Four Dead Queens(50)

“In your way,” Stessa continued, “as much as any Eonist can really love anyone.” She looked back to Lyker. A meaningful exchange passed between them while they entwined their fingers together.

Corra bit the inside of her mouth. Fine. Let her think that.

Not of Eonist heart.

“What proof do you have?” Corra asked. “It’s my word against yours.”

“We don’t need proof,” she said. “You are all the proof we need.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You record your memories onto chips each evening, do you not?” Stessa tilted her head. “I’d wager Iris appears in many of these recordings.” She grinned, knowing she had Corra trapped.

Even with Iris dead, the revelation of their relationship would still spell the end of Corra’s reign. Aside from romantic relationships being forbidden, having close ties to another quadrant was unforgivable. Even though her relationship with Iris had always been separate from their thrones. Who would believe that now that Iris wasn’t here to support her claims?

She was alone in this.

“What do you want?” Corra hated how defeated she sounded. She’d come here to uncover Iris’s killer, but now she was at the mercy of this girl queen and her boy advisor. The girl who’d almost taken Demitrus’s life to have her boyfriend by her side. Such recklessness.

Stessa looked to Lyker once more, and though she was furious, Corra felt a twinge deep inside, knowing she would never again exchange such a look with another person. They loved each other; it was clear in their every movement.

“Don’t tell our secret,” Lyker said for Stessa, a smirk upon his lips. “And we won’t tell yours.” Anger burned within Corra. How dare Stessa let Lyker speak for her!

Who was really in control of Ludia?

But she couldn’t risk her throne to out the girl and her advisor. She had to protect her mother’s legacy.

Corra shuddered, hating herself for what she was about to do. She glanced at the golden dome above, hoping Iris wasn’t looking down upon her at this very moment. She’d failed her, time and time again.

“Fine,” Corra said. “I won’t say a word to the inspector, or anyone, about you and Lyker and what you’ve done. But this must end, understand? Lyker must step down from his position and return to Ludia.”

Lyker shook his head. “No.”

This time, Stessa didn’t reprimand his tone. “Never,” she agreed. She wrapped her free arm around Lyker. “Nothing can tear us apart.”

“It’s forbidden.” Corra managed to keep her voice even.

“At least we’re from the same quadrant,” Stessa said. “We have the same goals. Unlike you and Iris.”

Corra wasn’t really from anywhere. The palace was an in-between place, and without Iris, no one understood her. Sometimes Corra wondered if she even knew herself. All she knew was that when she was with Iris, she was happy. And it was not an emotion she wanted to quash.

It hurt to look at Stessa and Lyker. She couldn’t be in a room with them any longer.

Before Corra left, she said, “Continue this relationship, and someone else will find out. First Iris—”

“Now you.” There was a sinister gleam in Stessa’s eye. “Don’t forget what happens to those who uncover the truth.”

Corra slammed the door behind her, her body shaking. Stessa and Lyker might not be Iris’s killers, but they were just as dangerous.





CHAPTER EIGHTEEN





Keralie



The insides of the incinerator pulsed in my periphery, as though it were alive. I couldn’t . . . I couldn’t think of anything but the walls pressing in, my lungs responding in kind. Fear skittered across my skin; a cold sweat trembled my shoulders. Soon my whole dress was damp and clingy.

No way out. No way out.

And Varin wouldn’t stop pacing the room, his footsteps tapping in time with my increasing heartbeat. I peered through a small vent in the door, but I couldn’t make out more than a dark smudge.

“Quit it,” I whispered through the vent. “I can feel your nerves from in here. You need to act normal.”

“Normal?” he whispered back. “We’re about to meet with the person who may have orchestrated the assassination of the queens, and I may have the only evidence to convict them. And you’re in an incinerator. How can I act normal?”

The feeling of being trapped felt too familiar. The size, the darkness . . . it haunted my dreams. Bile rose in the back of my throat as memories of the cave rolled over me. The smell of salty blood and sea spray. The clammy air, my lungs dragging as I wept. My father helpless in my arms.

My hands began to tremble, rumbling the metal door.

“Keralie?” he asked. “Are you all right in there?”

“That almost sounded like concern,” I replied, my breaths coming in short gasps. I pressed my fingers into the vent to feel the air and remind myself of the world outside. A world I would soon return to. “Just focus on your inner Eonist, and you’ll turn back into a robot.”

I wished I could turn off my emotions. My memories.

The sound of the door opening silenced Varin’s reply.

“Good morning,” Varin said to whoever entered.