Page 19 of Lies That Bind
My throat tightened and I nodded once, opening my arms as she hobbled over and crashed into them.
I wrapped my arms around her, squeezing tightly as she held me back.
“Just because I’m empress doesn’t change anything between us,” I told her. She was my best friend in the whole world, and I needed something normal in my life for once.
She nodded and then pulled back to look at me. “I’m so sorry about your dad. Do you know who did it? Can you tell me?”
“Luskins. I’m not sure who. Probably the breath-stealing witch who rode the red dragon. I’ll find out more when his bloodwork comes back. No poison in his stomach, so it wasn’t likely one of our own.”
She sighed in relief at that.
“How are my sisters?” I asked her.
She peered down the hallway to her house and winced. “Victory cried herself to sleep. Valor isn’t talking. Virtue is acting like an eight-year-old again. They’re scared you’re going to die next. They are sleeping with my mom. They didn’t want to be alone.”
My heart seized in my chest. Everyone thought that twins or triplets were the same person. They weren’t. My sisters might look identical, but they had very different personalities, and that evaluation Tetra had just given me was very accurate for each of them. Vic was my sweet one, so it made sense she’d be the first to cry. Valor was the heir, the one who thought she’d have tostay strong, so she was shutting down and not talking. And sweet Virtue probably didn’t know what to do, so she just retreated into being a kid again.
This was the one thing I was unprepared for. I knew how to take over as empress for my father—I’d attend war meetings and even fight on the front lines. I knew the political games and how to play them, and what the next few years would entail as I fought to show my people I was strong enough to lead. But nothing could have prepared me to be a mother to my three sisters—to raise three fragile and emotionally unstable teenagers into fierce young women.
“I can’t do this,” I said suddenly and fell back against the wall, the exhaustion pulling at my limbs.
Tetra reached out with her cane and swatted my thigh. “Yes you can, because you have to!”
That was the depressing truth.I had to. There was no other choice.
I sighed.
“Ash?” Victory’s singsong voice filtered through the room, and I looked up to see her at the end of the hallway. She wore her purple fuzzy pajamas and matching socks. She was so young, such a child still. I wanted her innocence to linger for another few years, but I knew it was already shattered.
“Is it true?” Her voice shook. “Is Father really dead? I mean, everyone is saying he is, but I thought that maybe…”
Oh no.
She was still in shock, in disbelief. I didn’t want to do this right now, but like Tetra said, I had to.
“He is. He was killed late last night.” Or was it the day before? Time was weird now that it was the middle of the night, and I hadn’t slept. I pushed off the wall and walked over to her.
My little sister’s sob ripped through Tetra’s small home and shook me into action. I crossed the room and pulled her into my arms as she shook with grief.
“He loved you,” I told her. “He just didn’t say it.” It was a nice thing to say. And I knew it was true. My father was a complicated man who just didn’t know how to express himself without feeling weak.Yes. That was the truth. Hedidlove us.
“What will we do!” Vic wailed into my shoulder.
I pulled her back and met her gaze. She looked like a tiny, frightened doe in the headlights of an oncoming train. “We will be strong. For Father. For each other. And for our country.”
And just like that, her tears stopped. She sniffled and rubbed her eyes. “I’m tired,” she said.
“Me too,” I told her.
“Me three.” Tetra yawned behind us.
We all walked down the hallway to Tetra’s room. Ariyel followed us and then curled into a ball on the floor. I crashed into Tetra’s bed first, Vic snuggled up into my arms, and then Tetra was last. Victory threaded her fingers through Tetra’s, and the sight warmed my heart. My sisters had grown up knowing Tetra almost their whole life, and if anything did happen to me, I knew she would be there for them. With that thought on my mind, I fell fast asleep.
I wokeabout three hours later with the sun filtering through Tetra’s window and anxious thoughts racing through my mind. I needed more sleep, but I wouldn’t get it. I was running a country now. My father rarely slept, and now, neither would I.
I slipped out of bed without disturbing Tetra or Victory and made my way to the kitchen, where Bethel was brewing coffee.Valor sat at the table staring at a cup of milk, seemingly in a catatonic state.
I gave Tetra’s mother, Bethel, a nervous glance, and she looked at me with all of the compassion and empathy of a mother who knew their child was hurting.
