Page 8 of The Kingdom's Reckoning
"It was supposed to be you," Myra whispered, her fingers curling into the cotton fabric of her wrinkled skirts. Her back hit the wall, and her voice trembled when she spoke. "You were supposed to be the one to force them into obeying. But when you hadn’t come back, he had to find another way. The healer said the victims needed to be willing to receive the serum or else they wouldn’t take to the transformations. I—" Myra’s bottom lip wobbled, and she bit it as tears slipped free. Instead of swatting them away, Myra let them fall down the contours of her pale face. Slowly, as if the weight of the tears hanging on her lashes was too heavy to bear, she lifted her glossy gaze to meet Kallie’s. The gold flecks within her hazel eyes glistened with water. "You were supposed to be the one, but you weren’t there. I had no choice. I had to?—"
"You always have a choice," Kallie snapped. She pulled the dagger out, unsheathing it.
Myra choked on a gasp, the whites of her eyes widening. Laurince shouted at Kallie, his arms popping through the spaces between the bars, but Kallie dodged them.
She held the dagger up to Myra’s face. "Youare the holder of your own fate," Kallie spat, flashing the words etched into the metal blade so Myra could see them. "Youhad these very words etched on here, not me."
Myra would not blame Kallie for this. People could blame Kallie for anything else, but not this. Not these experiments. What Myra had done to aid Domitius in his pursuits was not Kallie’s doing.
"You don’t understand. He—he had my brother."
Kallie flinched. "Yourbrother? You don’t have a brother."
"I do," Myra said. But then quieter, she corrected herself, "I did."
Kallie didn’t understand. She had known Myra for over nine years. She had spent nearly every day with her until a few months ago. If Myra had a brother, Kallie would have known. Right?
But as she stared at the woman, whom Kallie had once believed to be her best friend, Kallie no longer knew who she was looking at.
"You never…you never told me," Kallie whispered.
"I didn’t know if he was alive. I didn’t—" Myra rubbed the heel of her palm across her chest. "I didn’t want to jeopardize his life if he was still alive. Domitius…he used him as a bargaining chip. He kept him hidden away, always promising I would get to see Mynhos if I just did thisonething. But his list never ended."
Myra’s voice was thick and haunted, and then Kallie realized what Myra had said: shehada brother.
A pang of loss struck Kallie in her chest. Once, she would have reached out and offered Myra comfort, but now…
Now, Kallie didn’t know what to do.
"Frenzia was supposed to be the end. I was supposed to be released once…" Myra’s voice trailed off, but Kallie heard the unspoken words: once Kallie married Rian.
"There’s a lot you didn’t know back then," Myra said, pushing through the heavy silence that had formed. "But it doesn’t excuse what I did. I know I have betrayed you, and I know I may never regain your trust. But…"
Kallie’s sea-storm eyes locked onto Myra’s and remained there as the two women stared at each other in silence. They had both made irreparable mistakes, but Kallie was realizing it wasn’t that simple. They were both at fault for so many wrongs that had come to pass over the years. But more than that, they were both victims. They had both been led to believe many lies. Both of their actions were at the root of the coming war that neither of them wished to take part in. Yet they would each have to play a part in it if they wished to take down the king.
While forgiveness was not something Kallie was prepared to offer, there was a sort of understanding that passed between the two women.
Myra gripped the iron bars that separated them, her fingers flexing over the metal. "He needs to be stopped."
"He will be," Kallie promised.
"You know, that’s all fine and dandy, but how do you expect to stop him?" Laurince demanded from his cell, annoyance hanging on every syllable. "You have no military."
Kallie’s gaze flitted across the floor as though the answer was written there. She had come here for an answer, for a solution. Instead, she found only more questions. Then Myra spoke up.
"There’s something else I have to tell you."
Chapter 3
GRAESON
Graeson was burningfrom the inside. He jerked, but chains held him down, bolting him to the ground. The metal pinched his skin, the manacles too tight around his wrists and ankles. He yanked his arm back, but it only made him scream out in pain as his shoulder popped out of its socket. He collapsed onto the ground as the fire within overwhelmed him.
"Make it stop!" he shouted into the void. But no matter how loudly he yelled or how much he screamed, the pain didn’t relent.
He tried to calm his mind; he tried to think of anything else. But he couldn’t. All he could focus on was the heat that was overtaking him. All he could feel was the flames licking at his bones and crawling its way up his body, the heat increasing with every passing moment.
Graeson could find no reprieve, no salvation from the ravenous heat that tore through his chest and up his limbs and neck. Sweat coated his forehead and dripped from his raven-black hair. He exhaled, and the released air burned his lungs as if he had inhaled smoke.
