Page 88 of Children of Virtue and Vengeance

Everyone rises, bowing before they exit through the door. Mother puts a hand on my shoulder.

“Get some rest,” she whispers. “You look awful.”

I nod, placing my hand over her own. Even as we speak, the world starts to blur again. That strange voice tickles my ear.

Inan, I need you.…

My lids start to close when Mother walks away. But then I feel a new presence at my back.

“She’s right,” the presence speaks. “You look like dung.”

My body tenses at Ojore’s dig. We haven’t been alone since we returned from Chândomblé, since I stopped him from attacking Zélie with my blade.

I even sent him to oversee a special construction effort on Ilorin’s coast just to avoid this conversation. I thought I had a few more days until his return. I still don’t know what to say.

“You’re back.” I lift my hands.

“I am.” Ojore nods. “Your soldiers are hard at work. Construction should be complete by moon’s end.”

“That’s good to hear.” I turn back to the table, sifting through theendless parchments. “There’s another effort that needs your attention up north—”

“Are you going to send me all over Orïsha before you’re man enough to talk?”

My cheeks burn and I clench the scroll in my hand. I don’t know how to respond. Ojore closes the war-room doors before sinking into the seat beside me.

“Did you really think you could avoid facing me?” He tilts his head. “All this time I thought you were hesitating because of your sister. Family, I can understand. But amaji? The Soldier of Death?”

I wrap my fingers around the bronze piece, wishing I had a good answer. How can I explain something to him that I barely understand myself?

Even as he speaks Zélie’s terrifying title, I long for the scent of her soul. She could’ve killed me in that moment, but she didn’t. She held back despite all I’ve done.

“Before magic came back, that girl was in my way,” I explain. “I wanted to kill her. I tried. But when I got the chance…” My chest falls as I recall that fateful moment in the forest after our siblings were taken. When my magic surged beyond my control, I saw every part of Zélie. I still remember the bitter taste of her terror. The warmth in her soul.

“She taught me that there are more sides to every story,” I say. “She made me want to be a better king.”

Ojore and I lock eyes and I feel the growing distance between us. Staring at the scars on his neck, I know he won’t understand. He wasn’t taught to fear the maji like me. They burned him themselves.

He presses a fist to his lips as we stare at the war-room map. But as we sit, the low ringing builds in my ears again. I grip the table when the world around me starts to blur.

“I know you’re not your father,” Ojore sighs. “I respect that you’retrying to be a better man. But not everyone can be saved. You have to stop looking at these maji like they’re the ones who need protecting.”

I reach into my pocket and squeeze the bronze piece. “You sound like Mother.”

“Well, like your mother, I have a vested interest in keeping you alive,” he says. “On the battlefield, Amari’s not your sister. This girl isn’t someone you can love.” Ojore rises from his seat and pats me on the back. “They’re your enemies, Inan. They’re the soldiers on the other side of this war. When we face them, blood will spill. Don’t let it be yours.”

He closes the door behind him and I rest my head on the table. I don’t want him to be right, but he speaks the words I’m too afraid to speak myself.

For a moment, I long for the days of being a prince. Before magic. Before the throne. I may not have had power then, but things were simple. Now I fear those days will never return.

Inan…

The voice tickles my ear, louder now that no one else is here. The bronze piece falls from my palms as my fingers go limp. Sleep wraps its hands around me, pulling me into its blackness.

When it hits, a cool breath of magic passes over my skin. The world swirls around me as clouds of white float in.

It feels like I hang suspended in space, feet searching for ground that doesn’t exist. But when I finally find it, I don’t believe my eyes.

An endless field of blue lilies brushes against my skin.

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