as any that the tainted people aren’t a threat,” she says, surprising me.
“Our covenant has remained strong for almost eight hundred years. The
roses take care of us. Surely, if the tainted were something to be afraid of,
the roses would use magic to correct their mutation.”
“Makes sense,” I say, strangely proud of her. And hopeful in a way I
haven’t been before. Maybe something
my toes slip more times than I’d like—especially knowing Gem’s watching
from below, close to where we’ve hidden the bulbs beneath a shallow layer
of dirt in the fallow cabbage field.
I wanted to impress him, but by the time I pull myself up and over
the edge of the third roof, I’m wishing I’d found some way to distract the
guards and gone through the wretched door.
I’m starving and exhausted, and not certain I’m going to make it to
the top. It makes me think about my mother, about what it must have been
like to jump from the balcony and keep falling and falling. It would be just
my luck to tumble off the tower and break my neck right when I feel ready
to take on the world.
My world, anyway. Yuan seems smaller after my days in the desert.
More manageable, somehow. Even thoughts of the power struggles and
hard talks and difficult decisions in my future don’t daunt me. I feel strong.
In mind. In spirit.
The flesh, however …
By the time I drag myself over the balcony ledge, I’m covered in a
cold sweat and shaking from head to toe. I collapse on the stone floor in a
grateful heap, breathing hard, my heart beating in my stomach, my head
throbbing so fiercely, colors bloom in my darkness. My bones vibrate like
bells after they’re rung too hard, but I’m alive. I made it.
“Thank the ancestors,” I sigh, then giggle softly to myself.
I don’t know why I find it funny to say things Gem says, but I do. I
love the way he talks, his myriad grunts, the rumble in his chest when he
laughs. I even love the way he gets grumpy with me and isn’t afraid to show
it.
But most of all, I love the way he touches me, the way
coming easier. “It feels … wonderful.” I smile despite the pain still pulsing
behind my eyelids. Not even this nasty headache can dampen my spirits.
I stretch my arms above my head and point my toes and arch like a
cat, more aware of my physical being than I’ve ever been. My entire body
tingles at the thought of being back with Gem. Unfortunately, my body is
also dirty and, a quick sniff confirms, none too fresh-smelling. There isn’t
time for a bath—though Gem is well hidden behind the bushes on the
unguarded side of the tower, I don’t want to leave him waiting—but I can
at least have Needle bring a bowl of water and a sponge and beg her to do
something with my hair before I head back out into the night.
bother getting up. “I’m back. I’m on the balcony. Can you bring some fruit
and nuts? Enough for two?”
“Who else are you feeding?” The deep, angry
I knock my head on the parapet but ignore the agony blossoming in
my skull as my headache becomes something
spring onto the balls of my bare feet, staying in a crouch, ready to hurl
myself at this man’s voice and knock him flat the second he proves he’s
here to hurt me.
Bo’s hint that someone in Yuan has been poisoning me comes back in
a rush, making me shake as I demand, “Who’s there? Who are you?”
“It’s Bo,” he says, making my jaw drop. He sounds nothing like
himself. His voice is so deep and angry and … cutting. “You’re filthy. Get up
off the floor. You look like an animal,” he continues, barking at me like one
of his misbehaving underlings.
“Bo, I …” I want to tell him to leave me be, but I can’t until I learn
how much he knows. “What are you doing here?”
“Better question, where have you been? I discovered you were
missing early this evening.” I hear his footsteps moving closer, and the hair
at the back of my neck prickles. My mind tells me Bo wouldn’t hurt me, but
something instinctive urges me to run, to fight him if he tries to stop me.
“Who have you been with, Isra? What kind of man leaves you looking like
that? Like he had you in the dirt?”
“What?” I laugh, even as my cheeks heat. Surely he can’t mean—
“You think this is funny?” Bo snatches my arm, and pulls me to my
feet. My laughter ends in a gasp of surprise. And pain. His fingers don’t feel
soft anymore. They bite through my flesh, not shying away when they find
bone. “You think it’s funny to make a fool of me?”
“Let me go,” I order in my iciest tone, doing my best to ignore the
fear making my blood race and my splitting head spin.
If Bo decides to abuse me—here in my private chambers, where no
one but he and his father have ever dared set foot—there will be no one to
stop him. Needle’s life will be over if she lays hands on a soldier. The
punishment for assaulting a member of the guard is death.
The thought makes my heart beat even faster. Penalty of death or
no, she would still defend me. I have to tell her to stay out of this, no
matter what. “Where’s Needle?” I ask, trying not to wince when Bo’s grip
grows tighter. “I require my maid.”
“Your maid is in your bedroom,” he says, his tone openly mocking.
“With orders not to set foot outside it until I find out who the queen has
been rutting with tonight.”
Fury banishes my fear and pain. How
“
that way.”
Now it’s his turn to laugh, an ugly laugh that makes my throat tight.
“Are you threatening me?”
“It’s not a threat; it’s a warning.” With a sharp jerk, I wrench my arm
from his grasp. Pain knifes through my head in response, but I blink it away,
ignoring the throbbing behind my eyes and the pitching of my stomach. I
can’t show weakness, not if I want to take the upper hand. “I am the queen
of Yuan. If I wanted you wrapped in chains and tossed into the river, I could
have it done. Within the hour. You forget yourself.”
“No,
disgrace. Everyone knows it. That’s why your father locked you away in the
first place.”
“You have
direction, reeling from shock and trying not to be sick. “We aren’t even
asked permission to court me. You certainly haven’t earned the right to act
like a jealous husband.”
“I planned to ask you to marry me tonight,” he says. “But instead of
finding you waiting for news about the welfare of your city, I found the
tower deserted and you out spreading your legs—”
“Stop this,” I hiss, shaking with anger. “I’ve done nothing to deserve
this, and even if I had, it isn’t your place to speak to your queen like a
woman you bought for the night!” I shout, regretting it immediately as the
pain grows so fierce that tears fill my eyes.
I take a breath and try to blink them away, hating that Bo might think
that I care enough to cry over anything he has to say, but the agony only
grows worse. The bursts of color return, coming faster, a dizzying barrage
of red and green and orange that makes it difficult to focus on his words.
“I wouldn’t … None of this would have happened if …” He clears his
throat. “I came here to tell you the dome hasn’t been compromised. I did
the inspection myself. It was a snake skin on the glass. I was … so happy,”
he says, a hitch in his voice. “For you. And myself. I couldn’t wait to tell
you.”
“That’s wonderful news,” I whisper, bracing myself against the
balcony wall with both hands.
I’m shaking again. Shaking and sweating, the misery in my head
swiftly becoming more than I can bear. I have to get rid of Bo. I need
Needle to help me into bed and then hurry down and help Gem sneak back
to his cell. I won’t be seeing him or the roses tonight. I can barely stay
upright, let alone go jumping from roofs.
“Bo, this isn’t what you’re thinking.” I hate defending myself to him,