Page 103 of A Promise of Peridot
I pulled it from the shelf and walked down the hall to Mari’s room. I didn’t know if she’d be able to hear me, as I didn’t fully understand the comalike state that she was in, but Cori had encouraged us to talk to her, and Griffin had to be going mad with boredom in his corner. The book was as much for him as it was for Mari.
He appeared to be sleeping when I sat down—those huge hands motionless against the arms of a chair that, in comparison to his large body, appeared comically small. I read aloud quietly so as not to wake him, the troubled history of Rose a welcome reprieve from my own mind.
The kingdom was like a continent of its own, with such a large population spread out among so many varied landscapes that its people had developed two different ways of living. In the south lived a simple, peaceful people. They weren’t too different from the men and women I grew up with in Amber. Which made sense, as we were practically neighbors. The lower hemisphere brought warm weather and bright, consistent sunshine. Amber would have enjoyed the same sun and temperate heat had it not been tucked into the insulated valley that kept us in a permanent state of autumn. The southern people of Rose relished their bountiful crops, which they sold in vibrant outdoor markets. Their year-long produce was so robust, the entire region abstained from animal meat altogether.
Conversely, in the north of Rose lived a people of industry and hedonism. Influenced by the nearby unruly Opal Territories and culture-driven Onyx, this region of Rose was focused on commerce, finery, and decadence. Though I liked reading about the sultry melodies that came out of unfamiliar metal instruments, and the short sparkly dresses the women wore, I skimmed over thesection about the sensual dancing in hidden, smoke-filled rooms, as I worried Griffin was only pretending to be asleep.
Eventually, these two sides found themselves imbued in an endless war until the north triumphed via... I flipped through the pages twice to see what I had missed. Serrated scraps dotting the book’s spine told me a handful of pages had been ripped out.
“Sorry, Mari,” I said to her motionless face. “I know you don’t like cliff-hangers. Maybe Briar has another book on the subject.”
“The Scarlet Queen had a secret weapon.”
I turned to Griffin in his worn leather chair, but his eyes were still closed.
“I knew you liked story time,” I said, unable to hide my smile as I put the book on the table beside Mari’s bed. “Why do they call her that? Queen Ethera?”
Griffin sat up slowly, blinking his eyes open and scratching his jaw in thought. “Because the streets of the south ran scarlet with blood after she won the war for the north. The southerners say it like an insult, the north like a badge of honor.”
“Do you love these dry history books as much as Kane?”
“I’m not much of a reader,” he said mildly. “It hurts my eyes.”
It was by far the most personal thing Griffin had ever told me about himself.
“So how do you know about the queen’s secret weapon?”
“He was a friend of ours.”
“Was?”
“He pledged to fight beside us in the rebellion. But he turned us in to Lazarus days before, in return for his freedom. And his army’s.” Griffin scowled at the memory. “For some reason, once he made it to Evendell, he and his people fought for Ethera. He’s been in hiding from Kane ever since.”
“A Fae?”
Griffin nodded, rubbing his neck.
“Griffin,” I said as gently as I could. “That chair looks uncomfortable. Go sleep in one of the guest rooms. I’ll stay here with her.”
“I’m all right.”
“You think about me constantly. As I do you.”
Kane’s words rang though my mind like a church bell. All the time we could have saved, the pain spared, the suffering. Griffin was no better.
“Why do you fight it so hard?”
Griffin furrowed his light brows. “Fight what?”
“Your feelings for her.”
I had expected him to balk, to argue, to ignore me completely. But he cleared his throat and said, “If I never try to have her, I never have to lose her.”
He angled his head toward the window that Briar had shattered with her magic only hours earlier—Cori had cleaned up the shards of glass, but the cool night wind still funneled into the room, blowing wisps of hair around my face.
I wasn’t sure I agreed with the commander. We had all almost lost her. And had the unthinkable happened, Griffin never would have had the chance to tell her how he felt. He would have had to live with that his entire, near-unending Fae existence.
When I realized he wasn’t going to say any more, I reached for the book, but my eyes had grown weary and I couldn’t see the fine text.
