Immortal Reign(98)

Nerissa and Felix finally did as instructed, their expressions dark and pained. They moved backward until they were on the other side of the open door.

“I’ve won,” Neela said. “Admit it and all of this will go smoothly, dhosha. I promise it doesn’t have to hurt.”

Amara tasted the bitter tang of the red dye as she licked her lips, trying to find the strength to reply, to say what she knew she had to say. Her grandmother controlled her life—she always had. Amara just hadn’t realized it until now.

“You’ve won,” Amara whispered. “Now please, please put the baby back in her cradle.”

“Very well.” Neela smiled and gently placed Lyssa down. “Now I want you to thank me for the beautiful gift I’ve given you.”

Amara smoothed the sides of her golden skirts. “Thank you for the beautiful gift you’ve given me.”

“A gift that is valuable and precious.”

“Yes. Yes, it is.”

“Not it, my darling. She. And we still need to pick a new name for her.”

“Oh.” Amara frowned. “I didn’t mean that gift.”

Neela cocked her head. “Then what gift did you mean?”

“This gift.” Amara drew her wedding dagger out from beneath the folds of her skirt and pulled her grandmother into an embrace. “Thank you, madhosha. Thank you so much.”

Then she sank the tip of the blade into her grandmother’s chest. The old woman gasped, stiffened, but Amara held on.

“You poisoned the wine,” Amara whispered in her ear. “I know you did. But even if you didn’t, this still had to happen.”

She yanked the blade out. The front of her golden gown was now stained with her grandmother’s blood.

Neela stood there for a moment, her hand pressed to her chest, her eyes wide with disbelief.

“I did everything for you,” she managed.

“I suppose I’m just an ungrateful grandchild,” Amara replied as Neela fell to her knees. “Always thinking of herself and no one else.”

“This isn’t over,” Neela gasped, but her words grew weak as her blood flowed over the floor. “The potion . . . the resurrection potion. I’ve taken it. I will live again.”

“That potion requires one who loves you more than any other to sacrifice their life in exchange for yours.” Amara raised her chin. “That might have been me before today. But no longer.”

Neela dropped to her side, and the life faded from her gray eyes.

Amara then turned to Felix and Amara, standing in the doorframe, staring at her as if she’d just performed the most incredible feat of magic they’d ever witnessed.

“I really hate to admit it, but I think I’m impressed,” Felix said, shaking his head.

Nerissa had no such reaction as she moved quickly to the cradle and picked up Lyssa.

“Take her and go,” Amara said, surprised that she sounded so calm. The dagger she held continued to drip her grandmother’s blood to the floor. “I have some things to clean up here.”

Nerissa shook her head, then opened her mouth to say something in reply.

Amara held up her hand to stop her. “Please, don’t say another word. Just go. Take Lyssa back to Lucia and tell her . . . tell her I’m sorry. And if you see my brother, tell him I know he hates me and always will, but that I . . . I hope one day to make amends even though I have no idea how I’ll do that. Now just go, before we waste any more time.”

Nerissa’s eyes had turned glassy. She swallowed hard and nodded.

“Farewell,” she said, and then she and Felix disappeared with the baby.

And Amara, alone in the room with the body of her grandmother, waited to see who would arrive first.

A rebel to kill her.

Or a guard to arrest her.

She knew she’d more than earned either outcome.





CHAPTER 30


    CLEO


   AURANOS




Cleo knew Magnus would follow, just as he had when she’d gone to the festival. And if he found her before she reached the palace, she knew he would try to stop her.

And the city would burn.

She couldn’t let that happen.

Cleo held tightly onto Enzo as he raced his horse across the green hills and valleys of the Auranian countryside until her beautiful city finally came into view.

She gasped at the sight before her.

The City of Gold had greatly changed since yesterday.

Frightening, thick green vines now covered the golden walls, reminding her of the blue lines on her skin. The vines looked as if they had been there for years, growing from a deserted and untended garden. But they hadn’t been there before, not at all. The walls had always been clear of any debris.

This was new.

“Earth magic,” she managed to say aloud.

Enzo nodded grimly. “Olivia has been changing the city to please herself.”

“The Kindred have taken over completely in such a short time.”

“I’m afraid so,” he said. “They control everything within the walls. Citizens who aren’t now imprisoned in pits Olivia created or cages of fire are hiding in their homes and businesses, afraid to come outside.”

Kyan wanted everyone to know of their existence, Cleo thought. And to fear their power.