Page 75 of Lies That Blemish
I realized I was digging my fingers into my palms so hard that I’d drawn blood. Relaxing, I wiped them on my pants and took a cleansing breath. Once we were back inside the building, they pulled down a rolling steel door with a small viewing slit inside of it.
The professor was still concentrating on moving the sphere, but he was also backing up closer to the building we were in. I watched as he slipped inside through an open side door. Sweat beaded his brow, as if doing this was taking tremendous force out of him. I could imagine it was.
When the bomb was a speck on the horizon, hovering over some thick, uninhabited forest, Maxim nodded. “Drop it.”
The man hesitated for a second, as if weighing the consequences of those actions. We all peered through the slit in the metal door in anticipation.
“Drop it!” Maxim shouted so loudly I startled. The ball plummeted and was lost in the trees. I braced myself. But nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.
Chapter 24
Valor
I thoughtI’d lost my innocence in the Wilds, but I was wrong. It was standing before my sister’s council of admirals as the interim empress that my childhood died. I’d never again be that slightly carefree girl who snuck out and stole cookies from the kitchen or thought of ways to prank Elaine. Young Valor was dead. Now, I had to become Aisling. Perfect strong Aisling. I’d never be as good as her, but I could try.
Commander Ledger read the note Kohen gave him with wide eyes, and then he peered over at me.
“I need to swear you in. Temporarily,” he said.
I nodded.
“She’s a child!” Admiral Caruso argued.
“Does she even have a power? She didn’t start boot camp yet. She’s untrained,” Admiral Blade growled.
My sister once told me that being empress was fifty percent confidence, fifty percent fake it until you make it. I was going to have to do that now.
“Are you questioning my eldest sister’s authority? Her judgment?” I asked Admiral Blade.
He shrugged. “Are you really going to lead us into battle, sweetheart? Are you even out of a training bra?”
Oh hell no.
Moving quickly, I pulled a small throwing knife from my waist and launched it at the admiral, skimming his ear.
The room erupted into shouts and gasps of surprise. Admiral Blade touched the blood droplet at his ear and peered at me with shock.
“You bi?—”
“I’d watch your tongue if I were you,” Kohen told him. “I’d like to take this time to remind the council that Empress Valor rides a Talanagi. Somethingnoneof you do.”
That made silence fall over the room.
As stressful as this was, I had to admit that Empress Valor had a nice ring to it.
“Why are you even here, Badshah?” Ledger asked Kohen.
“That’sKingBadshah to you, Commander,” I reminded Commander Ledger, and his jaw ticced a little.
Kohen looked like he was trying to suppress a smile. “Because my wife asked me?—”
“Your what!?” I screamed, peering over at Kohen in shock.
The admirals in the room didn’t seem fazed by his comment, but I’d been blown back by it. Was he talking about my sister?
Kohen turned to me. “Aisling and I married in secret a few days ago.” Then he faced the admirals. “And I would doanythingto protect her lands and people. Come to Imbria until we can figure out a plan to subdue Maxim and his bomb.” Kohen gestured to the letter, which I was guessing explained everything he was talking about.
“You would do anything?” Admiral Blade asked Kohen.
