Page 84 of The Throne's Undoing

Kallie gasped.Our Father?

"You are weak," the king spat, forcing her to return her attention to him.

She gripped the chair harder as her head pounded.

"You arenothing," Domitius said.

"Kalisandre," a woman murmured, breaking free from the rest of the group, strong and fueled with fire and honey.

Kallie straightened. It was the same feminine voice that had spoken to her in the cave at the Whispering Springs.

"Find it, Kalisandre, and destroy it before all is lost," the goddess Sabina warned.

The voice brushed across her face, a heat that was unrelenting, and Kallie jerked back as it scorched her skin.

"Come back to me," her father said. "Come take the throne. Show the world what we have spent years building."

Yes, My King.

The phrase was on the tip of her tongue, yet she couldn't pry her mouth open to say it.

It should have been an easy answer. It should have been simple to utter the three syllables she had grown up saying. Yet it wasn't simple. Not at all.

"Destroy it, Kallie. Destroy the link," the voices around her said in harmony.

Something tugged at her mind and urged her to obey Domitius's command, to tell her fatheryes.

Kallie didn't want to disappoint him.

She didn't want to betray him.

She didn't want to make him angry.

"Kalisandre," her father beckoned. "Listen to me."

Yes.

It's what she should say, yet she couldn't.

How many times had Kallie told him yes? How many times had she quieted her voice? How many times had she sewn her lips shut for the sake of appeasing him? Biding by his rules? His plans?

And for what? What did Kallie stand to gain? A pretend crown that held no actual power? A kingdom that did not respect her?

Was that what she wanted? To sit on a throne while speaking his commands?

What kind of life would that be? Living as his puppet?

Once Domitius claimed the entire realm, what would happen to her then? What would he do with her when he had no more use for her?

For her entire life, Kallie craved power. But now, as the world was ripped away from her and the ice threatened to consume her, Kallie questioned that desire for the first time.

Power was supposed to set her free. Power was supposed to release her.

Instead, Domitius promised her a chain around her neck that grew tighter and tighter the higher she climbed onto the throne.

Kallie was not a pawn for him to maneuver.

She was not a weapon for him to use.

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