Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orïsha #2)(59)

What were you thinking?

My heart thunders in my chest as I glance up at Ojore. He hasn’t said a word since my sword met his, but I know it’s only a matter of time. If he tells Mother what I did …

I squeeze the bronze piece, banishing the thought. I’m the king.

It’s his word against mine.

“Inan!” Mother rises when we exit the temple grounds. She pushes off the Healer tending to her half-treated burns.

“What happened?” she snaps at Ojore. “You’re supposed to protect him with your life!”

“Mother, he did.” I rush to his defense. “Ojore stopped a blade from going through my heart.”

Mother’s face falls and she throws her arms around Ojore’s neck. “Skies, boy. How many times will we have to thank you for saving his life?”

Ojore locks eyes with me, jaw clenching tight.

“No thanks necessary,” he says. “I’d do it anytime.”

I swallow and avoid his gaze. I don’t know how long he’ll let my lie stand, but at least my secret’s safe for now. I can’t explain what happened in the temple; I barely understand it myself. Zélie looked at that boy and somehow it was greater than my pain.

I couldn’t stomach the thought of being the reason she lost someone else.

“You need to get to safety.” Mother ushers us along. “The others are waiting across the bridge.”

“What are you doing?” I ask.

My fingers grow cold as she hooks her golden mask over her nose. “This place only serves our enemies.”

“No!” I jerk up, wincing at the pain that shoots up my side. “This temple may be the oldest Or?sha has. It holds the stories of our past!”

Though Chandomblé wasn’t created for me, I feel its pulse like the beating heart of this land. I remember wandering its hallowed grounds in search of Zélie’s path moons ago. Kneeling before the portrait of Ori. This temple was the one place that could quiet the noise in my head.

“You can’t,” I say. “I forbid it.”

Mother purses her lips. I can almost see her swallowing everything she wants to yell.

“This is a den for rebellious maggots,” she hisses. “Not some historical site.”

Ojore eyes me, but I don’t back down.

“The Iyika came here for power,” I say. “We can use the temple to seize some for ourselves!”

“Inan, look around you.” Mother shakes her head. “Look at what they’ve done.”

She points behind me and I see the endless trail of bodies being carried out. Though most of the soldiers head for the Healers, there are those who no longer breathe. The sight of every new corpse that piles up before the bridge lands like a punch to the gut.

Jok?ye passes us on a medic’s stretcher, still unconscious. Someone’s reset her leg, but blood leaks through the bandages. My chin quivers at the sight.

Would she have gotten hurt if I hadn’t wanted Zélie and Amari taken in alive?

“You do not serve the maji,” Mother continues. “You do not even serve these lands. Your duty as king is to protect the throne. The throne and the people who bow before it.”

I exhale, knowing I have no other choice.

“Destroy it,” I order, though it hurts to speak the words.

My chest falls as Mother marches forward with her t?táns that still stand. As she walks past the carnage in her path, I know she’s right. Our enemies are gaining ground. We need to eliminate every asset they have. But how long can both sides keep going like this before we destroy Or?sha?

Mother’s t?táns form a circle around her as the last of the soldiers is carried away from the temple grounds. She opens her hands, igniting the emerald glow in her chest. Veins bulge against her neck and the ground begins to shake.

Her t?táns seize as she sucks the power from their veins.

“More!” Mother shouts. The earth’s vibration rattles my teeth as her t?táns fall to their knees. The green light shoots out of her eyes and she punches her fists into the dirt. The ground cracks on impact.

The fissure speeds through the jungle, tearing up the earth in its path. Its rumble grows the closer it gets to the temple.

When it reaches the hallowed grounds, it’s like a dozen bombs go off at once. The temple falls as the ground beneath it sinks into the earth.

“Skies,” Ojore curses at Mother’s power, shielding his nose. I cover my eyes as the rock explodes, debris clouding up the sky. Up ahead, a t?tán cries out before his body falls limp. He’s dead before he hits the ground.

Mother’s magic has taken everything from him.

I have to end this war. The thought echoes through my mind as I grab the wound in my side. The battles are spinning out of control. If we continue at this rate, the entire kingdom will be destroyed in the process.

I squeeze the bronze piece tight, searching for another way out of this fight.

If Zélie won’t listen to me, I’ll find someone who will.





CHAPTER FORTY-THREE


AMARI


FOUR LONG DAYS pass before we make it back to the sanctuary. This high above the clouds the haven is at peace, ignorant of the chaos sweeping the lands at the mountain’s feet.

By the time we step onto the first mountain, my legs drag like they’re made of marble. The sanctuary lies in a calm silence, majestic towers painted in dark silhouettes across the indigo sky.