Page 30 of The Kingdom's Reckoning
"We should find our seats," the captain said to Myra. "The Queen should be making her address any minute now."
Rian nodded in agreement, his gaze skating over Kallie.
Wrapping her shawl tighter around her shoulders, Kallie sidestepped around them, but a dainty hand grabbed her wrist.
"Kallie, wait."
Kallie’s attention fell to Myra’s hand, and Myra quickly let go.
Myra looked over her shoulder at the two men and waved them off. Rian and Laurince retreated only a few steps.
"Sorry, I just—" Myra clasped her hands together and began cracking her knuckles. Old habits died hard for everyone, it seemed. "How are you?"
"HowamI?" Kallie repeated, aghast at the feeble attempt at conversation
Myra’s lips parted. "I didn’t mean it that way. It was a silly question. Things are rather bleak right now, aren’t they? I only meant…I…" She blew a strand of hair from her face with an unsettled huff. "Well, to be honest, I’m not sure what I meant. This is all so…"
"Awkward?" Kallie suggested, voice thick.
Myra nodded, mouth drawn flat.
Had Myra truly expected them to return to their old ways? To be easy friends again? When it came to their friendship, Kallie no longer knew what had been real and what had been a facade.
Kallie’s gaze slipped to Rian. She supposed she wasn’t the only one who likely felt that way.
"Are you going to be all right with them?"
"Huh?" Myra asked, brows knitting together.
Kallie didn’t know what had prompted her to ask and was just as shocked by the question as Myra was. She didn’t know where it came from or why she was asking. She didn’t even know why she cared. This was the same woman who had lied to her, yet Kallie still wanted to ensure Myra would be safe and taken care of.
Kallie nodded her head in Rian and Laurince’s direction, and Myra followed Kallie’s gaze.
"Oh, yes. They’ve only been kind to me," Myra said.
"Good. That’s good," Kallie said. "The Queen can also be blunt, but she will ensure you are cared for as well here. Medenia will too. If you’re looking for something to do, she can…" Her words trailed off.
"You’re sounding like me," Myra mused. When Kallie quirked a brow in confusion, Myra clarified, "The rambling."
Kallie straightened, suddenly self-conscious. "Oh."
The corner of Myra’s lips twitched, but the flicker of movement was brief. "Do you…do you think you’ll join in the fight when the war comes?"
Kallie hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but she did not trust Myra enough to tell her the truth. So instead, Kallie lifted her chin and said the closest thing to the truth she could. "He raised me to be a weapon, so it’s about time I strike back."
"Don’t underestimate him, Kals," Myra said, the old nickname slipping off her tongue as if by accident.
Kallie, surprisingly, didn’t jerk away from it. "I won’t."
"I suppose this is goodbye then, huh?"
"I suppose so," Kallie said, a strange spout of grief forming in her throat for the lost friendship.
"You were my first friend, Kals," Myra said, blinking away a glimmer of tears that coated her hazel eyes.
"You were mine too, Mys."
The loud chatterof those attending the farewell dinner inside the castle was a mere hum in the garden. It was only noise to Kallie’s ears as she stared at the blanket of stars outside. Among the brilliant specks of light, the moon was only a sliver of its true form, and the night sky was ominous without its full glow illuminating the land. As an autumn breeze swept in, the silk dress the handmaidens had set out for her did little to block the cold air from nipping at her skin. She pulled the cashmere scarf around her shoulders tighter.
