can’t be selfish, and I cannot cry. Because Vataea deserves this more than anything. She deserves the world, and I need to let her have it.
“One day, I hope you’ll tell me all about it.” I reach forward, hoping, praying, that she’ll take my hand. When she does, it takes everything in me to curl my fingers around hers without letting myself fall apart completely.
“I will.” She’s slow to draw her hand back, but it’s a relief when she does. Because if it were up to me, I’d never let her leave.
“I’ll miss you, Vataea. But I hope you have the best adventures of any of us.” Every word is a dagger stabbing through me, over and over again until I can’t take it any longer. I’m the first to turn away, because this pain hurts almost as bad as when I lost Father. Vataea may not be dead, but she’s leaving. Another piece of my heart, gone just like that.
I don’t turn back even at the sound of her footsteps. Not even as the door cracks open. Not even as her voice comes from the doorway, quiet but firm. “Amora?” I want to remember that honeyed voice forever. I want to embed it deep into my memory, and never let it disappear. “Call me V.”
The door shuts and I grab hold of the bedpost to steady my trembling. This is what she wanted, and as a hesitant knock sounds at my door seconds later, I tell myself to be grateful that she gets the chance to live out her dream. Even if I’m not part of it.
Casem waits outside, hands folded behind his back. His blue eyes watch me from beneath long blond lashes. The royal emblem that marks him as Arida’s leading adviser burns as brightly as the sun upon his sapphire blazer, almost matching the gold of his hair. He tries to smile, but his mouth skews with worry when he notices the tears in my eyes.
“Everyone’s waiting for you. Are you ready?”
I think of Vataea and the thousands of adventures she’s about to live. Taking his arm, I decide it’s time for my own adventures, too.
After today, no matter what the outcome of this meeting, everything will change. But as I take one look back out my window to see Keel Haul waiting for me in the distance, ebbing upon pleasant spring tides, I know this is the right choice.
The gods created me to lead Visidia—I grew up with that belief. They were some of Father’s dying words to me. Now, I believe them more than ever.
Back in Valuka, the godwoken had warned me I’d soon be making a choice that would either lead Visidia into the future or be its demise. Today, I know our future is bright.
We make our way farther up the cliffside, into the garden that rests at the peak of Arida. Hundreds of flowers stretch oversize petals to greet us, beautiful in the sunlight, but waiting until the light of the moon to truly flourish and reveal their bioluminescence—a sight people come from all over the kingdom to see.
Once, I considered these gardens a calming place. Somewhere to seek refuge and beauty that doesn’t seem as though it should belong to this world. Now though, I can’t fall into their beauty so easily; too much has happened, here. This is where my journey started, and this is where it will end.
Every color of the kingdom stands before me in the crowd, the Kers’ amethyst included. Gossip and whispers reverberate through the garden so heavily that even the plants tremble with the anticipation of today’s meeting.
Every island’s adviser is lined up behind the throne, which sits erected in a clearing surrounded by sprouting pink mushrooms and purple flowers that have fallen from the tree above, where they hang like a crown over the gardens. Mother is there too, and Casem takes his place among them as Bastian watches from the waiting crowd. I draw a breath as I pass and take my place upon the throne. Mother fits the High Animancer’s crown atop my head. Her hand brushes gently across my cheek as she does, and our eyes lock.
Make this life everything it should be. I hear Father’s voice in her smile before she bows and takes her place at the left of the throne. The giant eel crown sits too heavily, eating me alive as I search the crowd for the faces I need to see.
Vataea and Bastian, standing side by