Page 2 of The Blade in the Ashes
This was the room the Council had locked me in when I had first arrived in this kingdom. The room where I had survived Camilla’s first attack on my life. The room where Clay had held me for the days that I fought off Hydraxan poison.
Caldrius kept calling it ours now.
It didn’t seem to matter that I had forced him to sleep on the firm couch in the parlor every night.
He’d protested at first, but lately he seemed content to leave me to my misery.
“No,” I barked over my shoulder, focusing my attention on the quill once more.
I needed it to move.
There were three soft thuds on the floor behind me as he came to glance over me. Again, that heavy sigh. “It will take time, Thea.”
There was something that sounded suspiciously like kindness in his voice. Either that or pity.
“You don’t know that.”
Silently, I shoved the quill into the desk drawer and pushed away from the table, needing space.
Every healer in the palace had examined me. There was no sign of injury, either external or internal. There was no identifiable cause for why I still couldn’t feel that tiny spark of power that used to exist inside of me. Still, it was all gone—stolen by Pasnia to unleash Hyrax into this realm.
There was some consolation in the fact that I hadn’t had to deal with him yet. That time would come eventually, though, and I needed mypowers back when that happened. I needed magic coursing through me, strong and undeniable, when I faced the God who had created me.
“Hyrax is welcoming petitioners into the castle today. I believe he would appreciate having you at his side.”
“Would he now?”
Caldrius tucked his hands into the pockets of his slacks. The stance was casual, but there was tension in his shoulders—darkness clouding his eyes. “As would I.”
My gut twitched with the sudden urge to throw something again.
“You would appreciatemeat your side or Isidore? Forgive me if it’s all a little confusing still.”
Her name tasted like ash. I hated to think of her and remember that the reflection I saw in the mirror every day washers.Her face. Her hair.
Hyrax had created me in her image.
Like I was to be a gift to Caldrius.
Like I was nothing more than her replacement.
Caldrius’ jaw locked, and he moved to step forward, shaking his head in irritation when I took an equal, measured step back.
“When will you stop holding Isidore against me?” he demanded. “I marriedyou, Thea.”
“You married my crown,” I spat at him. “And her memory.”
He dared to act as if the words wounded him.
There was a silence that hung between us, the presence so weighty it almost felt like a tangible thing existing in the space between where we stood. I knew he felt it too. He was aware of this irreparable divide as I was. His chest lifted and fell with the same angry intensity as my own. After a few moments, I was the first to break. I was the first to turn away and make my way towards the window.
I still hadn’t adjusted to how strange the lawn outside looked.
The land was the same, of course. The gardens were unchanged. Snow still covered the ground, as it had for weeks.
But the Athenian flags no longer waved.
How could everything be the same and yet entirely changed all simultaneously?
