Reign the Earth (The Elementae #1)(42)

“Calix started that?” I asked. “But I thought it was your father who hated the Elementae.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “My father was at war with them. They were a powerful enemy, and we were losing the war. He hated the Vis Islands, but not the Elementae specifically.” His shoulders rose. “When we heard the prophecy, my father thought it meant Calix would die in the war. It made him fight harder, but no, I don’t believe he ever hated them the way Calix does. He feared them.”

“Then why did he murder them?” I asked hotly. “You expect me to believe it was just a war dispute, and he wiped out an entire race? That was an act of hate.”

“Shalia,” he said firmly, stopping in the road. “You have to stop. Stop talking like this, stop questioning these things. You won’t like the answers or the consequences.”

“The answers?” My thoughts started rushing faster. Calix hated the Elementae. Murdering them, burning them alive, while the only remaining child of their leader had to watch—these were acts of hate. If their father hadn’t been the one who hated the Elementae— “No,” I breathed, shaking my head. I staggered back. Everything Kata said—it had been Calix who had done that to her? “No. Calix—Calix couldn’t be responsible for the islands. It was your father. Everyone knows that.”

His eyes were locked on mine, holding me as sure as a physical touch. “Everyone knows what he wants them to know,” he said. “And that’s it.”

“No.” I pulled away from him. “No. How could that be? He wasn’t even king.”

Galen nodded slowly. “Do you know much of what happened before?”

“The war?” I asked. “Some.”

“The islanders were incredibly powerful. The gifts they had—they could control the natural world. And for a long time, they were content. They ruled the seas; they were the wealthiest country in the known world. But they didn’t have much land, and the high priestess decided she wanted more. She wanted the Trifectate.”

I shook my head. “It wasn’t so simple. Your father was threatening her, setting up trade embargoes—” I sighed. “War is never so simple as a single person’s greed.”

His eyes were on me for a long time. “No,” he said. “And to be very honest, I don’t know what changed. Calix wanted peace. He spent months convincing my father that he could end this war with the islanders peacefully, if only he could negotiate. I think there was even talk of a marriage. Father granted him a fleet of new ships to negotiate peace, but within days, Calix had murdered every one of them he could find. And when he came back, he told everyone my father had issued the order. He convinced everyone my father was insane. And then Calix became king.”

“That makes no sense,” I said, shaking my head. I started walking faster, like the motion could push my mind to work faster. “How could he lie so completely? How could he petition for peace and then turn around and commit genocide?”

“Something changed,” Galen said. “I’ve just never known what it was. And he won’t tell me. At this point, I’m not sure it matters.”

“Of course it matters,” I snapped at him.

“Why?” he demanded, keeping pace with me. “Is there anything that you could discover about those days that would change what happened? That would lessen the things he did?”

“I don’t know!” I returned. “How do you live with it? Knowing what he’s done?”

“Because he was eighteen. And as far as I can tell, scared and foolish. It was a terrible act, but he’s been a good king for years. He’s protected me whenever I needed it.”

“He’s a murderer,” I snapped back.

Galen stopped, his face flat, and I turned in a fury to meet his gaze. “So am I,” he said.

This drew a sharp breath into my chest.

“Me too,” Zeph called brightly from a few feet away, though he didn’t sound ashamed like Galen did. I scowled at him.

“You’re supposed to pretend you can’t hear us, Zeph,” Galen told him.

“Right,” he said, nodding.

Galen’s throat worked. “Does taking a life make a man irredeemable in your eyes, Shalia?”

“There’s a difference between taking a life and a genocide.”

He shook his head. “There shouldn’t be. A life is a life.”

“I don’t think Calix would agree with you,” I told him. “And that’s the difference.”

Galen’s eyes swept around us as he grimaced. “It’s getting dark,” he said. “We need to get back to the castles.”

I looked up at them, looming ahead of us in the distance. The thought of Calix kissing me, touching me—it turned my stomach. Those hands had tortured my dearest friend. They’d tied her up to watch her family burn, and Rian beside her.

“Shalia.”

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

“One decision doesn’t make a man a monster,” he said. “You choose your fate with every decision. And he’s listening to you. So help him make better decisions.”

My eyes closed. I wanted to be more to a man than just something to improve him, but this was my fate. This marriage had been my choice, and there was no turning back.