Page 7 of Children of Anguish and Anarchy

An entire empire can crumble in one night.

Father’s old teachings swim in my head as guilt rises like bile up my throat. We made it so easy for the Skulls. They’ve been raiding our lands for moons.

But if our empire can crumble in one night, theirs can, too. If we escape this ship, we have a chance.

We can obliterate their forces in one fair fight.

“The Skulls keep saying one thing,” I continue. “‘Stúlkan með blóðið sólarinnar.’”

Zélie shudders at the sound of the enemy’s tongue.

“What does that mean?” she asks.

“A girl with the blood of the sun.”

Zélie’s silver gaze grows distant. I’ve never seen the empty look in her eyes. The weight of my words seems to hit her like a boulder. She fights not to cry.

“Do you really think it’s me?”

I tread gently. I don’t know how much more she can take. “They need someone with great power… that’s why I think—”

Zélie’s chest starts to heave. She claws at her own skin, as if struggling to breathe. I push against the front of my cage.

I would give anything to take her terror away.

“There’s a way off this ship,” I talk quickly. “Three levels up. They have lifeboats on the deck. If we can board just one, we can head to land. Get you back to Orïsha. Figure out a plan!”

Though Zélie fights her own haggard breaths, she shakes her head, rejecting my idea.

“The others,” she manages to gasp. “Amari. Tzain. The elders—”

“If we can get you off this ship, I’ll find a way to free the rest. But you’re the one these Skulls are after. You’re the one we have to protect.”

Zélie wraps her arms around herself. I yearn to wrap my arms around her instead. Staring at her now brings me back to another time, back to those nights in the dreamscape when I was hers and she was mine.

The abyss grows in her silver eyes. The little light I feel inside of her dies. For a long while, the waves crash in our silence. Then Zélie lifts her head.

“Tell me it’s going to be alright.”

Her whispers hit me like a spear to the chest. I think of my vow to protect her. To fight for her with every last beat of my heart.

“It’s going to be alright.” I speak the words without a shadow of adoubt. “I don’t care what it takes. I don’t care who we have to face. We’re going to get you out of here. We’re going to get you back home.”

“Promise me.”

For an instant, I don’t feel the cages between us. I don’t carry the toll of the countless battles we’ve fought. The strain of the parents we’ve taken away. The weight of the broken kingdom that tore us apart.

For a single breath, we are together—connected, just like that first day in Lagos’s marketplace. I run my fingers through the jagged white streak that appeared in my hair after that fateful moment, remembering the jolt like lightning that passed through my skin. It’s like our very spirits wove together. My heart thrums with the bond neither of us has ever been able to break, despite every wound and every mistake.

“Ipromise,” I whisper. I reach out my good hand. Though I can’t bridge the entire space, Zélie reaches back. Her breaths start to relax.

“We’ll get through this,” I assure her. “I just need time—”

Boots thunder above. Too fast for me to prepare. With a click of the padlock, the door to the hold flies open. A wall of torchlight floods in.

The captain…

The Silver Skull enters, distinguished from every other bronze Skull on this ship. Tall and stocky, the captain towers above the rest. Crude tattoos cover the shaved sides of his head.

---