Dividing Eden (Dividing Eden #1)(41)

How many beatings had she taken in order to keep his curse hidden? She’d suffered for him. She should be rewarded. And he would spend his life hiding behind his sister.

His sister who he had seen drink from the familiar red bottle and whose hand was trembling on his arm.

His sister laid that shaking hand on his face so he couldn’t look away.

“Andreus, you care about the people in the city. And they love you for it. They see your good works. Look at what you did for Max. He’s alive because of you.” A fierce light shined from Carys’s eyes as she insisted, “None of that sounds like a person who’s been cursed. We both have flaws. We both have strengths.”

Two halves of the same whole. That’s what their nurse used to say.

“Neither of us will be able to rule without help from people we trust.”

For the first time, he allowed himself to think about what it would be like to sit on the throne. To have people notice what he did. To make changes without having to beg anyone to listen to his ideas. He could help more kids like Max—and help everyone understand that being sick didn’t mean being cursed.

“Andreus, what do you want?”

“I don’t know.” He pushed past her and wished they weren’t in such an enclosed space. It felt bigger when they were little. Now the walls were too close together for him to think. His heart was pounding hard and he couldn’t tell if it was excitement, nerves, or the curse. “I’m scared to even consider wanting the crown.”

But he was considering it. Gods. If he was being honest, he’d always wanted it. He’d just pretended that he didn’t. Why wage a war for something that could never be won?

Now it could. The throne could be within his grasp and he wasn’t sure if he should take it.

In the shadows, he asked the question that he’d never had the courage to voice before. “Carys. What if I am . . . cursed?” Always he’d denied the seers’ magical powers. The wind blew with or without them. The orb glowed bright because of the Masters of Light. But Imogen believed. She believed with her whole heart that she could call the winds. He’d wanted the seers to be powerless. If he believed otherwise . . . “What if by taking the throne I destroy the kingdom and everyone in it?”

Fabric rustled and he felt his sister’s hand on his back. “Have you ever considered that your fear of having your secret exposed could be the real curse? People make terrible choices out of fear of losing what they hold dear. Kings wage war and slaughter their subjects to keep their power. The Council of Elders would send us to the North Tower and see our heads displayed at the entrance of the castle steps in order to keep their authority. And you—you might turn away from ruling and making choices that might help the kingdom thrive. That fear could be what shatters the orb.”

“Or it could cause an attack in the Hall of Virtues, the kingdom could be told of the old seer’s prediction, and a war could be waged to remove me from power.”

“It could,” she agreed, and Andreus stalked away.

“So that decides it, then,” he said with the taste of disappointment and frustration bitter on his tongue. Carys was being honest. He couldn’t fault her for that.

But he did.

“Dreus, even if we knew for sure that the seers’ predictions were real, it’s impossible to know what the words mean. Remember when our tutor made us study King Perin. His seer told him water would flow across Eden and wash away that which didn’t adhere to the seven virtues. He ordered all the men who worked in the fields to stop tending crops and to build ships so everyone in the castle would be able to find safety from the flood the seer predicted.

“Only it wasn’t a flood.” It was an earthquake that pulled apart the earth all the way to the Fire Sea. Water from the sea rushed into the void, sweeping away anything that had fallen into the crack, and people for a hundred miles around Eden suffered from starvation because men had been building ships instead of tending the land.

“And who knows if that really was what the seer predicted,” his sister said, echoing what she’d often argued with their tutor. “You’ve said it yourself. People want to believe life isn’t random. They feel safer if the seers have the power to see the future and call the winds. So they look at things that happen and find a way to fit those events around the words.”

“Except that if I have an attack, we know what will happen. It’s not magic, it’s logic.”

“Then we will deal with it,” his sister snapped, clasping and unclasping her hands in front of her. “No matter what happens, this isn’t going to be easy. I never once in my life thought I would sit upon the throne in the Hall of Virtues. I think your heart is stronger than you know. I think you would make a great king. But I will not ask you to do something that could cause you harm.”

“Do you want it?” he asked. “Do you want to sit on the throne?”

Carys hesitated. Not long. Just for an instant before she answered. But Andreus heard the pause before she said, “I want us to survive.”

So did he.

Andreus took his sister’s hand and held it tight.

“Keep your remedy with you always, Andreus. And be careful. The Trials aren’t the only thing working against us. We don’t know who was behind Father’s and Micah’s deaths or who killed the men in the tower or why the wind power line was sabotaged. We can’t trust anyone but each other.”