Page 90 of Children of Blood and Bone

My thoughts run a million meters a second. All the pawns in my mind crumble to dust. There’s no way to fix this.

If she feared me before, she abhors me now.

“Please!” I beg. I have to keep her contained. She has to listen to me. I am her future king—

“Ugh!”

A shuddered gasp escapes Kaea’s lips. Her eyes roll back.

The turquoise light binding her evaporates into nothingness.

Her body hits the ground.

“Kaea!” I run to her side and press my hand to her neck, but her pulse beats weakly under my fingers. After a moment, it’s nearly gone.

“No!” I shout, as if my cries could bind her to life. Blood leaks from her eyes, down her nose. It trails from her mouth.

“I’m sorry,” I choke through my tears. I try to wipe the blood from her face, but I only smear it over her skin. My own chest tightens, filling with the echo of her blood.

“I’m sorry.” My vision blurs. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Maggot,” Kaea exhales.

Then there’s nothing. Her body stiffens.

The light fades from her hazel eyes.

I don’t know how long I sit holding Kaea’s corpse. Blood drips onto the turquoise crystals lining her black hair. A mark of my curse. As they glint, the smell of iron and wine fills my nose. Fragments of Kaea’s consciousness take hold.

I see the first day she met Father, the way she held him when the maji murdered his family. A kiss they shared in the secrecy of the throne room while Ebele bled out at their feet.

The man who kisses Kaea is a stranger. A king I’ve never met. For him, Kaea is more than his sun. She’s all that’s left of his heart.

And I took her away.

With a start, I drop Kaea’s body, backing away from the bloodied mess. I push my magic so far down the ache in my chest is debilitating, sharp like the sword I might as well have put in Kaea’s back.

Father can never know.

This monstrosity never occurred.

Maybe Father could’ve overlooked me being a maji, but he will never forgive this.

After all this time, magic’s stolen his love once again.

I take one step back. Then another. I step again and again, until I’m fleeing the horrible mistake. There’s only one way out of this mess.

And she’s waiting in Ibeji.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

AMARI

THOUGH THE GAMEShave yet to start, the arena howls with excitement. Drunken cheers ring through the stone halls, each spectator hungry for blood.Our blood.I swallow hard and press my fists to my side to hide my trembling hands.

Be brave, Amari. Be brave.

Binta’s voice rings through my head with such clarity, it makes my eyes sting. When she was alive, the sound of her voice fortified something inside of me, but tonight her words are drowned out by the arena’s calls for carnage.

---