Page 157 of A Liar's Twisted Tongue

My head swivels to hers. “Excuse me?” My eyes water with anger.

“Your sister should follow in your suit.” Her hands clasp in front of her, and my shadows wrap around me.

Then they wrap around her and Easton, up their bodies, around their throats.

“Lucian,” Lilac cries.

I tighten the shadows around their necks until I can hear their gags echo through the small room. Lusia smiles without teeth.

Then I’m shoved into the wall. I hear the ragged breaths of the king and queen of Lorucille, and I’m looking down at Kai. My shadows rise—but so do his currents. Lightning constricts my chest, and my shadows constrict his.

My heartbeat quickens—faster than ever before. His fingers curl in and his hand rotates with enough strain that it looks like he’s turning a rusted faucet that won’t budge. Faster and faster.

He’s going to give me a heart attack.

“Lucy!” Lilac shouts. “Someone, do something!”

I pull my shadows around him. He coughs, his face turning bright red, but he doesn’t let go. It’s as if his hand is wrapped around my heart, squeezing tight, and I’m about to burst.

With every ounce of my strength, I push him against the wall once. Then again, again, waiting for him to lose consciousness, to let me go. Blood deposits on the wall when his head smashes it for the last time.

“Enough!” Labyrinth roars. Both Kai and I release our magic, and all I am left feeling is the bliss of nothing. My entire body hums, as though this absence of magic is an enlightenment.

They begin to laugh, one of them even claps, and all I can see is the floor.

“Are you two done with your power-measuring contest?” Queen Melody says, as though the whole thing was amusing to her. Why is she not mad that I bested her moments ago?

Neither of us responds—I’m not sure that I can—and she says, “Wonderful. Kai, betroth the princess. And, Lucian,” she narrows her eyes on me, “remember what we’ve given you.”

I finally look up to see Kai staring at his parents the way I stare at mine.

Lilac looks at the ceiling against her will.

Kai barely manages to walk to her, grab her hand again, and say his vows.

* * *

The servants take Lilac to her room and bring her food, tea, and new clothes. She lays on her bed, the only noise she makes coming from her empty stomach.

When the servants clear away, she turns to me. “How could you do that?”

“Which part?” I ask carefully.

Lilac sits up, folding her arms over her chest. It’s nice to see her moving, breathing, and the thrill of it all could be enough to freeze me. “Attacking the only other two people who can make your life a nightmare!”

“I didn’t attack Calista,” I say with a humorous smile.

“Calista wouldn’t do anything akin to her parents.”

Calista isn’t a queen yet, nor am I a king. Who knows what we will do by then? If it’s anything like what we discuss in War Strategy, it won’t be good. Perhaps not as bad as the current rulers—that’s the impractical hope I hold.

“You’re right,” I appease her. “She wouldn’t.”

Tears roll down her cheeks, over her nose, and she doesn’t wipe them away. “I hate that she’s half of me.”

Lusia.

I sit at the edge of her bed. “You’re nothing like her,” I say with full conviction—she has to know this.

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