She couldn’t meet Vivia’s dark eyes, for it would kill her resolve.
So instead, Stix ground her molars and stared at the rug’s crisscross pattern. “I’m sorry I left you without any warning or explanation. I wasn’t…” Stix swallowed. “I wasn’t myself, and there were things—surprises, really—that I had to take care of.”
“You mean joining forces with the Raider King.”
Now Stix was the one to exhale sharply. “It’s not easy to explain, but yes, Your Majesty. It was the right thing to do, joining with him.”
“He tried to destroy our city.” The venom in Vivia’s voice startled Stix. So much so that she finally looked up.
Only to discover Vivia bearing down. One step. Two. Before Vivia dropped to her knees in front of Stix.
Stix felt herself squint, although she didn’t need to. She wore new spectacles from the Sightwitch Sister Convent, and she didn’t need to strain to see mere inches away. But it was as if the unblurred truth of Vivia was too much for her.
There was a new scar over Vivia’s left eyebrow. A cut, too, that hadn’t finished healing across her chin. But it was the expression itself that was most different. Old Vivia would never have done this—come so near. Worn such feeling upon her face.
Which is even more proof of why you cannot stay here. Because you weren’t the one to peel away her mask.
Stix felt her entire abdomen solidify, like magma suddenly doused by the sea. Because she knew it was true—which also meant she was absolutely doing the right thing. She had made the right call; she simply needed to follow through.
“The Raider King tried to destroy Nubrevna,” Vivia said. “Yet somehow going to his banner was the right thing?”
“It is not easy to explain—”
“And you’re not even trying.” Vivia rocked back until her feet were beneath her. Until she was shooting once more upright and stalking away. It was such real, visceral anger that radiated off her, and Stix couldn’t help but notice that—unlike when Vivia had performed her rage countless times for admirals and vizers and even her father—she was not performing now.
This was real. Vivia was seething.
And Noden hang Stix, but this conversation had too quickly spiraled from her control.
“Why did you leave?” Vivia demanded. “Whydid you go to the Raider King?Whydid you save this city when magic just… justdisappearedfrom the Witchlands? And then why did you leave again before I could see you?”
Stix dug a knuckle into her temple. “These are all fair questions, and I will do my best to answer them, but—”
“No.” Water splashed from a pitcher on her desk. “No, Stix. Explain now.”
