Page 15 of City of Snakes
“Only if Elsedora has something that will cover me more than...that.” Sybilla waved her hand up and down at El, who was out of earshot offering water to the carriage horses. She typically pushed fashion boundaries even by the Sahlms’ standards, but I wasn’t going to tell Sybilla that.
My lips fought the urge to creep up at the sides. “Not a fan of staying cool?”
“Don’t play coy. In my land, royals just started to be allowed to show theirshoulders.”
“How virginal,” I droned.
I found myself a bit disappointed when she didn’t shoot back an insult. She looked flushed and dead on her feet.
Bending, I set the skull into the grave we’d dug and offered her the shovel to cover it.
As she pushed dirt in, she said, “That’s a much more suitable resting place.”
I let a wordless response rumble in the back of my throat. Elsedora often mocked me for not being great with words—which wasn’t entirely true. It was just that not much compelled me to use them.
“Oh, why, you’re great company, too.”
My brow furrowed before I realized she’d pretended to fill in the response I hadn’t offered.
I grunted in agreement.
She answered again, “You think I am the Sources’ gift to this world? I’m flattered.”
At that, I couldn’t help but crack a vicious smile—would she tire of talking to herself, or was this the way it was to be? She glanced at me before she tossed the last bit of dirt back into place and patted the ground.
“Woah…his teeth are showing,” she called across the trail. “Elsedora, does he bite? I think he might be rabid.”
Elsie rounded the cart with an airy laugh. “He is all bark.”
The thought of them teaming up to rib me sounded like torture. I lowered my voice and said, “I don’t need to bite.”
“Is that so?” Sybilla whispered back.
Feeling like I’d fallen for bait, I grumbled, “Mhm.”
“Well, you should smile more—it suits your face. The whole brooding ass thing is dull and overdone,” she said as she rested her forearms against the shovel.
I knew she was trying to provoke a reaction. It worked. “Do you frequently advise people on what to do with their face when you have no right to?”
“Yes. And seeing as I’m ‘under the ward of the Sahlms now,’ I thought maybe you might like to get to know me.”
“I have better things to do.”
“Right,” Sybilla huffed, and her nose pinched up. “Why exactly do you hate me? I understand why I hate you—but I wasn’t evenaliveduring the Great Wars.”
She pointed the shovel’s blade at me.
Great, I’d armed her.
Drawing a deep breath to steady my temper, I reeled my Shadows back and let the sun descend on her again.
“What do I hate?” I ground out. “For starters—your entire upbringing was rooted in hating people for no other reason than the Source in their veins. I’d say my hate is justified.Your Phynnic ancestors paved the way for your realm to fall apart, and yet you blame my actions centuries ago for your own downfall. You look at my land now, and you see only what you can gain from that power. Don’t you?”
It felt odd to use so many words and yet it still had not been enough to cover even half of my qualms with the Central Queen and her shit realm.
Queen Sybilla dropped the shovel, and her hands fell to her hips. “If your people are so strong, why did you leave?” she retorted. “You could have stayed—overtaken it all. You were more than positioned to.”
I growled under my breath. “We didn’tneedto leave. I could have let my troops take every city in the Kingdom of Phynx, spill more blood, destroy more homes. But after centuries of persecution, my people wantedpeace,not more war. So I led them away from those who would sooner see them dead than cohabitate with Source-wielders.”
