Lady Smoke (Ash Princess Trilogy #2)(124)

The Kaiser laughs. “We are at an impasse, then,” he says before looking at Crescentia. “You see, dear? I told you meeting with them would accomplish nothing.”

Cress requested this meeting?

I glance at S?ren, but he looks just as baffled. What would Cress have to gain by meeting with us? It’s possible it was mere curiosity, but knowing Cress as well as I do, I can’t imagine that’s the case. Her father didn’t raise her to be someone ruled by something as trifling as her curiosity. No, there’s something else at play here, but it feels like I am looking into a fogged-up window, unable to see more than vague shapes.

My spine stiffens when Cress gets to her feet.

“I suppose I wanted to see them one last time,” Cress says with a mournful sigh, taking a step toward us.

Next to me, S?ren tenses as well, as if expecting an attack. She sees this and smiles, like a cat circling a mouse.

“Are you afraid of me, Prinz S?ren?” she asks, tilting her head to one side thoughtfully. “I am quite a frightful creature now, thanks to her.” She nods toward me. “I offered her friendship and in exchange she poisoned me. Did she tell you that?” she asks him.

“You offered me a collar,” I tell her, struggling to keep my voice even. “I wasn’t your friend, Cress. I was your pet.”

She rolls her eyes. “So dramatic,” she chides, walking around the room with languid steps, trailing her fingers over the desk, leaving a path of burnt wood where she touches. I can feel my heartbeat speed up, and the urge to flee the room is difficult to ignore. When she sees my reaction, she smiles, pleased with herself.

It’s the way she used to smile at me from across a crowded room, as though we shared a secret just between the two of us. The memory feels like a kick in the gut, but I push it aside and focus on the present.

“I suppose I should thank you,” she says to me quietly. “It’s really something, isn’t it?” She examines her fingers thoughtfully. “I could burn you both with just a touch, you know. By the time your little guard came in, you would be nothing but ash.” She laughs, her eyes sparking with a malicious kind of joy. “An appropriate enough end for you, Ash Princess, don’t you think?”

I touch the dagger hidden beneath my skirt, though I know it wouldn’t do any good if it came to it. By the time I drew it, it would be too late. My own fingers are still itching and I wonder what would happen if I didn’t hold back my fury, if I let it burn through me until there was nothing left of me but flame and smoke and ash. It would anger the gods, I remind myself; it would risk bringing their wrath down on Astrea. It would mean never seeing my mother again.

But when I watch Cress control the fire at her fingertips with a frigid distance, I know she wouldn’t hesitate to use it against me. I know that if she tried, I would do whatever it took to stop her. I know that it wouldn’t be enough in the end—after all, she knows her power, she understands how to control it. I’ve been too afraid of mine to do the same.

The Kaiser beams at Cress like she’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen, like he wants to possess her. Cress smiles back at him, but there is something sickening in that smile, something dark and sticky. She paces the room and comes to stand behind him, placing her hands on his shoulders.

“You’re awfully quiet now, aren’t you?” she asks me. “No smart retorts to that? Because you know I could do it, don’t you?”

I find my voice and hold her gaze even though I want nothing more than to flinch from her. “You could. But I know you, Cress,” I say, hoping against hope that it’s the truth. “You aren’t a killer.”

Her eyes narrow and a shudder racks through her. Without breaking our gaze, she moves her hands along the Kaiser’s shoulders until they’re around his neck, her elegant, bone-white fingers closing tight over the Kaiser’s ruddy throat. She gently tilts his head back, forcing him to look at her before bringing her lips down to his in what can barely be called a kiss.

The Kaiser realizes what’s happening an instant too late—by the time he struggles, her touch is already fire, burning his mouth and throat before he can even utter a scream. The smell of burning flesh permeates the room, pungent enough to make me dizzy. I watch in horror as his body turns to ash beneath her embrace, his expression frozen in silent agony.

A scream dies in my throat. I can’t bring myself to look away from him as the life leaves his eyes. I have waited years for this. I have dreamt of watching the Kaiser die before my eyes. I never thought it would happen like this. I never thought that when it did, I would be more afraid than ever.

The smell of burning flesh gets stronger, making bile rise in my throat. S?ren covers his nose with the sleeve of his shirt, his face pale enough to match it, but Cress doesn’t seem bothered. Not by the smell or by what she just did. It can’t be the first life she’s taken, I realize distantly, and I wonder just how monstrous she has grown since I saw her last.

“There,” she says to me when she finally drops her hands away from the Kaiser’s corpse. “Now, why don’t we revisit those terms.”

She crosses behind the commandant’s desk, digging through its drawers until she produces a half-full bottle of wine. She sets it on the desk, reaching into the pockets of her dress and drawing out from one a small goblet covered in Fire Stones and from the other a vial of opalescent liquid.