Poison in Their Hearts by Laura Sebastian

Author:Laura Sebastian [Sebastian, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

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Violie holds nothing back in the story of her last few years, beginning with the moment she broke into Nigellus’s palace laboratory to steal stardust when she was fourteen, desperate after her mother had fallen ill with Vexis, which was sure to kill her. Sitting cross-legged on a bale of hay while the three youths—who introduce themselves as Helena, the girl; Louis, the fair-haired boy; and Sam, his dark-haired brother—watch her with wary eyes. Those eyes grow warier when she tells them the truth of her initial involvement with the empress, and Violie wonders if perhaps being that honest was a mistake, but no—Leopold is owning his mistakes; the least she can do is own hers as well.

She tells them about coming to Temarin and ingratiating herself in the palace ahead of Sophronia’s arrival, and then she tells them about Sophronia herself: the fearful princess anxious to do as her mother raised her to, until she saw the effect that would have on the Temarinian people. She tells them about Sophronia’s soft heart and sharp mind and how, terrified of the empress as she was, she defied her in order to protect Temarin. She tells them how, in one of Sophronia’s final acts, she saved King Leopold, and in doing so forced him to become a better man and a better king.

“I don’t see why we should care,” Helena says in the silence that follows Violie’s recounting of Sophronia’s execution and the way Leopold’s screaming her name was drowned out by the cheers and jeers of the crowd. “The royalty and nobility never cared for us.”

“No,” Violie agrees, thinking about how she saw the Temarinian palace when she’d first arrived, the courtiers dripping in jewels and silks and sipping never-ending glasses of champagne while those who lived in the city just outside the palace walls starved to death. Perhaps Sophronia would disagree with her if she were here—Violie is sure she would—but Violie has no tears to spare for most of the nobility killed when the rebels laid siege to the palace. If the rebellion had been orchestrated by Temarinians demanding change from those who kept them pinned beneath the heels of their boots, Violie might even have applauded them for fighting back, but instead the rebels were directed by Empress Margaraux, their motive chaos, disguised as comeuppance. “I won’t tell you that Temarin was a paradise before the siege—I saw enough of it to know that wasn’t the case. But this? Now?” she asks. “Is this any better?”

She knows the answer to that and doesn’t wait for them to provide it.

“Of course not. Of course it’s worse, or your sisters wouldn’t be imprisoned, awaiting judgment by whoever the baron might be.” The three of them exchange a heavy look at the mention of his name, and Violie files that away in her mind with growing dread. “But I’m not asking you to choose between two untenable situations. I’m asking you to help King Leopold create a better Temarin, one that serves everyone, not only those elite few born into the right families.

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