Page 21 of Kingdom of Flames & Flowers
My insides froze, and every girl standing near me went stiff. Vession and the prima approached the thrones, stopping at the very bottom. Fireguards brought in a small wooden table and placed it before them.
“All of our new flowers endured their suitability test except one. To kick off the festival, I offer the last inspection to all of you for entertainment.”
The crowd broke into loud muttering and excited whispers. Sweat broke out along my forehead.
The queen strode to her throne, gracefully flaring out her dress before sitting down. The king looked annoyed, his lips thinning into a single line. He said nothing, however, even as the same two fireguards grabbed me by my upper arms and dragged me forward.
My eyes shot to Zion in terror.
Something that could have been guilt or shame rippled through his gaze. For a moment he looked like he wanted to stand, but a sharp hiss from the queen had him slamming back into his seat with a grimace. He didn’t sit like his parents to watch the show, but neither did he raise a hand or his voice to stop it from proceeding. He just sat there, a blank expression on his face as his fingers dug into the armrests of his throne. Why? Why did he just fucking sit there?
I was numb until my back slammed against the table. That’s when I lost my mind. I growled and twisted like an angry cat, refusing to lie there and take it like all the other girls had. If they were going to do this, and in front of an audience no less, then they were going to earnit.
“Oh dear,” the queen intoned, voice dripping with false concern. “Perhaps we should just throw this one out. How uncouth.”
I went limp. I’d be damned if I gave her a reason to throw me out. Vession pushed me down with two hands on my chest. Each fireguard took one of my legs and tried to wrench them open. I kicked hard, feeling vicious satisfaction when I caught one under the cheek with a vicious kick even if it was on my injured foot.
The sight of blood on his face warmed my heart.
Before I knew what had happened, a hand went around my throat, gentle but firm. In confusion, I glanced up, seeing nothing but dark curls and those green and silver eyes. He ran a finger down my face, starting from my forehead, trailing down my nose, my lips, chin, then neck and chest. My body went fuzzy and warm, everything tingling as my eyes went in and out of focus. I couldn’t concentrate on his face above me as my body began to go limp. And the kicker was that I didn’t entirely mind it. What magick was this?
“Ssh. Just relax. It’ll be over soon.”
My legs dropped to the table, completely slack. I knew there was a reason I shouldn’t relax, but I couldn’t remember what it was. I yawned. Everything was fine, wasn’t it?
A cold hand ran up the inside of my thigh, then wrenched them open.
Then the world exploded.
The castle shook and everyone fell to the ground as the dragon above screamed in anger, heat pooling down from the ceiling in waves as the dragon blasted at the dome overhead with his fire over and over again. His roars of fury were so loud I thought my eardrums were bursting—nothing existed except heat and noise.
The hands holding me down were gone. I must have rolled off the table at some point, because the marble under me was cool. I pressed my body against it, desperate to escape the heat. I was sure I was screaming like everyone else, but we could hear nothing over the dragon. We could feel nothing over the dragon. I tried to breathe and couldn’t. The air was too hot. The dome protected us from the physical flames, but not from the sheerheat.
Hands grabbed me and hauled me up. They cradled me against a body that was hot—far too hot to be walking and moving the way this person was. Shapes and colors whizzed by, but slowly the heat dissipated as they carried me away from it. Blessedly cool air filled my lungs, and I coughed and hacked, unable to calm myself to breathe properly.
Some fucking holiday,I thought.
“Easy now. Easy.”
My back hit a soft bed, with silk sheets and soft satin pillows. A hand was on my brow, moving down to press on my chest. The muscles beneath his fingers went loose and warm, relaxing under his touch. I took a full breath in, and fell asleep.
* * *
I opened my eyes.
Him. Zari—Zion. The prince.
I cried. Tears of betrayal, despair, and frustration poured down my cheeks. I gulped down breath after breath, but I couldn’t stop sobbing. It was as if I’d gone my whole life without crying, and now the dam had burst free, bringing with it every hardship I’d ever faced in my life.
And Zion was getting to see it all.
That only made me cry harder.
“Relax. I got you out. It’s fine.”
I took a few more shuddering breaths, willing myself to be calm enough to speak. “The other girls,” I choked out. “What about them?”
He hesitated, obviously seeing how important this was to me.
