Page 93 of The Throne's Undoing

Even the queen had stopped by at one point. But all Cetia did was press the back of her wrinkled hand to Kallie's forehead before shaking her head in disappointment and leaving without a word having passed her lips.

The woman with stark white hair had also visited several times. She wouldn't say much, only sit in the chair at Kallie's bedside, watching in eerie silence that unsettled her.

Terin would come, too. He had spewed a lengthy apology for kidnapping her for a second time. But when Kallie only blinked at him, pain glazed his brown eyes. Kallie, however, could not offer him the forgiveness he sought.

She wished it was simply because he did not need her forgiveness, not after everything she had done. But rather she could not speak the words because she had no words to give, kind or otherwise.

Still, Terin kept returning. At first he, like the rest, had sat there in silence.

Kallie could feel his discomfort when he would shift and fidget within the straight-back chair, as if he finally realized that while they might have shared the same blood, they were still strangers.

Eventually, the uncomfortable became comfortable, and Terin began talking.

He told her what happened after the temple erupted into flames. He told her what the king had revealed to them in the tunnels. He told her of her best friend's betrayal.

A far-off pang echoed somewhere inside as he revealed the truth about Myra: that she had manipulated her emotions and most likely had been doing so for longer than anyone thought.

Yet Kallie was numb to it all.

And perhaps it was because she did not wish to admit her ignorance of her own failing.

Then, Terin started to tell her stories of their childhood, the games they would play together, and the days they would run barefoot through the castle grounds.

But the memories with Kallie in them were few and far between, and soon, he began to tell her other stories.

The ones of the life she had missed out on.

A spike of pain should have filled her chest at these memories she did not possess, of the people she had never gotten a chance to know, but instead, there was nothing.

Just a void, an emptiness she didn't know what to do with.

So, Kallie did nothing with it.

By the time Terin was called away, he would look at her one last time before he left, his gaze falling to her finger where their mother's ring still encircled before his smile fell.

But Kallie did not care if her silence hurt him.

She couldn't get herself to care.

Because while the Pontians were thrilled that the queen was able to rip Kallie's mind apart, what was Kallie supposed to do with what was left of her?

The rage was gone.

The anger had vanished.

The craving for power was nonexistent.

Everything Kallie had once cared about--the crown, the power, the king's approval--felt nonsensical now.

"Come on."

Kallie's gaze flicked to the woman before her, and she immediately recognized the princess of Tetria.

A constellation of freckles smattered Medenia's nose and cheeks. Her midnight hair was twisted into an elaborate braid that was draped over her shoulder. A string of emeralds hung from the black satin ribbon that held the braid together.

Now that Kallie had seen the queen, she couldn't help but see the resemblances.

Although Medenia's eyes were a smidge darker than the queen's near-white ones, they were just as hypnotic.

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