Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orïsha #2)(68)

“You’re a cênter, Amari. For better or worse, you’re not bound by incantations. You share a special connection with your brother. Clear your mind and focus on that.”

I smile as she walks off. Her advice lifts a weight from my shoulders that I should have never tried to carry at all. I’m not a maji, and I never will be. I need to stop playing by their rules. Their incantations, their restrictions—they don’t apply to me.

I stare at my hands, remembering the thrill that ran through me when I summoned my cênter powers and took Mother down in Chandomblé’s halls. That moment was the best I’ve felt in moons.

The most I’ve felt like myself.

My skin stings as I call on my power, focusing on my core. Though no t?táns are around to fuel my magic, I can feel it swelling from a different source.

Come on, Inan. I think of him as a faint blue light ignites in my chest. I need you now more than ever. We’re the only ones who can end this.

As sunset turns to night, I settle on the bench, reaching for my brother in the dark. I don’t know if this will work, but I won’t give up.

I’ll stay here for an eternity if it means I can finally end this war.





CHAPTER FORTY-SIX


INAN


THOUGH I GRAB the polished table of the war room, the world keeps slipping away. The advisors’ faces blur around me. Mother’s whispers drown under the ringing in my ears.

Reality slips from my hands like a dream coming to an end. I attempt to keep the confusion from my face as I hear the voice again.

Inan—

“Pay attention.” Mother nudges me, forcing me to sit up straight. I blink as I focus on Jok?ye’s presentation, a report of all her progress. Though she’s never been one for smiles, a new venom has seeped into her words since our return from Chandomblé. She still struggles to move around the room with the iron brace around her leg.

“I’ve been training my t?táns,” Jok?ye says. “All day. All night. The next time we face the Iyika, we’ll be ready for their games. We’ll annihilate those traitors where they stand.”

She speaks the words I need to hear, yet they still make my fingers cold. Every day we get closer to the bloodbath I desperately want to avoid.

“Have you located their base?” I ask.

“We’re getting closer.” Jok?ye marks a new oval on the map, zeroing in on the Iyika’s supposed location. “We tend to lose contact with our scouts once they enter this zone. But as we speak, my soldiers are finding new ways to scour the location. Our forces in Oron have been training a few t?tán Seers. When they have better control over their abilities, they may be able to give us the answers we need.”

Once they do …

I rub my thumb over the cheetanaire engraved onto the bronze piece. There’ll be no delaying Jok?ye’s forces. We’ll throw everything we have at that attack.

“Continue training your t?táns and bolstering Lagos’s defenses,” I command. “Notify me immediately if there’s any more information on their location. Otherwise, you are dismissed.”

Everyone rises, bowing before they exit through the door. Mother puts a hand on my shoulder.

“Get some rest,” she whispers. “You look awful.”

I nod, placing my hand over her own. Even as we speak, the world starts to blur again. That strange voice tickles my ear.

Inan, I need you.…

My lids start to close when Mother walks away. But then I feel a new presence at my back.

“She’s right,” the presence speaks. “You look like dung.”

My body tenses at Ojore’s dig. We haven’t been alone since we returned from Chandomblé, since I stopped him from attacking Zélie with my blade.

I even sent him to oversee a special construction effort on Ilorin’s coast just to avoid this conversation. I thought I had a few more days until his return. I still don’t know what to say.

“You’re back.” I lift my hands.

“I am.” Ojore nods. “Your soldiers are hard at work. Construction should be complete by moon’s end.”

“That’s good to hear.” I turn back to the table, sifting through the endless parchments. “There’s another effort that needs your attention up north—”

“Are you going to send me all over Or?sha before you’re man enough to talk?”

My cheeks burn and I clench the scroll in my hand. I don’t know how to respond. Ojore closes the war-room doors before sinking into the seat beside me.

“Did you really think you could avoid facing me?” He tilts his head. “All this time I thought you were hesitating because of your sister. Family, I can understand. But a maji? The Soldier of Death?”

I wrap my fingers around the bronze piece, wishing I had a good answer. How can I explain something to him that I barely understand myself?

Even as he speaks Zélie’s terrifying title, I long for the scent of her soul. She could’ve killed me in that moment, but she didn’t. She held back despite all I’ve done.

“Before magic came back, that girl was in my way,” I explain. “I wanted to kill her. I tried. But when I got the chance…” My chest falls as I recall that fateful moment in the forest after our siblings were taken. When my magic surged beyond my control, I saw every part of Zélie. I still remember the bitter taste of her terror. The warmth in her soul.