Page 148 of Ash and Feather

“He thought the same—that staying away would be easier.”

“And yet you convinced him otherwise.”

“In my experience, Your Majesty, there are very few families who can claim to have asimplerelationship, anyway. So we might as well try to help one another, for better or worse.”

I chose to ignore the dismissive noise he made, and I kept talking.

“That’s also part of the reason I’ve come to see you.”

“Is that so?”

He fixed a hard stare in my direction. I briefly froze. All the things I needed to say and do, all the decisions to make and all their consequences and outcomes rattled around in my mind. Loud. Messy. Uncertain..

But somehow, I burned away all the distractions, leaving only the single thing I had to say.

“I need help reaching my sister. She’s a leader of the rebellious factions you’ve been battling with, and if I could draw her away from the other rebels long enough to speak to her on ground that’s neutral between us—perhaps somewhere here in Altis—then I believe I could be a mediator of sorts between your army and hers, which would—”

“Invite the enemy into my city?” Fallon leaned against the wall, arms folded across his chest. “After what they did at Mindoth?”

“What alternative do you have planned?”

“Not really any of your business, is it?”

So he was going to be difficult, then.

I stepped closer to him. “Do you realize who you’re talking to?”

He opened his mouth to reply, but the sight of me moving even closer made his words catch in his throat.

I came to a stop in a ribbon of sunlight snaking through the parted drapes. My body seemed to absorb the heat from it, drawing smoke and light to the surface of my skin, making it difficult to tell where the sun ended and my magic began. The curtains moved, caught in a warm breeze despite the window remaining tightly shut.

Fallon’s gaze jumped between the fluttering fabric and me, calculating.

“Whatever happens in this realmisthe business of the divine beings charged with looking after it,” I reminded him. “I am one of those beings. And if I were you, I would want me to be on your side.”

He had to swallow a few times to clear his throat and manage his usual confident tone. “I didn’t think the gods took sides. My brother’s aloofness and abandonment suggested as much.”

I didn’t reply right away, my lungs too tight to breathe any words out—because I knew what it was like to feel like your sibling had abandoned you.

It was a particular kind of hurt that I wouldn’t be able to heal or even start to untangle within this single conversation.

Yet, I had to keep trying to reach him.

Fallon looked ready to leave. Before he could, I blurted out, “Dravyn wants to protect you, too. That’s the other reason we came here.”

The king flashed me the same challenging smile he’d given in the parlor. “Then why don’t yougodssimply smite my enemies for me and call it a day?”

“It doesn’t work like that.”

“And what a pitythatis.”

“I am trying to do this discreetly. Diplomatically. I’d rather not burn anything or anyone to the ground to make a point. And I’d rather not watchyoucontinue to make mistakes that will be the equivalent of burning it all down.”

He lifted his eyes to the ceiling, studying the tin panels and the elaborate swirls of gold painted upon their ivory faces.

“I am trying tohelpyou,” I pressed. “I can put an end to the battles around you before they become a full-scale war you can’t win.”

He kept his eyes on the ceiling. “And all I have to do is send an invitation to the leader of the very beings I have fought to keepoutof my kingdom at all costs.”

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