Page 113 of Crown of Wrath

I do my best to stare the creature down. “Then let me claim the Throne.”

A momentary silence lingers and makes me worry it may not allow me to claim the Throne. “And if it rejects you? Your power is not pure. I can smell the darkness on you. The void clings to you. Our King would not have allowed you in his court. He’d have killed you himself. A filthy House traitor. Kasan’s power should not be diluted by being shared with others.”

I don’t know why, but the creature’s words make me laugh. After the madness of fighting Gethin only minutes ago, now I have to explain why I should get to claim the Throne? After I’ve spent months doing everything I can to protect not only this Throne, but the entire world, a stone creature who has done nothing but sleep for thirty years is going to tell me I’m not good enough to sit on the Throne. I don’t think so.

A soft laughter bubbles up, and the creature’s head cocks to the side. “What are you doing?” it questions.

“Laughing.” A stupid answer for a stupid question.

“You are not worthy,” it responds, and I smile at him.

“I am, and if you try to stop me, I will kill you.” My gaze goes from this one to the rest around the room as I continue. “I’m done. With all of it. I just fought Gethin and barely survived. I’m going to fight Gethinagainin a few days when I try to save the world, including this stupid Throne. I need its power to have any chance of succeeding, and you’re going to let me sit on the stupid chair or I’ll turn you into dust. If you try to tell me I’m not good enough to rule this House, I’ll turn you to dust. I’m absolutely done with people telling me what I can and can’t do. I’m done with everyone thinking that they get to tell the literal Queen of Nyth that I can’t do something. So, if you want to try to stop me from claiming the Throne that the Painted Crown and Calyr believe I should claim, then go ahead. Good luck.”

Without waiting for its response, I turn around and walk toward the chair. A mottled green and brown agate, it looks like it belongs in the petrified forest that the Keep was built to resemble. I sit down on the stone seat and give the creature in front of me a single smile before everything changes.

I’m not in the Throne Room any longer. I’m standing in a forest, and in front of me is a massive brown dragon. Much larger than Calyr and much…wider.He isn’t sleeping. No, he is wide awake, and he moves even closer to me. Just like Calyr did, he puts his head to the side of me so that his massive eye is looking at me. This is not my first time dealing with a dragon, but it’s just as terrifying as the first time.

Unlike Calyr, this dragon only has a single set of horns that barely curl. Its scales shine like brown stones in the summer sun. Its snakelike head undulates slowly to a rhythm that I don’t hear.

“Daughter of Stone,” he says slowly. “And darkness. You are not from Roderic’s line.”

“I am not,” I say softly. “I am one of the last ones left of the House of Earth. Everyone else was killed, and I’m claiming the Throne to heal the land.”

The dragon pauses for a moment and then takes a deep breath through its nostrils. The wind of his inhale pulls at my clothes, but I don’t move, letting him smell me.

“The Painted Crown chose you? I had known that something had happened to Roderic, butyouare the best possible Queen of Stone? You were…broken.”

Just like Calyr, Kasan’s words force my mind to go through memories. Thoughts of how I’d stopped being me when Hazel died. I refused to fight Gethin or worry about Draenyth. I probably made everything so much harder just because of that. Maybe if we’d moved immediately, he wouldn’t have found the Burning Brand.

I don’t care, though. I didn’t ask for the Painted Crown. I didn’t ask to become the Queen of Earth. I wasn’t prepared, and immediately after I accepted it and all the manipulation that led me there, I thought Hazel died. It was too much. It would have broken anyone.

More memories flood my mind. The way I’d almost given up everything when the Nothing swallowed up Aerwyn. I had almost given up everything, including my life. I hadn’t, though. Cole had convinced me to survive. For him.

“I survived,” I say. “Isn’t that what Earth is all about? It is weathering the storm that rages.”

Kasan growls. “It isnot. The House of Earth is about healing and growth. It is the power to helpotherssurvive and regrow after the storm has passed. We cannot protect everyone, but we must try. The House of Steel is personal strength. Earth grows roots together to help each other survive. It is about being stronger as a group.”

When I talked to Calyr, I was afraid. I’d worked so hard to stand in front of him. I’d done things I hadn’t thought possible to get there, but when I looked into Calyr’s eyes and his words had washed over me, I had been afraid.

I’m not afraid of Kasan, though. I’ve earned my place here. I’m fighting. It’s not for me. If I were to do the thing I want more than anything else, I’d have flown away from this place with Cole. We could live beyond the mountains where no one goes. We could be happy there with no danger, and the world could fade away. I’m not doing that, though.

I’m fighting. All those times that I’ve nearly broken have been because I failed at protecting others. That’s why I need this power. To protect others.

“I claim the power of the House of Earth. Kasan Lifegiver, I claim your power. I will be the Conduit between the Throne of Earth and the rest of Nyth.”

There’s no fear in my voice. He is an enormous dragon, but he is not the first dragon I’ve talked to.

“Maeve Arden, Daughter of Stone and Darkness, you are accepted.” With a single claw, he reaches out, and the tip of his claw glows with a deep brown light. I stand still, waiting for what I expect to be pain.

When his claw pierces my breast, there’s none. A single thread of light ties me to him. My heart throbs in time to the rhythm that he sways his head to, and I realize that this is another song of power. The song of Earth. The same way that my mother’s world hummed with her song.

My heart is attuned to it. I am part of that song now.

Then the forest and Kasan disappear. I’m left sitting on the Throne of Earth with the creature staring at me. “I am the Queen of Earth,” I say softly, my words coming out in the same rhythm that Kasan’s did.

The creature doesn’t argue. Instead, it and every other living sculpture kneels before me.

Interlude 6

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