Page 81 of Kingdom of Flames & Flowers
Zariah pouted. “Then we can’t have any fun, and your rooms are so much more spacious than ours.”
I glared. “Whose fault is that?”
He sighed. “Not my fault Zion can’t control his urges, and needs to be outside the dome in case he transforms.” Seeing the resolute expression on my face, he relented. “Very well. Put everyone where you like. It matters not to me.”
Alright. Great.
“What’s going on with the nobles? I’m hearing rumors about … gray and rotting skin.”
Zariah snorted and my eyes narrowed. If he laughed at me one more time, I’d punch him.
“Yes, it’s hilarious,” I spat angrily. “That’s why every single one of my friends married off to a noble is now crying, traumatized, or dragged away.” I thought of Freesia and Leilani. “Except for two.”
To his credit, Zariah’s brow furrowed in confusion. “I don’t know what that’s about. Perhaps adjusting to noble life is difficult.” He gave me a warm smile. “Not everyone is a warrior like you.”
I wished I had the time to luxuriate in the compliment, but I knew his tricks. He was trying to disarm me, whether it was intentional or not.
“Hyacinth was raving about her sister’s husband…. She said he had gray and rotting skin. They dragged Azalea from the ballroom after trying to tell me something. Why do nobles only marry quarter girls, and their own daughters become Primas? Is it about breeding like my friends say? You must admit it’s suspicious.”
Zariah walked out onto the large balcony and I followed, my eye skating around the giant scorch mark left from when either he or Zion had killed Ivy. Were they even aware of what they’d done?
He leaned over the railing, taking in the glittering Seat beneath us, and the lights of the quarters even further away. It was so quiet up here. It was like none of the pain and suffering down below existed, let alone mattered.
“The nobles face a crisis,” Zariah began. “They have interbred for several generations now, and have rendered themselves infertile to each other. That is why they must take wives from the quarters, and that is why we have the games. It’s why Mother has a king from the mud quarter.”
He turned and took my hands in his. “I understand your reticence. Mother isn’t the kindest person, but she does her best.”
I pulled back, but he held on tight. “She tried to kill me. I watched her order those fireguards murdered, the ones who saw both you and Zion at the same time. She’s taunted me about killing—”
“She is protecting Zion and I, her only children. What she does is out of love. Can’t you see that?”
No, I couldn’t. He was wrong.
Zariah’s grip on my hands tightened. “For the sake of the gods, Mari, she married and bred with a mud quarter flame! What more proof do you need? She bears you no ill will because of your heritage!”
I ripped my hands out of his. Surely he wasn’t this willfully blind.
“She bred with one of my people because she had no choice; you said it yourself. Does your father rule the kingdom, Zariah?” I asked cruelly. “Or does he stand at your mother’s backside, a withering accessory that she can point to as proof she isn’t the monster she truly is? Does the king make any decisions or have any power? I rarely even hear him speak! And even now she fucks my brother on the side, openly taunting me about him becoming thenewking.”
Zariah’s mouth bobbed open and closed, his face flushing. “That’s not—”
“Inbreeding doesn’t cause rotting and gray skin,” I stressed. “Something else is going on, and you’re just believing everything you’re spoon-fed. I—”
“You just think everything is a grand conspiracy against your people—”
“—killed hundreds of us when we were slavesin the mines, bought from another country—”
“—completely unfounded when she’s only doing her best—”
“—not to mention all the dead girls from all the quarters, or do they not matter? And—”
“—you people always see the worst in everything. That’s why you were slaves!”
My mouth slammed closed at Zariah’s admission, my heart stopping in my chest. His face blanched, realizing what he’d just said.
“No, that wasn’t what I meant. Mari, I’m sorry.”
He reached toward me, but I flinched back.
