Page 111 of The Never List
I swallow hard, heart pounding as I wait for him to speak.
“I came here to offer you something,” he says. “Something I think you desperately need.”
I tilt my head. “What is it that you think I need?”
Brooks leans back against the cushioned seat, eyeing me. “An escape, for one,” he says. “And answers about your sister, for two.”
I try to school my features, try to keep them calm, but my eyes flare just a bit.
The wise king tracks it.
“I know the Legends have been looking for her,” he continues. “I know that she’s not on a Never List mission or in Cedar and Silk where she should be.”
Ice water fills my veins, but I hold entirely still as if that will make me a smaller target, as if that will make my weaknesses less apparent.
“Breathe,” he says. “I do not say this to threaten you. I’m simply stating facts.”
“I don’t understand what you’re asking me.” My lipthreatens to tremble at the adrenaline coursing through my body, at my instincts shouting at me that I’m being threatened, even though nothing about his demeanor says as much. He’s relaxed in his seat, his features calm and interested, even; there’s no hint of the malice or disgust that I see on Baydel so often.
“I’m offering you a chance to escape,” he says plainly. “As you know, I have a wealth of power, not to mention means and status. I know the kings better than anyone else. There are places even Baydel can’t reach. I could make sure you get to that place with enough wealth to start a new life. One that includes your sister.”
My eyes widen. “Are you saying youhavemy sister?” I ask on a loose breath.
Brooks waves me off. “Of course not,” he says. “I’m not a monster. I have no need to track down your relatives and loved ones…unless you brought harm to my son, and then that would be a different story. As it is now, Pierce is absolutely smitten with you. But, if you choose to take my offer, I will find her. If she’s alive to be found. Either way, you could start your new life away from the Legends, away from the kings’ eyes, and put this whole Choosing business behind you.”
The picture he paints is an offer I would have considered three months ago. A fantasy Erin and I used to have ever since our parents were called away on the Never List mission. Us coming into money somehow, coming into wealth to help the Ashlands before escaping somewhere to live peacefully on our own together, no longer threatened by kings’ enforcers.
But now? That fantasy is drenched in a sadness I can’tentirely explain, and when I picture my future, it has the Legends all over it.
“You’d only have to do one thing for me in return,” he says, and that draws my attention back to the present. I keep quiet, not wanting to give anything away. “Reject them,” he says when I’ve remained silent. “Reject them at the Choosing. Don’t go through with the Athanry, and I’ll make sure you’re well taken care of.”
My hackles rise at his condition, not that I was seriously entertaining the offer to begin with. His condition is a direct threat to the Legends, to the men I…
I finally work up the courage to hold my teacup, lifting it with a steady hand as I sip on what is now cold liquid and swallow it down.
Things have changed.
I’vechanged.
And the idea of rejecting the Legends is…
Unfathomable.
There’s no other way to describe it. I used to visualize the ceremony, used to think about the best way to reject them without incurring any of their wrath, but now? I can’t picture me saying anything other thanyes.
Even to Jax and his obvious distaste for me.
The offer the king presents has made it abundantly clear—there’s no going back for me. I can no longer straddle both sides of the line. I’m either all in with them, or all out.
“Why would you, not only a king of Lumathyst but Pierce’s father, want me to reject them? Isn’t it you and Baydel and the others who are so worried about their draining powers? Powers needed as offerings to keep the goddesses appeased and connected to Lumathyst?”
“Ah, clever. I suspected as much, as you’re capable of holding my son’s interest for longer than a day, but the way your mind works is quite riveting in person. You’re right in that regard,” he admits. “We want our sons’ powers at their full potential, for themselves and for the goddesses’ needs.” He takes another sip of tea before looking at me again. “I mean no disrespect, but your behavior the last two and a half months has been anything but royal decorum. I just don’t see you as our next queen of Lumathyst.”
Shame unfurls inside me, despite hisno disrespectcomment. I may as well be wearing my threadbare Ashlander clothes, as opposed to Axl and Kal’s colors of the finest royal materials.
“Of course, it’s hard to see anyone as a queen when the last ones we had were goddesses,” he continues. “But there’s something about you that is lacking where the others weren’t.” He doesn’t speak the words in a malicious way, more like it’s a simple, logical fact. “Some of the other potentials—the heirs of dukes for certain—had more of that regalness I believe our kingdom needs.”
Acid claws up my throat, but I swallow it down and hold my head up high. “And yet not one of those other potentials made it as far as I have,” I say, my voice only trembling slightly as I shift my right hand on the table. Axl and Kal’s tokens sparkle on my wrist and finger. “Why do you think that is?”
