OLIVIA GLARED DOWN at the warrior on the ground. She placed her boot in the center of his chest. Beside her, a few dead bodies spilled out of a wagon. A Ruined unhooked the horses so they could take them.
“I let her go,” the warrior under her boot sputtered. “She wanted to go to the fortress, so I dropped her off as close as I could.”
A man shouted behind her, and Olivia looked over her shoulder to see Jacobo sticking a sword in the man’s chest. His head lolled to the side.
“Em wanted to go to the fortress?” she asked, focusing on the warrior under her boot. He nodded enthusiastically.
Cas. Em had run back to him at the first opportunity.
Olivia resisted the urge to scream. Nothing had gone as planned. She’d killed the entire Olso royal family, but she didn’t have the castle. She’d lost about twenty Ruined in Olso—far more than she’d anticipated. Those remaining were losing faith in her. She could see it in their eyes.
And she hadn’t rescued Em.
“Please—” The warrior’s words died in his throat as she snapped his neck.
She planted her hands on her hips, surveying the scene around her. Over a hundred Ruined lingered. The air was chilly, the ground damp from a short burst of rain, and a few of them shivered. Most of them hadn’t helped dispatch of the warriors in the wagon. They’d left that to Olivia and Jacobo.
Em’s face the last time she’d seen her flickered across her vision. Her sister had been unsteady on her feet, pieces of her clothing burned away to reveal angry red flesh underneath. But she hadn’t looked like she was in pain. She’d looked horrified.
All her horror was directed at Olivia. She could still feel it, like it was flaming rocks Em had hurled at her. Em had taken down an entire country to save Olivia, but when Olivia did it she was worthy of contempt?
She shook the image of Em out of her mind. Ivanna and Mariana stood apart from the other Ruined, their heads bent together as they whispered to each other and stole looks at Olivia.
“Something you’d like to share?” Olivia snapped.
Mariana stared at her for a moment. “Em wouldn’t have wanted you to do that.”
She was so tired of hearing about what Em wanted. Whatever Olivia did, Em wanted the opposite. Even when Olivia was rescuing her.
“Then it’s a good thing Em isn’t the boss of me.” Olivia strode to her horse and quickly mounted it. “Let’s go. She can’t have gone far on foot.”
She rode as fast as the horse would go. The rest of the Ruined trailed behind her and she’d have to go back for the stragglers, but she didn’t slow down. The important thing was to find Em. Despite everything, she had to make sure Em wasn’t dead.
Then she had to figure out what to do with the Ruined following her. She’d torn them from Sacred Rock and they couldn’t go back. It was a pitiful home, but still, she knew that they’d become to grow comfortable there. Now they resented her for making them leave.
She sensed the humans before she was able to see them. A tug on the reins brought her horse to a halt. The Ruined who’d managed to keep up stopped as well.
She jumped off the horse and held out a hand, indicating for the Ruined to stay where they were. Jacobo nodded.
The sound of horse hooves and the rustling of a flag drifted through the trees, and she carefully stepped away from her horse. She walked quickly, the trees growing thicker as she approached the road. A Lera flag flashed through the leaves.
They’d left the fortress. She’d expected them to hide much longer.
Soldiers stretched out on the road in both directions in front of her, and she stood on her toes, trying to see if she recognized anyone. There were hundreds of soldiers, maybe more than she could handle alone. Annoyance flickered through her chest.
She jumped over a log and took off in the same direction as the soldiers. She needed to see who was leading this group. And kill them, maybe.
Cas. She spotted him as soon as she reached the front of the group, riding a horse with a girl tucked up against him. He had one hand on the reins and the other on her waist.
Em looked like she was asleep. Asleep. Surrounded by the Lera army, and her sister slept. Olivia’s relief to find her sister alive was immediately swallowed by a wave of anger.
A familiar face caught her eye. Olivia gasped. Aren. He was riding not far from Cas and Em, on his own horse. No ropes bound his arms or legs. He was riding with them willingly.
Olivia darted behind a bush and sank to her knees. She clenched her fingers into fists.
Aren was helping them. Em had run straight from the warriors to Cas. Traitors, both of them.
She took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart. First Em and Aren wanted to partner with Olso. Now they partnered with Lera. A Ruina queen, riding with the Lera army. Olivia’s mother would dig herself out of her grave and die again if she knew.
Her sister would tell her to stop and think. To be logical. Fine. She could be logical.
Cas had risked his life to tell Olivia Em had been taken. He cared about Em. There was no doubt about that.
His army rode north. There was only one reason for the king of Lera to ride north right now—to retake his castle. Considering the size of his army, he had a decent shot. If Aren was truly helping them, the odds were even better.
Em claimed that Cas would end the extermination of the Ruined. That was probably true. For his reign, anyway. He could make no guarantees about the next heir to the Lera throne. She had no confidence in future Lera kings or queens.
Was that all it took to earn her sister’s loyalty? An “oops, sorry” and a promise to stop murdering people? Olivia didn’t see how that was nearly enough. Nothing would be enough, but Cas could have at least offered to help them. Had he sent supplies or workers to help rebuild Ruina? Had he offered funds? Had he done anything to help them rebuild the life his people had destroyed?
No. His regret was not enough for Olivia. Regret did not give her back her mother. It didn’t erase the year of torture she’d endured. No apology, no matter how sincere, was enough for her people. Accepting it would make her weak, and the Ruined would never bow to a weak queen.
And they certainly wouldn’t bow to her if she took them all back to Ruina. Ruina, with its pathetic miner cabins and land where nothing would grow. She didn’t want to be queen of that.
She curled her fingers around the grass beneath her. Lera was green. The elemental Ruined were so much happier here, surrounded by trees and plants and water. She hated to admit it, but Lera was much nicer than Ruina.
Calm washed over her, and she slowly got to her feet. She wasn’t going back to Ruina. The Ruined were staying right here in Lera, where they belonged. It was the humans who had taken the other three kingdoms from them and banished them to the worst one. Her people would never doubt her again if she claimed the most powerful kingdom for them.
She walked back to where the Ruined were waiting. They looked at her expectantly.
“I found Em and Aren,” she said.
“What?” Mariana blinked in surprise.
“They’re with the Lera army.”
“As prisoners?” Jacobo asked.
“I don’t think so. We’re going to follow them. I suspect they’re going to Royal City, and I’d like to see how things play out.”
Ivanna and Mariana looked at each other uneasily.
“If Em is with them, maybe it means they’ve come to an agreement,” Mariana said.
“Probably. But how well did our agreement with Olso work out?”
Mariana snapped her mouth shut.
“Em and Aren are smart,” Olivia said. “They could be riding with the Lera army for safety. I’m not concerned with them right now. I’m concerned with Casimir, and his desire to retake the castle.”
“He can’t,” Jacobo said fiercely.
“No, he can’t,” Olivia agreed. “So we stay out of sight until we get to Royal City.”
“And when we get there?” Jacobo asked.
“We keep them from reclaiming it. And we move in.”
“Let’s stop here,” Cas said, pulling on the reins of his horse. The sun had just set, and they were in a quiet spot of Lera, between the fortress and Gallego City. There was plenty of space to set up tents between the trees, and he could see a stream not far away.
Em took in a breath as she stirred against his chest. He put a hand on her head, brushing the hair out of her face.
Aren jumped off his horse and held the reins out to Iria. “Do you mind?”
“Not at all.” She dismounted her own horse and took the reins from Aren.
“I’m going to get some stuff together to change her bandages,” Aren said. “Go lay her down somewhere away from everyone else.”
Cas nodded. Violet appeared next to them, her arms extended to help. “Can you get down?” he asked Em.
She winced as she sat up straighter, but took Violet’s waiting hand and slowly climbed off the horse. Cas jumped down and circled an arm around Em’s waist.
“I’m all right,” she said. “I can walk now.” Her voice was still heavy but much clearer than before.
“I’m sure you can. But isn’t it more fun this way?” He tightened his arm around her waist.
She lifted her head. A sad smile crossed her face. “I found you.”
“Were you looking for me?”
“Of course.”
He stopped once they’d put a little distance between them and the rest of the group. He let go of her waist to pull a blanket from his pack, and spread it out on the ground. She slowly sat down on it as Aren appeared. He had his canteen and a small bag with him.
“Why don’t you go wait over there?” Aren said, jerking his head behind him.
Cas glanced down at the bag. “I can do it. Do you want to just give it to me?”
“Aren. Here.” Violet walked up behind them, holding out a fistful of something green. “Is this it?”
“Perfect,” Aren said, putting his bag on the ground and taking the herbs. He shook his head at Cas. “Go back and get everyone settled. Assign some people to watch tonight.”
“But—”
“Cas, trust me,” he interrupted. “You don’t want to do this.”
Cas tried not to let his fear for Em show on his face.
“He’s right.” She looked much calmer than he felt. “I used to do this for him. You’d rather not.”
“I’ll come get you when I’m done,” Aren said, kneeling down beside Em.
“Come on,” Violet said, grabbing Cas’s wrist and tugging him away. He looked over his shoulder as he left, watching as Aren carefully pulled Em’s coat off.
“She’ll be fine,” Violet said as they walked. “At least it’s only her arm, right?”
He nodded numbly. From behind him, he heard a gasp, followed by a cry. He stopped. He wanted to run back and hold on to Em.
She cried out again. Through the trees, he could see Franco and a few other people look up at the noise.
Cas quickly walked to them, trying to keep his face neutral. “Let’s go ahead and distribute the dried meat. Only half of it. And people are free to wander in the general area if they’d like to pick some fruit, but not too far.”
Franco nodded, his eyes darting behind Cas. “Is she all right?”
“She’ll be fine,” he said, and hoped it was true. He met Franco’s gaze. “You know who that is, don’t you?”
“Emelina Flores.”
“Yes. Is that a problem?”
“Not particularly. Sounds like the warriors have officially made enemies of the Ruined. It would be best for their leader to be on our side, don’t you think?”
“Absolutely.”
Franco clapped his hand on his shoulder. “Good. If you trust her, I trust her.”
Cas blinked away tears. He hadn’t realized how much he wanted someone to say those words to him until they came out of Franco’s mouth.
He cleared his throat. “Let’s set up a few people to watch. Who should we start with?”
Franco pulled a few men and women from the group, and Cas gave them their watch assignments.
“Whatever happens, you wake up Aren first,” Cas instructed them. “Not me, but Aren.”
“Definitely. I’m way more important than him.” Aren’s amused voice made Cas turn, and he found him and Em walking up behind them. Em had the blanket balled up under her good arm. Her eyes were red, and she smiled weakly at Cas.
“He’s way more important than me,” Cas said.
Aren rolled his eyes as he walked past Cas. “It’s no fun if you agree with me.”
“I didn’t know you felt that way. I’m going to agree with everything you say from now on.”
Aren made a sour face at Cas, but he was clearly trying not to grin. Cas turned to Em and carefully took the blanket from her. “Come on,” he said.
She followed him as he walked to a spot of grass and laid the blanket down. “Aren told me how you guys ended up here together, but I’m still not sure I believe it.”
“No one can resist my charms for very long.” Cas offered her his hand. She waved it off and plopped down on the blanket.
“Ow.” She winced.
“Well, I offered to help.” He sat down next to her. She had a jacket on again, and he couldn’t see her bandages. “How bad is it?”
“Not that bad. Not as bad as Aren’s burns were. And it’s only my arm and some of my shoulder and back.”
“Olivia wouldn’t heal you?”
“She tried. It was chaos.” She lay down on her good side and he stretched out next to her, propping his head on his hand. “The whole royal family is dead except for August. He’s taken the throne.”
Cas tried not to feel bitter about that. He didn’t want to wish death on even his worst enemy, but why August? Of the entire royal family, he was the only one who lived?
“He helped me out of Olso. I think he knew what a mistake he’d made.”
“Really.”
“But I’ve decided not to marry him.”
Cas laughed softly. “What a surprise.”
“Not a good match. I want to strangle him every time I see him, so that might put a damper on our marriage.”
“I don’t know. You managed to work through that with me.”
“True. I did imagine choking you to death with the curtain tie-backs more than once.”
Cas reached forward, brushing his hand down her cheek. “The curtain tie-backs, huh? Smart.”
She caught his hand, brought it closer to her face, and brushed her lips across the backs of his fingers. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly.
“We’re past you wanting to murder me, Em.”
“Not about that. About rejecting you when you offered to stay with me.”
“Don’t be. You were right.”
She dropped his hand, keeping her gaze on it as it fell to the blanket. “I was?”
“It was irresponsible of me to just give up. All these people …” He shook his head. “They were all waiting for me. They assumed I was going to take a stand against Jovita. Imagine how disappointed they would have been if I never came back.”
Em nodded. He scooted a little closer to her, nudging her chin up. He brushed his lips against hers.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t wish we could have stayed together.” He barely pulled away from her when he said the words. When her lips turned up, he kissed her again.
“I thought you were mad at me,” she said. “You seemed really angry the first time we met after you left.”
“I was. I was embarrassed and confused. Being mad at you seemed like the easiest option.” He brushed her hair away from her forehead, letting his fingers linger. “Violet set me straight.”
“What do you mean?”
“She called me out for trying to torture you by being cold. And for bringing her with me to meet you.”
Em’s eyes flickered to something over his shoulder. “So, uh, you and Violet aren’t …”
“She’s no one’s second choice.”
“What?”
“That’s what she told me. She said she would never be my second choice.”
A smile twitched at Em’s lips. “Have I ever mentioned how much I like Violet?”
“Yeah?” Cas asked with a laugh. “She’s your new best friend?”
“I think so. She just seems really great.”
Cas chuckled, rolling onto his back and holding his arms open. Em scooted forward gingerly and rested her head on his chest. He ran his hand into her hair, kissing the top of her head.
“There’s never been anyone but you, Em.”