Page 172 of A Kingdom This Cursed and Empty

“Healer!” I screamed. Oh gods, we needed…

We needed Tibris. And I’d sent him away.

We were here with no healer because I’d sent him away.

I met Thol’s eyes. “You’re going to be fine. You’re fine. Just keep breathing.”

He attempted a smile.

His eyes turned blank.

He was gone.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX

The kind, handsome man who’d looked after the poorest and weakest in our village was dead.

And it was my fault.

I’d known Thol wasn’t thinking clearly. He’d just lost everyone he’d loved. He’d learned that everything he’d been told was a lie. And I’d allowed him to come with us.

If I’d practiced more with my power.

If I’d made the decision to be queen earlier.

If I’d brought Tibris with us.

If I’d fought next to him and watched his back…

If I’d doneanyof those things, Thol would still be alive. He’d still be furious and bitter and grief-stricken. But he’d be alive.

The cold seeped into my bones, chilling me. I wrapped my arms around myself, but it seemed unlikely that I would ever be warm again. My gaze was locked on to Thol’s body—some part of me still waiting for him to sit up and tell us he was all right. His eyes were still open, glazed with death. Asinia leaned over and closed them, her shoulders shaking with suppressed sobs.

He would have had a better death if he’d died in that village with his friends and family. Instead, he’d traveled through cold and hunger, only to end up here. Dead in a dark cave, far from home.

How many more would die before we faced Regner? How many would die when we met on the battlefield?

My throat ached, my eyes burned, but I couldn’t cry. It was as if the simple release from tears was barred to me. Something was shattering in my chest, and I sucked in a deep breath.

Distantly, I could hear the others murmuring in low voices.

What good was I? How could I save the hybrids when I couldn’t even save a man I’d grown up with?

Faces flashed in front of my eyes. Herica. Vuena. Asinia’s mother. Thol. Chista. The villagers who’d done nothing except have the bad luck to know me.

Wila.

Her eyes, burning with wrath.“Promise me, Prisca. Promise me you’ll free them. And one day, you’ll come back and burn this fucking place to the ground.”

An agonizing knot twisted in my stomach. She’d deserved better. So had Thol. All of the hybrids, those innocent villages,allof us deserved better.

Something stirred in the depths of my mind. A whisper of truth.

It didn’t have to be this way.

Regnerhad made it this way.

He was the one who had done this. He was responsible for all of it. I would carry this guilt and grief with me for the rest of my life. But Regner was the one who’d killed and burned and tortured for centuries now.

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