Page 28 of Kingdom of Today
A lovely note, but also nerve-racking. Pain. Tests and trials. A determined enemy. “Soal says he wrote my book, a romance, as if heauthoredmy future.”
“He did. He’s able to see the end from the beginning and shape events to get there. But Astan sees a different end and writes books as well. I promise you, his tale of your life is horror.”
“I’ve already lived a horror novel,” I mumbled. Never again. Trembling, I flipped to the next page and found the coded text I’d expected. A sigh slipped out. This was going to be a long day.
Letting the world fade from my awareness, I worked and worked ...
And worked . . .
And worked.
Finally, the little symbols unraveled, more letters forming right before my eyes. A single paragraph became clear.
Astan has claimed Cyrus as his chosen. It’s obvious. Tick tock goes the clock. The beginning of the end is here.
My stomach dropped. Astan would select Cyrus as his host? The knowledge settled hard, but okay. So it wasn’t great news. It wasn’t the worst either. Cyrus would say no, and we’d move on.
On the next page, a larger passage cleared, and I hurried to read.
We stand in a stalemate, the battlefield between us a nightmare of lifeless bodies and scattered limbs bathed in the unflinching light of Theirland’s twin suns. Lavender and gold streak the sky, casting an eerie glow over the blood-soaked earth, where rivers of crimson carvefresh paths through the flatland. Overhead, a restless flock of scavenger birds circles, their shrill cries piercing the thick, heavy silence as they await their feast.
A fresh wave of CURED soldiers floods in, surging from behind the former high prince and hurrying to kill the array of glowers trapped around me. Men and women I admire. Many more will die today if I don’t stop Cyrus. But how do I strike down the man I love?
No. No, no, no. Cyrus would say no. He wouldn’t accept ... couldn’t ...
But he might.
“No!” I burst out. Soal had promised me a love story.
And pain.
And tests and trials.
I swallowed. This must be a mistake. Cyrus would never accept Astan. Not ever.
But if he did . . .
We would absolutely go to war.
I swallowed harder. I must have misunderstood what I’d read. Yes, that was the simplest explanation. I just had to read on, and I would learn what came next. Perhaps a celebration because we’d so thoroughly fooled all of CURED, pretending to do battle. Yes, yes. I must only read on.
On edge, I buried my face in the tome and labored to decode the next passage.
Chapter Eight
Every path Astan offers ends in destruction.
—The Book of Soal1.20.14.12
“Time to go.”
Domino’s voice penetrated my haze of concentration, yanking me kicking and screaming from my study.
I had yet to decipher another word, much less a second passage.Just need to try harder.
“Arden!”
Jolting, I clutched the tome close and met the librarian’s determined gaze. “I’m not going anywhere, Dom. Astan targets Cyrus, and at some point, we fight, which means he might say yes to possession, so I need to read more and find a way to stop it. Okay? Okay.” Had I really called him Dom?
