Burning Kingdoms by Lauren Destefano

Author:Lauren Destefano [Destefano, Lauren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

I wake several times in the night to be sure Pen hasn’t drifted away in the sea.

Safe, I tell myself. She’s safe.

Unconsciously she rolls her head toward mine. We have always looked after each other, Pen and me.

Thomas is right. There’s no fighting it. Away from Internment, she’s like one of the flowers in the lobby. Snipped from its roots, it can only die.

13

When I awaken, the princess’s bed is empty and still neatly made. In an act of mercy, she found someplace else to sleep and granted Pen a much needed night free of aggravation. Though it could be that she needed a break from Pen as well. I’m more mediator than roommate to those two.

The hotel is silent as I make my way down the stairs. Everyone is asleep.

I open the front door, letting in a draft and the chirping of insects. Hopping songstresses. Down here they call them crickets. And paces are miles, and lengths are feet, and pages are dollars, and colors are paints.

But wind is still wind, and the moon is still the moon, bright in the sky even as morning adds bits of gold under the clouds.

I step outside, and though this world isn’t mine, it greets me just the same. I shall miss it if I’m forced to go. I’m not a fugitive here, or a fugitive’s daughter. If I were to return to the sky, I wonder what the king would do to me. The princess likes me, so that’s something, and once I tell her about the phosane, she’ll be so happy to go home that she’ll tell her father to show mercy. I like to think we’re becoming friends.

But then there are the others to consider. Judas can never go back. Lex would be furious if he knew what I’m planning. But Pen would be livid, not for her own sake, but for the sake of the city. She would hate me. She will hate me.

A rustle overhead makes me look up. A bird flutters away from its branch. I hear a little giggle in the leaves.

“You’ve picked a good one,” I call up. “I’ve never seen a tree this high on Internment.”

“Quite limitless down here, isn’t it?” Amy peeks forward, revealing her face.

“Do you think Daphne would have liked it here, then?” I ask.

She retreats back into the leaves, only to reemerge in another spot moments later. “Yes,” she says. “Thank you for asking. No one ever asks about my sister anymore.”

I watch a rodent scurry across the grass. Birdie says they all start coming out once the snow is gone. The warmth has done a world of good for Amy, too. She hasn’t had a fit in days.

“How’s your friend?” she asks.

“Pen? She’s better now.”

“I like her,” Amy says. “She says things most people aren’t brave enough to say, doesn’t she?”

Light is beginning to touch the water. From here it’s an endless trove of clear gems, as though the mermaids have released their treasures and they’re all floating on the surface.

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