Page 128 of Queen of Legends and Lies
I bristle at his condescension but cast my mind back. “Well, there was Chirean. And Dame. Tanwen and Kai?—”
“I didn’t ask for their names. That’s irrelevant. How many?”
“Four. Four dragons.” Why’s that important?
“How many pastries did you steal from the kitchens during the Summer Solstice the year you turned six?”
Hold on a hot second. Haveallthe gods been watching me?
The thought of the gods observing me while I’m getting hot and sweaty with Sterling makes me flush, and suddenly I’m no longer cold. “Setting aside the fact that you know all these things, which is disturbing, by the way, I still don’t understand. I don’t see why my pastry-eating abilities matter?—”
“How. Many. Pastries?”
I open my mouth to insist that there’s no way I could possibly remember such a trivial detail from so long ago, but then the memory rises, unbidden.
Sneaking into the bustling palace kitchens, the sweet scent of cinnamon and honey thick in the air. Snatching the baked goods, still warm from the oven, and secreting them away in myskirts. The number had seemed important at the time. Two for me and two for my sister.
“Four,” I breathe, hardly able to believe the word as it leaves my lips. “I stole four pastries.”
The silence stretches between us, the very air laced with expectation.
The atmosphere shifts, and somehow, I sense that his disapproval has faded, replaced by something more inscrutable.
I wait, hardly daring to breathe, my heart a staccato drum in my chest. Everything teeters on the edge of a great precipice. I know this in my bones.
“The crystals you lost when your dress tore in the throne room are under the trim on the northern edge of the dais. Kicked there when the maids came to clean up.”
I blink, startled by this abrupt subject change. “What? My cryst?—”
Before I can finish, the air crackles and the glow vanishes. Just like that, here one second and gone the next, like a snuffed-out flame. I gape at the space where the god was, my mind reeling.
“Hello?” My voice echoes in the suddenly too quiet room. “Are you still here?”
Silence. Oppressive, unbroken silence. Panic rises in my throat, bitter as bile. Did I imagine the whole thing? Have I finally cracked under the strain of everything?
“Please, come back. I still have questions!” I’m not too proud to beg, dignity be damned. The fate of the kingdom hangs in the balance.
For a heart-stopping moment, nothing happens. Then, a breeze rustles again as the air shimmers.
“What?” The single syllable drips with impatience.
I scramble to collect my erratic thoughts, determined to make the most of this second chance. My mind spins, trying to connect the cryptic dots the god has scattered like breadcrumbs.
“Thank you. For coming back, I mean.” I pace the room, restless energy propelling me forward. “So, you’re saying…I need all four elements to fully merge my magic? Fire, water, air, and earth, united as one?”
“I said nothing. Read the damn books.”
My cheeks flush, but I push on undaunted. “Bastian’s already on that, as we speak. Scouring the archives for any scrap of knowledge about elemental merging.”
“Good.” His voice mellows. “I always liked that one.”
The offhand comment bolsters my courage, fanning the embers of an idea into a full flame. I pivot on my heel, mind racing ahead.
“It makes sense. Four elements and one merge. The most powerful magic…the only way to truly defeat Narc.” I whirl in the deity’s direction. “We go to the eyril field above where Narc’s bones lie buried. We merge the elements there, and?—”
“Of course,” the softness is gone, replaced by a note of dryness, “you need permission.”
I reel back. “What? I need permission to destroy evil incarnate?”
