Immortal Reign (Falling Kingdoms #6)(17)

Amara had been one of the few that knew of and wholly accepted Ashur’s romantic preferences over the years, but Nicolo Cassian wasn’t worthy of the affections of her brother.

“You think you can save him, do you?” she asked.

Ashur clenched his fists at his sides. “Not from behind a locked door I can’t.”

“Give it another week, you’ll forget all about him.” She ignored the darkness that slid behind Ashur’s gaze at her claim. “I know you, brother. Something or someone new will draw your interest. In fact, I have something right here that might help.”

Amara held out the parchment toward her brother.

He snatched it away from her, his glare intense on her before he read the message.

“A message from Grandmother,” he said. “The revolution has been crushed in its infancy, and she says that all is well.”

Amara nodded. “You can see that she asks me to return immediately to the Jewel for my Ascension.”

“Yes, you’ve been empress in name only up until now, haven’t you? Must have the Ascension ceremony to make everything binding for all eternity.” He scrunched the message up and let it fall to the floor. “Why tell me this, Amara? Do you wish for me to congratulate you?”

“No.” She took her hand off her dagger and began limping in short, nervous lines, the pain in her bound leg a welcome distraction. “I came here to tell you that I . . . I regret very few decisions I’ve made these last months, but I deeply regret how I’ve treated you. I’ve been horrible to you.”

Ashur gaped at her. “Horrible? You stabbed me in the heart.”

“You betrayed me!” This came out close to a scream before she managed to clamp down on her unhelpful emotions. “You chose an alliance with Nicolo . . . with Cleo and Magnus . . . over one with your own sister!”

“You leapt to conclusions like you always have,” Ashur growled. “You didn’t give me a chance to explain. Had I not taken the resurrection potion, the death you gave me would have been permanent.” He stopped talking, taking a breath to compose himself. “The moment you learned I lived, you blamed our family’s murder on me and had me thrown into a pit to become a meal for a monster. Please, sister, tell me how I can forgive and forget?”

“The future is more important than the past. I am empress of Kraeshia—and that will be a fact forever chiseled into history after my Ascension. I make the rules now.”

“So what rules would you like me to follow, your grace?”

Amara flinched at his razor-sharp tone. “I wish to make amends between us. I want to show you that I regret what I’ve done when it comes to you. I was wrong.” The words tasted foul, but that made them no less true. “I need you, Ashur. This has been proven to me time and again these last months. I need you by my side. I want you to come back with me to Kraeshia, where I will officially pardon you for the crimes you’ve been accused of.”

Amara raised her chin and forced herself to meet his gaze. He stared back at her with unbridled shock.

“You’re the one who accused me of these crimes,” he said.

“I will tell everyone that was a plan set forth by Gaius. I’ve been forced to set him free, so what do I care if there’s a target on his back?”

“Why were you forced to set him free?”

“Lucia Damora arrived,” she said. “I thought it best not to cross a sorceress.”

Amara hated how frightened she was of Lucia, but her magic was as incredible as rumored. In Auranos, Amara had seen only a glimpse of Lucia’s power, but it had strengthened and grown since then.

She knew she could not defeat her.

And the child . . .

Lucia had not given more information about the baby she’d arrived with, but there were rumors spreading like wildfire.

Carlos himself had overheard the young man that Lucia had arrived with speaking with a friend about the baby, saying that she was Lucia’s own child by blood. Her child and an immortal’s.

If true, this would be incredibly useful information.

Between Lucia, Gaius, and the thought that Kyan was out there somewhere, waiting to return to burn everything down around her, Amara had had enough of this tiny kingdom that had only brought her misery.

“All I care about is getting away from here, away from Mytica,” she told Ashur. “I will not put myself, or you, in harm’s way a moment longer. I’m going home for the Ascension, as our grandmother requests. Perhaps you won’t even believe this, given all I’ve done, but you are the only member of our family that I’ve ever valued.”

Ashur’s expression turned wistful. “Neither of us ever fit in, did we, sister?”

“Not in the ways that Father would have liked.” She regarded him, her defenses down, as she remembered how good it was to have someone to believe in wholly, someone to trust without question. “Leave the troubles of the past behind. Come with me, Ashur. I will share my power with you and only you.”

He held her gaze for a long moment. “No.”

Surely she’d heard him wrong. “What?”

He laughed coldly. “You wonder why I sided with Nicolo after knowing him for a handful of weeks? Because he possesses the purest heart I’ve ever known. Your heart, sister, is as black as death itself. Grandmother has worked her own particular kind of magic in manipulating you to her will, hasn’t she? And you don’t even realize it yet.”