Ash

I tucked my hands behind my back and gave a small nod as if I agreed. “I see your children dying off one by one, and I realize that if we are going to keep our family alive and well, we need to protect those who are left. Belladonna. Larkspur. Briar. One of your three daughters will lead us next. As I see it, Belladonna is the obvious choice, seeing as you just banished Larkspur,” not to mention she’d turned down the crown when offered it, “and Briar is a child yet, unsuitable to lead.”

Briar gave a soft gasp as if I’d slapped her. But I ignored her. She was not of my concern.

His jaw ticked. “Of course, Belladonna is the obvious choice. I know that. But she is not the queen, and if she keeps on this path, she will never see the crown on her head.” But I could see he didn’t understand things as they were, not really. There was confusion mixed with the anger and frustration in his dark green eyes. The emotions warred with one another, all but humming through the air. From what I understood, his mind was broken, pulled apart and manipulated too many times by both Cassava and Raven.

Was there enough of the man I’d known when I’d first become an Ender?

The king’s next words showed my point even clearer than I would have liked. He took a step back and his eyes swept the room. I wondered what it was he looked for. Perhaps Cassava? Or maybe Lark’s mother, Ulani?

“Belladonna,” the king pointed at her but didn’t look to her, “you are the heir to the throne. But you have a half-breed child, and it is obvious to me that half-breeds cannot be trusted. Until my death and your rise to the throne, you will not live in the Spiral.” He turned his back and Bella gasped. I stepped up beside her and kept my eyes trained on the king’s back. I had to try, one more time.

“Basileus. I beg of you again to reconsider your punishment of Larkspur. She saved us. Lift her banishment and bring her home.”

Hope shattered as he spun and pointed a shaking finger at me. “You . . . one more word and I will have you sent to the dungeons. You helped Lark in her traitorous ways when you should have been stopping her from breaking the laws I have set forth.”

My jaw ticked. He really had lost it. It had not been me with Lark on her last journey, but Cactus; and he’d already been banished.

The laws of our world were not the king’s; the mother goddess had made them and then placed us, elementals, as the wards of those laws. That the king could no longer see that he was off the path was the final blow to my hope.

I held a hand out to Bella. “Let’s get you and River out of here.”

Bella nodded, bent and scooped her daughter into her arms, then took my offered hand. “Thank you.”

As soon as I could, I took my hand from hers and then led the way out of the throne room. We were silent until the doors thundered shut behind us, blocking us from the king’s sight.

“Where will I go?” Bella’s eyes were narrowed with anger and a good dose of fear. She’d never been an outcast as she’d always been the favored one of both her parents. I struggled not to recoil from her. Between us was an ugly past, one that had been orchestrated by her mother, Cassava.

The queen had used Belladonna to . . . distract . . . me, forcing me to bed her while Cassava killed Lark’s baby brother, Bramley, and mother Ulani. They were my charges, and I had failed them in the worst way possible.

I had not forgotten that day, nor the revulsion I had for Bella’s part in it. While she was as used as I by her mother, it was difficult for me to get past what had happened. I doubted that Bella had forgotten either. So it was with a stiff air between us that we walked.

“I’ll escort you to Lark’s home,” I said. “It’s far enough from the Spiral to give you the space you need, and it’s not like Lark will be using it.” The words came out harder than I intended.

I slowed so we walked side by side as we strode through the halls of the Spiral.

“You should not provoke him. Lark needs you to stay alive and keep from being banished,” Bella said as I walked with her out of the Spiral and down the main thoroughfare of the Rim. Other elementals walked here and there, going about their daily activities as if nothing was wrong.

As if they hadn’t just seen their only hope banished to the desert, sent away by a half-mad king. Their faces were drawn, their eyes downcast. There was not the laughter and easygoing banter that should have been there. So perhaps they were not so oblivious as I thought.

“I cannot stand by and watch him throw our family, and Lark, away without doing something any more than you can,” I said.

Our world was going to suffer for this day. I felt it under my skin like an itch I could not reach in the center of my back.

“Ash, do you think Lark is coming back?” Bella hitched River a little higher on her hip, holding her child tightly. River laid her head on her mother’s shoulder, clinging to her.

I looked away from her and shook my head. “I don’t know, but I’m not going to wait on her finding her own way back.”

“We need her,” Bella said softly. “Without her, I don’t think our world is going to survive.”

I didn’t like that she echoed my own thoughts so closely.

I hurried my pace. “Come, let’s get you settled into Lark’s place. Then we can discuss what we’re going to do.”

Bella grabbed my arm with her free hand, spinning me toward her. “What do you mean?”

I raised both eyebrows. “You don’t think I’m going to sit here and do nothing, do you?”