Page 49 of To Wake a Kingdom

I had never been worth any of this.

Blind to my surroundings, I ended up in front of my grandparents’ chateau. The missing front doors were tall enough to walk Curse straight through. Cracked tiles clicked beneath his hooves, and I slid off. A grand staircase filled the foyer—a reminder of better days. I trudged up the steps, my tread heavier than iron. The wind howled through the halls, the song of the ghosts that haunted this place.

I paused in front of a large set of double doors, swinging one open. Inside was the bedroom where my grandparents had slept. An enormous bed sat against the right wall. The sheets were molded and stained. Beyond the bed, a set of windows lined the entire wall, their panes still miraculously intact.

A white stone fireplace dominated the far end, and a rotted rug sat drab and drained of life. My boots scraped along the cold stone, and I sank to my knees, pressing my cheek to the floor, trying to cool my burning skin.I inhaled a strangled breath, and then I didn’t move for a very long time.

A delicate hand smoothed my hair as I blinked awake from a troubled sleep. Kianna sat next to me, her legs tucked under her, the skin around her eyes tight with worry.

“I didn’t thank you for saving me this morning,” she said. “What you did was very brave, if a little foolish.”

Pushing myself up off the floor, I leaned against the bed frame behind me.“You don’t need to thank me. I wish I could have ripped those bastards limb from limb.”

Something sharpened in Kianna’s expression.

“What?” I lifted my head. “Stop that. I am not the princess you and your sisters tried to make. I will never be her. I never was.”

Kianna said nothing for a moment and then replied, “I see that now, and I’m sorry.”

I raised an eyebrow at her.

“I’m sorry we didn’t see you for who you were. I’m sorry we tried to force you into a box that must have felt like a cage. I’m sorry. You saved me without a thought for your own safety, as you’ve done over and over. You feel for the people of your kingdom in a way that a princess should. We were wrong. Youarea princess, Thorne.”

I stared at her and blinked as a tight knot unfurled in my chest. My throat was tense as I swallowed. It was the first time she’d ever said my name or spoken to me like a friend.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“And those deaths are not on your hands.” She raised a palm when I tried to protest. “No, they are not. Those deaths belong to Mare and Mare alone. She started this one hundred and twenty-one years ago when she tricked your mother. This blood is on her. You are too young to have been given this burden.”

“I’m a hundred-and-twenty-one.”

Kiana let out a tinkling laugh. “Well, I guess that’s true. In that case, I’m two-hundred-and-forty-seven.” I gawped at her. “What? I know. I look young for my age.” She fluffed her hair, and I smiled. She didn’t look a day older than I did.

Kianna sighed, dropping her hands. “Honestly, you aren’t the only one who found my sisters to be…a lot.”

I said nothing as I waited for her to continue.

“I am the youngest and the least powerful of them. I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, and I miss them and love them, but they didn’t respect me very much.”

As we looked at each other, something shifted. Sand rippling along the desert floor. For the first time, I saw Kianna in a different light, and whatever was between us was changing.

“I’m sorry. That must have been hard.” I took her hand, and she squeezed it.

We sat quietly for a moment, lost in thought.

“Why is she after me? What did I do to her?” I asked finally. The question wormed its way under my fingernails. The random senselessness of Mare’s hatred was more confusing than anything.

Kianna shook her head, wrinkling her nose. “I don’t know. I hardly know her. We were borne of the same mother, but that’s where our connection ends. I’ve only heard the stories about her, but we’ve spent little time together. I’m sorry. I wish I knew.”

There was an apology in her expression, but I waved it off. Mare’s actions weren’t her fault either.

“What are we going to do, Kianna? I don’t know how to break this curse.”

Kianna studied the empty fireplace as she said, “You will find a way, Your Highness. I’m sure of it.”

I let out a breath as heavy as marble, wondering why she had so much faith in me.

Chapter Twenty-One

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