just enough of them to send a warning. The ones who survive will know they’ll never be safe in the current regime—the regime that sent them here to die. They’ll comply with the changes we make.”
“Or they’ll redouble their efforts against us.”
Amid the drumbeat of death, Kyon shifts from the path we walk together. He shoves me up against the hard wall of the corridor. His warrior-shaped shadow engulfs me. My heart wilts. The intensity in his stare holds me prisoner. “You admit there’s an us?” he asks. Darkness grows in his eyes as his hand cups my cheek and he bends nearer to me. “It’s you and me, Kricket. Forever, my little savage.” His lips are ragged against mine. The need in them forces me to meet his kiss with an equal amount of dream-filled midnight.
It’s not you that he desires, I think. It’s the power you represent. I turn my lips toward Kyon’s ear and whisper in desperation, “I’m not the one.”
“You say that as if it were true,” Kyon purrs against the flesh of my neck. His voice trembles through me. I feel it everywhere.
“It is true,” I reply breathlessly.
He runs his lips down my throat. His teasing kisses causes my body to react to him in ways I wish it wouldn’t. “I don’t believe you.”
“You should.”
“You are the only one. You are the true Empress of Ethar.”
“It can’t be me,” I restate in desperation.
“Even if that were so, Kricket, which it isn’t, I would kill anyone who claimed otherwise.”
“Why?”
“It’s simple. There’s no one else for me. I’ve found what I want. I’ll crush anyone who tries to usurp you.”
The sound of weeping floats to us on the air, a lamentation that sends a chill over my skin. “Then you might have to kill everyone.”
“So be it.”
“Why are you so crazy?” I ask as I gently rest my forehead against his chest. “This is not the way to attain power.”
“It’s the only way to attain power. Every other way is disingenuous,” he replies. “Everything is going to be all right, Kricket.”
“For who?”
“For us. Trust me.”
I don’t want to argue with a violent man, so I say, “I’d like to see my room now.” I lift my forehead from him. Finding his hand, I hold it. “Please take me there.”
He raises my hand to his lips, kissing it. “Come then. I will show you Mercy.”
CHAPTER 12
DISCOLORATION
Mercy has unobstructed views of the most beautiful aspects of Urbenoster: the grounds of Kyon’s estate, the water surrounding the fortress, and the mountains in the distance. The waning sun glows red on the horizon when the gray stone walls fall away, forming a portico of archways and pillars as we walk. Cool mountain air stirs my hair. What strikes me first is that we’re close to the wide river that surrounds the grounds like a moat. Elaborate sailing vessels hydroplane over the surface of the water, hardly disturbing its placid veneer.
We enter a suite of rooms. A formal sitting room adjoins the bedroom. My new bedroom is more than elegant; it’s divine. Kyon trails me into it. I walk ahead of him to the doors on the far wall. They open onto a magnificent terrace overlooking the water. In the distance between the towering buildings, the snow peaks of the mountains cast grandfatherly shadows on the city as the sun retreats behind them.
“What’s your next move, Kyon?” I rub my upper arms with my hands, trying to ward off the chill of the mountain air.
“Hearts and minds.”
“Whose?”
“Everyone’s.”
“How?”
“We have to build on your little-lost-priestess-returned-home persona.”
“You mean with the citizens of Alameeda?”
“I mean with all the Houses. You are seen as the priestess of the prophecy here in Alameeda. To our allies and to all the other Houses, you have been the catalyst for war. We have to make you sympathetic—the stoic leader rather than the villain. Excelsior, will start his campaign against you immediately, now that he knows unequivocally that I won’t give you up to him.”
“How powerful is he?” I ask.
“Not nearly as powerful as us.”
“How do we make me look sympathetic?”
“We do what no one else has done. We show you to the world. We unveil the hidden priestess. We endear you to them.”
“I’m not a people person.”
“On the contrary, you’re everything they want. I’ve watched you at the Rafe palace. You have an innate ability to adapt—be what they want you to be.”
“Most people don’t know what they want. What they want changes daily.”