Page 72 of Four Ruined Realms (The Broken Blades #2)

Aeri

City of Quu, Khitan

It’s the four of us against the might of the four original realms. Not the best odds, even though we have swords and armor and I have my amulet. One relic and four people against a hundred ships, five thousand Khitanese soldiers, and untold numbers of Yusanian and Gayan forces at the border isn’t winnable. But there aren’t three people I’d rather have at my side than the ones with me right now.

Queen Quilimar looks up at us, but really, she’s staring straight at me. I hold her gaze. My aunt. The woman as disposable to my family as my mother was, as I am. Disrespected by her brothers, sold in marriage to a merciless foreign king she didn’t love, and now she’s barely holding on to the throne for her young son. I understand her rage and her struggle, but she was going to torture us and she killed Euyn. I won’t give up what I have to let her win.

“I want to see tomorrow.” I turn to Royo and stare into his eyes. “And tomorrow. And tomorrow. With you.” Then I look at Sora and Mikail. “And if I can’t have that, I want to make sure they don’t see it, either.”

Mikail stares at me like he’s seeing me for the first time. His eyes dart over to the queen and then back to me.

“It ends here.” He nods at the harbor. “One way or another.”

I don’t know how we’ll pull it off, but I nod. Win or lose, we make a stand here. No one I love is safe so long as these rulers have power. I didn’t see it before because I didn’t want to. But I can’t unsee it now—the only way for the four of us to have a place in this world is to change it.

Mikail reaches into his pocket, and then he pulls out the ring of the Dragon Lord. I thought he’d taken it from Euyn’s hand, but so much happened after he died that I’d honestly forgotten about it. That same buzzing sensation fills my head when he holds the ring out.

“They all end here,” he says.

Gods, he actually trusts me.

He presses the ring into my hand.

The second it hits my palm, it feels like lightning courses through me. This is what I was feeling when Quilimar gave Euyn the ring—the energy from the relic finding a person who can wield it, but ten times stronger, since I am the one receiving the ring—and I already have one other relic.

Power flows through my body like the tides, not unpleasant but bursting to be free.

I gather myself and slip the ring onto my left hand. I close my eyes. Once it is in place, heat burns at my clavicle and finger, warm metal against cold skin. The relics are fusing to me. I try to move the ring, and it doesn’t budge—it’s a part of my skin now. The amulet must be the same.

I am one with the Dragon Lord relics. Somehow that feels both more secure and more dangerous. I open my eyes again.

“Aeri… Your eyes.” Royo stares at me with a furrowed brow. He looks intently from one of my eyes to the other.

“What?” I ask.

“They are…golden now,” Sora says, blinking.

“I don’t… Did this happen to Euyn?” I ask, looking around. I don’t think so, but maybe I didn’t notice.

Mikail shakes his head. “No.”

The difference must be that I have two of the relics of the Dragon Lord. I was able to sense Euyn’s ability to wield the ring because I had the amulet. And now the relics have changed each other and me.

No.

The blood runs from my face, my cheeks tingling. If I felt the ring on Euyn, was my father able to feel the Sands of Time on me? Is that why he made all of those promises at my mother’s funeral pyre? Was that why he kept tabs on me and had the assassin protect me in Yusan?

No, the crown must work differently. If he knew I had the amulet, he would’ve killed me and taken it from me, or at the very least kept me locked in Qali. The last thing he would’ve allowed was my freedom. He wouldn’t have risked one of the counts or Quilimar getting their hands on the Sands of Time.

My father has the Flaming Sword, but the texts in the Temple of Knowledge said that Yusan did not wield it against Wei. I thought Yusan had just lost the war, but maybe the sword never bonded to my father. Which doesn’t make sense.

How does nothing ever make sense?

Royo reaches out and caresses my cheek.

“I love your eyes no matter the color.” He smiles, thinking the aesthetics are what trouble me.

I smile back because I adore him. Because I love what he is saying. Because it’s amazing to be loved by him. I exhale as the truth hits me: the only way to keep Royo safe is to kill the rest of the Baejkins.