Chapter 61

Chapter 61

AMALIA

A t first, she thought it was a dream.

“This is your fault, you know,” a voice told her. A voice she recognized. A voice she trusted.

Amalia was slow to wake, her eyelids fighting against opening. Sleep was a warm comfort, and something was pulling her up, up away from that wonderful emptiness and into consciousness.

She blinked tired eyes, squinting around her bedroom.

A figure. A person, standing in her doorway, surrounded by a halo of bright white light.

“Vee?” Amalia asked, her voice heavy with sleep.

“You were just so trusting. So eager to please, to be seen.”

Amalia blinked. What time was it? What was Vee talking about? Rubbing the crust from her eyes, she forced herself to sit up, that warm blanket of sleep giving way to a cold reality.

It was Vee standing there. Vee, with flashlights strapped to her, taped to her clothing. Amalia frowned, squinting against the blinding light.

Was she crying?

“Why didn’t she kill you that night?” Vee was asking, and it took a long moment for Amalia to process the words. Like her brain wouldn’t let her understand what was happening. “When the Blades killed your parents, why didn’t they kill you, too? Why were you spared, Princess?”

“Vee… what’s going on?” Amalia asked, fear creeping into her voice.

“It’s not fair, you know,” Vee was saying, ignoring her entirely. Amalia couldn’t see her face, the light hurt her eyes too much to stare at it for long. “I hated you. Hated you for so long…”

Finally, something clicked, and the words began to sink in. Amalia’s mouth went dry.

“Why do you get all of this?” Vee asked. Through the blinding light, Amalia could have sworn Vee was crying, tears flowing down both cheeks. “Fresh cookies every morning. Clean clothes. All of these stupid fucking dresses . Why do you get all of this when the rest of us get nothing?”

“Vee, what are you talking about?—”

“You have no idea what it’s like to suffer, do you? No idea what it’s like to be hungry, to be left behind? No idea what it’s like to have to scrape and steal and work for every little thing in life? All of this was just… just handed to you, wasn’t it?”

Amalia couldn’t seem to draw enough air to breathe.

“I didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t want to like you,” Vee was saying. “But I did. I did like you. And now…” A sob. Or maybe a laugh. “Now… now everything is fucked, isn’t it?”

She should run. But this was her friend, and her friend was in pain. Amalia reached out to her, wanting to comfort her.

She didn’t make it.

Pain shot through her. Amalia let out a gasp as her arm froze, just a centimeter from Vee’s, pain coursing down her body.

Finally, Vee looked at her, and there was nothing friendly in those beautiful green eyes.

“I didn’t want it to go down like this,” Vee said, and Amalia let out a soft gasp as her knees buckled, as her body twisted and bent until she was on the ground, on her knees before Vee. Before her friend. “But sacrifices have to be made, don’t they?”

She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but her body wouldn’t respond, wouldn’t listen to her. There was a roar in her ears, like a storm .

Terror gripped her.

“It’s finally time for you to suffer for a change, Princess. Time for someone else to take charge of this miserable city.”