“Because he saved Ripley’s life and he saved mine too. And he’s about to save all of Elizy.”
Graff’s eyes turned to Rosaanne. “And what about you? Huh? He fucked you then told you he was in love with another woman,” he blurted and gestured to me. “I held you while you cried for weeks.”
“Shut up, Graff!” she yelled, taking a hard step forward with a fierce blush taking over her cheeks.
“What’d he do to you?” I asked with much more calm than the raging maelstrom of emotions wanted. “What’d he do to make you hate him so much?”
“He—” he stopped himself. “What he’s done to me is not of importance.” He waved a hand and sat back down on the ground in front of his pile of pulverized glass.
“Obviously it is. Because the only person here who has a problem with him is you.”
“He’s made my life hell, Ripley. He stole from me, he’s fucking the woman I love, and he works for theCidris. What more do I have to say?” His brows raised, daring me to challenge him. “How about him injuring your other two suitors? How about all the threats he’s made to me?”
“Enough,” Mirin snapped.
“No! It’s not enough, because she still has complete faith in him,” Graff said, rising to his feet again. “We all know who he is and what he’s capable of. If anyonehas a vendetta against Elizy, it’s him. If someone is going to fuck up this mission, it’s Darkly. I’m sorry to say it, Ripley. Fletcher is fooling you. Heisworking for the Cidris! And you’re inadvertently helping him out.”
The three of us remained silent in solidarity over defending Fletcher. We glared at Graff like a pack of wolves ready to rip his head off.
“Fine.” He made a face. “Don’t consider the obvious. We’ll just keep breaking tiles senselessly instead of interrogating the one person who already knows how to do this.”
Mirin cleared his throat, his voice back to its normal calm. “Knock it off, Graff, and focus.”
He stared us down, and I was officially over it. I stepped forward. “If we can’t trust each other, this plan fails, and we are all in danger. You have no choice but to trust Fletcher. And as your future queen, I suggest you follow my lead.”
Graff pressed his lips, glaring dangerously sharp at me, then held out an open palm to Mirin. “Tile.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
Over the next week, we continued the same hopeless pattern. Give blood. Break tiles. Defend Fletcher.
When Mirin’s small house reverberated with Rosaanne’s tile shattering again, he gave a frustrated grunt and finally said, “Ripley, please try it yourself. I know you shouldn’t, but nothing will progress if we don’t try something new. If it doesn’t work, then we can move on from the royal blood theory.”
Isighed. “Okay.” I held out my hand and Mirin gave me a tile. The room was quiet as the three of them gazed at the glass with anticipation in their eyes.
The coolness of the tile hit my fingertips, and I forced myself to release the memories of being in the cage. They accosted me in the ugliest of ways. I thought about that gentle hum of energy the Ölden Lands sang if I listened close enough, the way my knuckles smacked on the glass, the screams of the other women. I felt that evil split magic bubble to the surface, but I thought about Fletcher’s room in the Cidris Facility to ground me like it had before. I brought forth my aqua magic to help me instead.
Then, before I was ready, Mirin raised his hand, aiming for the glass. I told myself to not let it break. It needed to stay intact. My people’s lives depended on it. Magic shook down my arms as I let it flow into the glass. My skin recoiled in patterns of white stars, so I knew I had done something. “Go.”
The glass exploded, and I flinched with a yelp, beginning my own pile of glittering shards.
Graff groaned. “This is hopeless.”
“You’re hopeless,” Rosaanne grumbled under her breath while twirling a curl of her hair and popping anocaberry in her mouth that Mirin had provided in a bowl.
“It’s okay, Ripley,” Mirin comforted. “Here.” He handed me the last tile of the box. I grabbed it then looked at the three of them watching me impatiently to try again. “I think I want to try in private,” I said, getting off the couch.
“All right. Same time tomorrow?” Graff asked.
The three agreed and departed.
“You sure about this, Ripley?” Aldris said, holding up a shot glass of my blood.
“Drink,” I urged, clenching the glass tile in my hands. It was warm from how long I had held it tonight. I didn’t dare let it go in case my magic flared and made the piece indestructible without me knowing how I’d done it.
Fletcher watched Aldris gulp his small glass while he, too, took a couple sips. I looked down at my glass tile and excused myself from Aldris’s training lesson. Tinges of depression seeped through my system, and Iknew Fletcher could feel it too because his eyes darted to me with knitted brows.
