Page 57 of The Heartless One
The woman looked at him, her dark eyes so similar to Jessamine’s that they were eerie to stare into. “Down, boy. Your handler is clearly telling you to let the women talk.”
“You speak to a god.” He couldn’t quite believe this woman was so daring with her responses, but then again, he had seen the choices she’d made in her life. She thought she was untouchable.
Fortuna sighed. “Yes, yes. Jessamine has caught herself a god while I have caught a king. I’m curious what your plan even was, Jessa. You thought you would raise a god from the dead and somehow control him? You do realize the Deathless One is uncontrollable? Soon enough, he’s going to get too far off that leash you’ve been keeping him on, and then all of a sudden you’ll realize that he always bites the hand that feeds him.”
He could feel Jessamine shaking behind him. Her fingernails sank into his shoulder, but he needed the pain to ground him.
He hated these people. They thought so little of him, of her, of all the people he had protected his entire life. Fortuna was a prime example of why he’d chosen to become a god, even though it had been violent in the process. People like her deserved to be punished. People who thought money measured their worth. People who confused justice with power.
He had taught such people centuries ago that strength came from magic, and those who were considered the weakest were the quickest to draw blood.
Fortuna watched the two of them, her eyes missing nothing. She blew out a long sigh and shook her head. “The two of you think this is going to work, don’t you? You think that it’ll take so little effort to overthrow him and then… what? What are you planning to do with the kingdom you take back? Jessamine, you are so underqualified to run a kingdom. You didn’t know half of the things your mother did, and even before you died you didn’t want to.”
“It ismythrone. I survived death itself so I could take it back, and you will not be the one who stops me.” Jessamine stood, her dress coiling around her body and the ribs expanding with her breath. “You are just a stepping stone, Fortuna. The fact that you have aligned yourself with Leon Bishop is a sad one, but it changes nothing.”
“Doesn’t it? Because he has all of my tools at his disposal. I knew the moment you came into my district where you were, what you were doing, and where you were going. Even if I hadn’t, your little bird breeder couldn’t wait to tell me everything.” Fortuna looked down at her nails, fanning herhand out before smiling down at the gold tips. “You never were as good as me, Jessa. It only takes a few needling jabs and you’re quaking. Just look at you! What queen shakes when she’s afraid?”
“Someone who cares,” his gravesinger spat. “Someone who knows that there is more than just pride that affects what we are doing here. The people in this kingdom need someone to save them.”
“And that person is going to be you? With what? A god who hasn’t been alive for centuries and three witches who are so far beyond cooked they have no idea they’re even in the pot? Your plan is so full of holes.”
Jessamine shook her head and took a step so she was beside Elric. He stood with her, looming over both women with barely leashed tension.
But he could see his Jessamine was no longer afraid. She looked at the other woman with contempt and something bitter twisting her mouth. “And to think, for a few moments, I wondered if you were reaching out to me for help. If you let me come into this house and see this party because you wanted me to get you out from under his thumb.”
Elric stared at Fortuna, willing there to be some emotion other than disgust on her features, but there was nothing. Fortuna just looked disappointed.
So, they had been wrong about this viper. She was someone’s pet snake, one who would bite before it accepted any help.
“You always wanted to see the good in people,” Fortuna said, standing as well. “But you never understood that some people just aren’t good, Jessa. Sometimes, they’re here to gather as much power as they can and explode into the stars. You always stood in my way.”
“Because what you wanted was wrong.”
“Maybe to a weak mind like yours. But if you want to know what Leon is up to, you’ll have to follow me.” Fortuna reached into her pocket and snapped a fan open, gently casting the breeze over her face before shrugging. “I don’t think you’ll be able to find me in the crowd, and certainly not without your god. But if you have the guts to face me alone, then maybe I’ll tell you what Leon is up to. What do you think? A little race? Just like old times.”
And with that, she turned and bolted.
Elric only had a moment to crinkle his nose in confusion before Jessamine darted after the other woman.
“Jessamine!” he shouted, forgetting that they were trying to hide. But when he followed her, the two women were already whipping around the corner of the hall and nearly out of his sight.
Jessamine sprinted after her childhood tormentor, knowing this was a trap. But there were too many loose ends. Someone already knew who she was, and he’d talked with Elric. Fortuna had known who and where she was although Jessamine was wearing a mask that should have concealed her. None of it made sense.
There were no spells that revealed her true nature. No people who could even suggest that they knew Jessamine was here.
Had Elissa said something again? She doubted it. Jessamine reached for a corner of the wall, allowing her weight to propel her forward around a tight corner as she raced past a crowd of people and back into the party. Her mask was already twisted askew, and her breathing was far too ragged for anyone to ignore. But she didn’t care.
Fortuna was here. And she would be damned if she’d let a bully beat her so easily.
She could hear Elric’s cursing behind her. Clearly the god was not in favor of her disappearing into the crowd without him, but Jessamine needed to know this information. For herself. For the memory of her mother.
For all the people she’d let fall underneath his thumb.
She could see in the expressions of the crowd that they didn’t care who led this kingdom. They would support whoever put money in their pockets and power in their palms. They fed upon this kingdom like vampires, leeching blood out of every limb until it had turned into an empty husk.
But Inverholm was her home, and she wouldn’t let them continue this any longer. And the first step in regaining the beauty she remembered was interrogating the viper that slithered away from her.
“Come on, Jessamine,”a voice whispered in her ear. A voice that sounded like Fortuna’s but surely couldn’t be.“You used to be faster. You were better at chasing me when you were a child. Remember?”
