A Promise of Fire (Kingmaker Chronicles, #1)(52)

“Nine!”

“Don’t look so horrified. I’m lucky none of them killed me. Andromeda had guards on me day and night to avoid it coming to that.” I huff a bitter laugh. “The guards didn’t stop much else, though.” Only Thanos did. For brief, blissful moments I could sleep, and he kept everyone at bay.

Beta Sinta’s voice turns gruff with anger. “She caged you for your magic.”

I’m tempted to say “like you,” but things have changed too much for that. It wouldn’t be fair, and he’s nothing like Andromeda.

“Yes.” It wasn’t really a question, and I don’t elaborate. I don’t tell him how she encouraged the royal children to lie to me, or how she hid me behind screens during gatherings and made Ajax record my every twitch so she’d know who was lying to her.

“How did you get out of the cage?”

I stare at the tips of my boots, itching in my own skin, sick with the knowledge that Andromeda made me an accomplice to cavalier murder a hundred times over. “When I found out she was eviscerating people for utterly insignificant falsehoods, I learned to control my reactions. She knew I still felt the lies, but when she couldn’t beat the truths out of me, she let me out of the cage.”

“Odd she didn’t just kill you.”

I glance over at him. He could just as easily have said, “Odd she didn’t serve pheasant at dinner.” Sinta might survive after all.

“I’m too valuable to kill. Kingmakers are rare, and useful. She bribed me. More guards, food, clothing, beautiful accommodations. It worked for a while. I was only nine, and I’d just been tortured and deprived of all comfort for eight months.”

A mixture of fury and disgust contorts his features. “How did you get away? People don’t just let a weapon like you go.”

I give him the evil eye. “You should know. But you asked about the royals. Let’s talk about the royals.”

He starts to say something, but I cut him off. “Of the eight children, four were left. I killed Otis. That leaves Laertes, Priam, and Ianthe. They’re probably busy trying to kill each other off now that they’ve each moved up a rank.”

Ianthe had only just turned nine when I escaped Fisa City. Priam was eleven, Laertes thirteen. Andromeda was already hard at work turning them into monsters. Otis was fourteen. Now he’s dead.

“Are they all Magoi?” Beta Sinta asks.

I snort. “Andromeda’s line would produce nothing less. If by some fluke of nature it did, she’d probably drown the child at birth, like the unwanted runt of the litter.”

He grunts. “She sounds like a treat.”

I almost smile. That was funny. It would have been funnier if she hadn’t terrorized me for years.

“They mostly have Fire Magic. It’s common among Fisan royals, but they can all do different things with it. Needles of fire, Chimera’s Fire, fire whips, fire balls, flaming attack birds… You know, that kind of thing.”

“No,” he says broodingly. “I know very little of that kind of thing.”

I stare into the fire. Rabbit fat drips from the spit, making it spark and hiss. “Use your imagination. None of it’s fun.”

He’s silent for a while, using his imagination, I guess. “Did they attack you with fire in the cage?”

I sit up, drawing my knees under my chin. “Among other things. Torture is a favorite pastime in Castle Fisa.”

He looks at me strangely, a crease settling between his eyebrows. Compassion? Pity? I can’t tell. I don’t want either.

“But you absorbed it and sent it back?”

I shake my head. “Not then. I couldn’t do that then.”

I see the exact moment he puts the pieces together. It doesn’t take long. “The Oracle. The gift.”

I don’t deny or confirm, and I don’t tell him I was granted two gifts, or that I’ve felt Poseidon’s presence close to me ever since.

“The Fisan royals are abominations,” Beta Sinta announces.

I nod. I couldn’t agree more.

“What do you say we kill every last one of them?”

I turn, and my eyes crash into his. For me? “I’d say our goals have common ground,” I answer cautiously, a little breathless.

His gaze turns even more intense than usual, and heat swamps my insides. “Tell me about the others. The first four.”

“Why? They’re dead.” Mostly, anyway.

“Humor me.”

It’s not in my nature to humor people. I start talking anyway. “Thaddeus killed Ajax. Lukia killed Thaddeus. Otis killed Eleni. And Lukia is missing.”

“The Lost Princess?”

I smile vaguely. “Heard of her?”

He nods. “I didn’t know her name, but I think everyone has heard of the Lost Princess of Fisa. Do you know why she disappeared?”

“The ambiance in Castle Fisa wasn’t exactly homey,” I answer tartly.

He grins. It’s wide and unexpected and sends a sudden thrill through me.

Shifting uncomfortably, I push the feeling aside. “Andromeda trapped Lukia and Eleni and then forced them into an arena, intending them to fight to the death.” I use words Beta Sinta will understand. “They were a team. They worked together to stay alive. The two girls actually liked each other, and Andromeda couldn’t have that. They were growing up, becoming more powerful, thinking. Their popularity was reaching dangerous levels, especially since Andromeda had none.”