Page 2 of Lies That Bleed
She grinned, reaching out and pinching me lightly on the forearm for good luck. “Good luck, Aisling. May the stars look after you.”
With a nod, I grabbed my three-day pack. I needed to get out of here before I cracked under all this emotion. I wasn’t used to seeing Elaine like this.
“See you at the ceremony!” she called as she and Vespa left the room and split up, each going to a different bedroom down the hall to wake my fourteen-year-old triplet sisters, Virtue, Valor, and Victory. My mother was into weird names and I kind of liked that we were all unique in that way. My name might be spelled strangely but was pronouncedAsh-ling. My close friends called me Ash.
Reaching out, I touched the locket at my neck, the one that held the picture of my mother, and rubbed it for good luck. It was weird to love someone you barely remembered. I was only five when she died in childbirth with the triplets. But in every story I had heard about her, every picture of her, she brightened the room, and I felt connected to her even though she was no longer in this world.
Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I grabbed a muffin from the kitchen, where Tonia was cooking up a huge feast, and snuck out before she could see me. There was no way I could eat eggs and bacon on Lottery Day. I would yak the second they called my name.
Every Amersean citizen was invited to put their name into the Lottery at nineteen years old. From that batch, once a year, only twenty percent were called at the ceremony and given a chance to enter The Wilds. Because I was the emperor’s daughter and future leader of Amersea, I automatically got chosen. Of the cohort of chosen lottery candidates who went into The Wilds in the hopes of claiming a creature of awesome power, only around five percent came out alive. The odds were not good.
My stomach soured at the thought of the statistic and I chucked the muffin on the entry table as I moved to the front door. I needed to see Jace, my boyfriend, who would know how to calm my nerves.
“I thought you were riding with me to the Lottery ceremony,” my father’s voice came down the hall, and I stilled with my hand on the knob.
Turning, I kept my back erect and chin up. “Yes, sir, I will be back in time. I just wanted to go check in with Jace first.”
My father’s creature, a black puma with orange glowing ember marks, stalked towards me, sniffing my leg. I stilled, wondering what Zuri was smelling me for. She was the most ruthless creature known to our kind, other than the Talanagi. Her magic was unique in that she could not only breathe fire but she had awoken the power in my father to teleportthroughher fire, allowing him to jump from one end of the world to another in the blink of an eye. He could be on thebattlefield at The Wall and home for dinner on the same night.
My father strode over to me, wearing his battle uniform. The sleek black leather with gold shoulder caps and a gold puma crest on his chest reminded me of the glowing embers that fell from the sky and glowed on the creatures we brought back from The Wilds. This same ember powered our houses and motorized cars, our factories and trains. Our entire society ran on it, which made it more valuable than gold, more valuable than anything.
My father’s inky black hair was slicked back perfectly without a strand out of place. Only in the past year did I notice the slight grays coming in at the sides, which he quickly dyed over to cover. My father would never want to be perceived as old. To him, getting old was a weakness he would stave off as long as he could.
He glanced down at me. The normally stoic emotions that he held softened when he gazed at me.
“You know, when you were born, I was sad that I didn’t have a son first to fill the role of successor and heir.”
My father was not one to mince words. He told you what was on his mind, even if it hurt.
I nodded. “I know. You’ve told me before.”
The firstborn, whether male or female, would be the next ruler when he died or stepped down.
My father grasped my shoulders, and a proudsmile graced his face. “Little did I know you would be everything I wanted in an heir, daughter or not.”
I swallowed hard, fighting a grin. That was a high compliment coming from him.
Bowing my head deeply, I cleared my throat. “Thank you, sir. I won’t let you down.”
He squeezed my shoulders before letting go. “Just claim the most powerful creature you can find and then we’ll have nothing to worry about.”
Those words were in stark contrast to Elaine’s. She just wanted me to come back alive. My father wanted me to come back only if I bonded to a creature powerful enough to bring his legacy into a new age. I wasn’t surprised though. He expected perfection.
“Even if it’s a Talanagi?” I asked, meeting his gaze. I didn’t know why I said it. It was almost taboo to talk about them and I regretted it the moment his brows drew downward.
“I’m not sure claiming an animalthatpowerful is smart.” He laughed off my comment.
What he’d implied was that claiming a creature more powerful than Zuri would not be smart. I needed to be powerful enough to take over for my father, but not more powerful than him.
I swallowed hard.
“Yes, Father.” I bowed my head lightly and then turned to leave, shifting my pack to my other shoulder on the way out.
“Tell Jace I said hello,” he called as I shut the door behind me.
I crossed the well-manicured garden and slid my leg over my motorbike. My father loved Jace. He would arrange our marriage right now if I’d allow it. As the son of the commander of my father’s fleet, Jace was a prime candidate to be my husband one day—something I was not quite ready for. At nineteen years old, marriage was not uncommon in our culture but it was reserved for the working class of society. Unless of course you were the emperor’s heir, then you should be married by twenty with a male heir on the way. I knew it would be expected of me soon, and I loved Jace, but we had a little more time, so I wanted to enjoy life just dating for now.
I sat there for a second, surveying our fifty-acre property affectionately deemed “the emperor’s palace” by the locals. It sat on top of a hill and looked out over the entire city. I could even see the Imperial Fleet Training Center from here. Inside, among the many bedrooms and bathrooms, we had a bowling alley, a library, and a salon. All fully staffed. Then outside were the horse barns, riding arena, and archery corner. It was amazing and yet never really felt like home to me. I often longed for our smaller country house in Cedar Creek, nestled among the forest in a quiet village.
