Page 94

I wasn’t doing this for me. It wasn’t my intention to keep Salas close as a lover. I simply wished to save his life and give him a chance at a better future.

“All right,” I said. “I won’t seek him out.”

Gem didn’t appear pacified, however. The bitterness in her eyes shifted to pity.

“Do you realize what you’ve condemned yourself to, Ari? You obviously care about this man. Now, you risk seeing him regularly during the Games. If he becomes a gladiator, you won’t be able to avoid it. You’ll watch him in the arena, but you’ll be married to someone else. Do you think you have what it takes to keep your promise?”

‘Out of sight, out of mind’would no longer protect me in that case. But it wasn’t about me.

I stepped aside, leaning with my hip against the desk that Gem had vacated.

“I don’t have a choice, do I? As long as Salas is safe, I’ll manage.”

She heaved a sigh, heading to the door.

“Let yourself out whenever you will, Your Highness. Now please excuse me, I have to sweet-talk the games master into accepting into her team someone she absolutely should not.”

Chapter 18

Ari

Imanaged to complete Mother’s speech just in time. She delivered it to the crowd of thousands on the main plaza of Egami City. Speaking in her calm, warm voice, she accomplished exactly what she had set out to do. She comforted her people, reassured them, and gave them hope, alleviating their fear.

Standing next to her on the raised platform draped in crimson, I listened to her with admiration. It was hard not to admire this woman, and not just as my mother or my savior.

The queen’s tall formal crown sat high on her black-with-silver hair. A long, dark-red mantle draped over her shoulders and descended in rich folds to the platform. She gazed warmly at the crowd, promising them what they wanted to hear—that they would be safe, and the crown would protect them by taking care of the danger.

On our way back to the palace afterwards, Mother stopped our carriage on the outskirts of the city. Leaving her long mantle in the carriage, she asked me to follow her out. She took me to a low set building in a narrow street off the main road.

An older woman in a long rubber apron opened the door when we knocked.

“Your Majesty,” she gasped at the sight of the queen, sinking into a deep curtsy. “Your Highness.” She bowed, holding the door open for us. “Madam Trela is not here. She went to the plaza...”

“I know,” the queen assured her with an elegant wave of her hand. “We’re not here to see Madam Trela. Can you take us to your work room please?”

The woman’s eyes darted between me and Mother. She seemed uncertain about the request but didn’t dare question the queen. Bowing her head, she led us down a narrow corridor and into a wide room with a low ceiling and metal grating on the floor.

The windows on both ends of the room were wide open, sending a breeze through. Yet the outside air could not completely banish the stench of rotten flesh as Mother led me to a covered narrow table in the middle.

I yanked a handkerchief from my pocket and pressed it to my mouth and nose, breathing through the fabric.

“Forgive me for what I’m about to show you, Ari. But I want you to know what a man is capable of doing to a woman.” Mother lifted a corner of the gray soiled sheet that covered the table, moving the fabric aside.

I held my breath, forcing my eyes not to stray from the body of the dead woman on the table. Blood had been washed off her skin. Her flaxen blonde hair had been brushed and braided. But there was nothing anyone could do about the dark bruises covering her skin or the gruesome wounds torn in her flesh.

“Look at her, Ari, and remember what you see. There have been a number of murders in Egami over the years of my reign, but none quite as brutal as this one. Look at her wounds and note their location.” Mother pointed at the ragged tears that looked like they had been left by teeth and claws of a wild animal. “These weren’t made by a rabid beast but by a man driven mad by lust.”

The bites, scratches, and bruises covered the woman’s breasts and upper thighs more thickly than the rest of her body.

“She was killed violently,” Mother said. “The reason for her murder was to satisfy the man’s unquenchable thirst for sex and blood.”

“He must’ve gone mad.” My voice came out strained from the horror gripping my throat. “But not all men are like that, Mother. You know it.”

She shook her head somberly. “Some may control it better than others. But all have the thirst for violence and dominance by nature. It’s up to us, Ari, to control it when they fail to do so themselves.”

ANOTHER SLEEPLESS NIGHT.

I’d had quite a few of those lately.