Crystal Blade by Kathryn Purdie

Author:Kathryn Purdie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-06-08T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

“SONYA.” ANTON TOOK A SLOW STEP FORWARD. I WINCED from the pain of his aura. “You’re not responsible for everyone’s fates. You can’t hold that burden.”

“Yes, I can. I have to.”

I crawled inside his aura to the root of all his feelings and found his trembling faith in me. I gave it a firm, unshakeable foundation. In the end, he and I wanted the same thing for Riaznin—peace. “You must let me give Valko’s defense, Anton.”

He didn’t have a choice. All the fight in him drained away. His noble bearing wilted, and he glanced from me to his brother. “Be just with him,” he said, in his final struggle to speak. He lowered his head for a moment and took a shuddering breath. When he looked up again, his eyes filled with courage and perfect hope in me. How I wished he’d found that conviction on his own.

He swept fallen hair from his eyes and returned to his chair, sitting tall, attentive, submissive. His gaze upon me didn’t waver.

My lip quivered. I wanted to be someone Anton could take pride in, someone who worked as his equal partner, not someone who stole his true character. But I couldn’t retreat from my purpose now. The fate of the nation depended on me.

I gathered the full muscle of my ability. I couldn’t risk the hundreds of peasants and nobles turning on each other like they did last time.

Breathing deeply, I cast down all defenses around my aura. I welcomed everyone’s feelings inside me and found empathy for them. The Duma in their daunting undertaking to bring order to Riaznin. The nobility in all they’d lost and their unsure place in the world. The peasants in the restitution they desired for being abused so long.

My heart thumped stronger, faster. Blood surged through my head. Energy rippled along my nerves. My lungs expanded in my culminating effort to breathe. The pressure of all the forging connections built inside me. All my muscles seized up. My body shivered to make room for their radiance. Thrilling pain shot through my limbs. In a wide burst of energy, I captured everyone’s auras.

I gasped, my eyes round with shock and coursing pride. I’d done it. As if I were a tree, hundreds of auras branched out from me and drew life from my roots.

My shoulders slowly relaxed. I willed my body absorb the pain of so much vitality inside me. I didn’t fight the auras as Valko had during the One Day War. I let their pulses ease through me and acclimate to our union. I breathed sympathetic feelings into them. Harmony. Contentedness. I twisted their anxious concern into calm confidence, so calm it was almost paralyzing.

My pain lifted. My body stopped shaking. My heartbeat steadied. I stood tall and triumphant like a queen.

The only person whose emotions I didn’t tamper with was Valko. I couldn’t suffer myself to join with his aura, though I would if necessary. If he were wise, he wouldn’t resist me.

The varnished parquet floor gleamed beneath my feet.

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