Crown of Cinders (Imdalind #7)(24)

We sat on the rock and rubble, her hand wrapped around mine. I stared at the green in her eyes, at the small amount of freckles that moved over her nose, at her lips and the way they gently arched …

“Are you guys going to kiss?” Jaromir asked from in front of us, bouncing around on his heels a few feet away.

I jumped, and Risha jerked back to reality as I did. Everything around me spun as my heart rate began to slow down, reality catching up with me. I was already missing the dream.

Was it a dream? I couldn’t be sure. But I was definitely having trouble breathing.

“Jaromir!” Risha shrieked, pulling her hand away as she shifted her weight. “I didn’t see you there!”

Jaromir smiled bigger, his teeth flashing as he ran toward us, placing himself between us as heavy and thick as peanut butter.

“I’ve been here the whole time, Risha. We were playing a game… right here in the cathedral …”

“A game that I was betrayed in!” I yelled, wrapping my arm around his shoulders and ruffling his hair.

He yelped in protest, but I didn’t let go. This one, he deserved.

“You’re a dirty little traitor!”

“I did nothing of the sort!” he shrieked, jumping away from us and back over to Míra who glowered at the outburst. The wicked child I had grown used to took over her features.

“Traitor,” I grumbled under my breath, exaggerating my irritation to comical proportions.

Jaromir attempted to look guilty for half a second before breaking out in laughter.

Míra, however, looked between us, her arms wrapped around her torso as unmistakable terror crossed over her face.

Fear.

Fear that I hadn’t seen since that day two weeks ago when we had pulled her out from amongst the dead.

“I wasn’t a traitor, Ryland.” Jaromir giggled, pulling my focus from his haunted sister. “I was a spy. Those are infinitely cooler.”

Now it was my turn to laugh, although Míra didn’t seem to get the joke. Her fright increased, her eyes darting around as if she were looking for a way to escape.

“A spy!” I yelled, trying to keep the joke going while my spine tingled with the sudden change of tension that was affecting the air around us. “That’s just as bad!”

“No, it isn’t, especially when you have magic.” Jaromir laughed again, waving his hands before him. A few stones lifted into the air, dancing amidst the last of the fog before falling back down to the ground with a ripple of sound. “Then you can do anything you want.”

Risha sat next to me as stiffly as a board.

At least I wasn’t the only one to notice Míra’s erratic behavior.

“So, you can change sides whenever you want? Be a bad guy or a good guy at will?” I asked, knowing I was moving into dangerous territory. “And that’s okay?”

“Well, maybe not a bad guy … but I would change sides not to be bad. Definitely,” Jaromir said confidently, sinking down onto the rubble with his legs crisscrossed.

I leaned toward him, rocks crunching beneath me at the shift in weight. “So, are you saying my side was the bad side in our game?”

“No!” Jaromir interjected loudly, forcing out a laugh.

Míra jerked, the same look of fear running over her face.

“You aren’t bad, Ryland. But Míra was on the other team, and she’s family.”

“Edmund is my family.” A statement. One simple, horrifying statement that sent a ripple around us, causing Jaromir’s jaw to go slack, his eyes wide, while Míra stiffened like a jolt of electricity moved through her, different waves of horror taking control. “Should I defect to his side?”

“No!” Jaromir jumped to his feet, a new wave of defiance taking me by surprise.

I had never seen him so against my father. Before, he had been interested. Before, he had wanted me to train him like my father had me. Now, he looked as scared of him as his sister did, as scared as if Edmund himself were standing behind me, threatening each of them with death. I didn’t think I was that far off with the way Míra had begun shaking, her jaw so taut I could see the muscles in her neck.

“Edmund is evil!” Jaromir continued, the strength of his shout rippling over the ruins, threatening to bring the rest of the cathedral down around us. Thank goodness the magic Ilyan had put on it so we could still use it as an arena held, though I could hear the stones groan under the weight. “You aren’t evil, Ryland. And neither is Míra.”

“I agree, Jaromir,” Risha said with a smile, leaning forward to ruffle the boy’s always out of control hair. “I don’t think Ry’s bad. And I know Míra isn’t.”

I smiled, expecting the fear to slip off her face and the calm child to take its place. However, her anger grew, erupting inside of her in hatred deeper than we had seen before.

“No,” she said, the single word a slap as she rushed toward her brother, rocks shifting beneath her. “I am bad. He made me that way.”

“No,” I started, my heart aching with the truth behind her words, the familiarity hitting me deep. “He didn’t—”

“Ko, nuchín tě xadít!” she interrupted, the loudness of it feeling like a slap.

“Sho shce? adych uděbal?” Jaromir responded, his voice low and under his breath, so low I almost didn’t hear him.