Page 33 of The Scarlet Star

Ryn hardly recognized her own voice when she spoke.

“Yes. I’m here. Use me.”

“Welcome home, Adassah.”

Ryn took hold of the harp strings. She didn’t know many tunes, but she’d learned songs handed down from her ancestors and taught to her by her mother. She played an Adriel hymn she hadn’t heard since she was a little girl.

As soon as she plucked the strings, strength rushed into her veins, and warmth encompassed her. Arms of light rested over her arms. Strong and gentle hands came over her hands.

The music lifted through the temple.

All the shadows in the room began to scream.

10

XERXES

He’d made a scene. He couldn’t believe himself.

It had been months since he’d done something so irrational in public. For a few minutes, Xerxes hadwantedthe maidens to see him at his worst. The foolish, irresponsible part of him had won.

Immediately following the Initiation Ritual, Xerxes fled to the palace pools and dropped beside a cold one, scooping water andsplashing it over his face. He hardly knew what had happened in the courtyard. The whole congregation of visitors saw him lose his mind. The rumours would spiral out of control.

And what was worse—one of the maidens might be a sorceress who could hear his manic thoughts and voices…

He didn’t care about his coat of nobility; Xerxes leaned forward and plunged his face into the water, holding himself there, feeling the icy caress until he ran out of air. He came up panting, his robe drenched at the collar, his hair dripping water back into the pool as he watched his warped reflection in the ripples.

Slow footsteps filled the bath house, footsteps Xerxes could have recognized in his sleep. Xerxes thought to greet the Chancellor first, but he’d lost his voice somewhere in the pool. It seemed to have sunk right to the bottom.

“What you did was dangerous.” Belorme spoke first, to Xerxes’s relief.

“Then you shouldn’t have provoked me,” Xerxes snapped back, finding his voice after all.

Belorme was quiet for several moments. Xerxes wiped the water from his face with his sleeve.

“Who is that maiden?” the Chancellor finally asked.

Xerxes stayed quiet this time. Not that he knew anything about Estheryn Electus to tell anyway. Except that she could kick with the strength of a disgruntled horse.

“The Intelligentsia hired investigators, but her home has been abandoned, and there wasn’t much in it to speak of. Even her neighbours knew little about her,” Belorme went on.

Xerxes swatted at his reflection in the pool, sending a shower of droplets across the water. He took fistfuls of his hair and squeezed out the moisture. It all ran down his neck.

“She’s dangerous, Xerxes,” Belorme said. “I think she might be using magic to persuade you.”

It could have been true. Xerxes had considered it. And perhaps he should have been more careful around her, but—

“She could get you dethroned,” Belorme reasoned. “She could even get you killed. Divinities, she looked like she wanted to kill you herself.”

Xerxes burst out laughing, and Belorme finally shut up.

The look on Estheryn Electus’s face in the courtyard had told tales; the anger, her piercing eyes, her pinched mouth, and even her tiny scrunching nose. For a moment after he’d uttered those things about her father, shehadwanted to kill him—he’d practically been able to taste it in the air. And now he couldn’t stop feeling that kick colliding with his stomach. It was as though the maiden had the same curse as Xerxes and inherited supernatural strength at the drop of a dime. But her flesh hadn’t turned gray and cold, so how did she do it?

It didn’t matter. Even if she was briefly charming in the yard—holding that sword of hers like she’d been ready to use it—Belorme was correct. She should be killed off before she might try anything else. Danger was danger.

Xerxes sighed. Laughing still felt strange. He rubbed his throat.

“She should be executed,” Belorme stated, echoing Xerxes’s thoughts. But Xerxes found his grip tightening on the edge of the pool. “Before she becomes more dangerous. I can make it look like she fell—”

---