Snow lighted in Kayu’s dark hair as she shifted uncomfortably. Raffe’s eyes flickered from her to Neve before he reached out and clasped Kayu’s hand. The other woman swallowed, then looked back at Neve, new resolve in her face. “I’m willing to face whatever consequences you deem appropriate for Kiri’s death, Your Majesty. Though I think we can both agree she deserved it.”
Neve snorted. “I wouldn’t argue.”
Kayu’s brow lifted, some of her apprehension shaking free.
The Holy Traitor. Neve remembered it now, the third part of the poem. A novice who murdered the High Priestess certainly counted. But there was something else, another role she felt Kayu should fill.
Majesty had sat so strangely on her shoulders.
“You said you’re the Third Daughter,” Neve said slowly. “Are your older sisters married?”
Raffe’s hand tightened on Kayu’s as she nodded, worry crowding her face again.
And there it was, the final piece clicking into place. Neve being given the freedom to cast off one more thing that didn’t fit, a burden she knew she could no longer hold up under.
She sank to her knees in the snow, quick and graceful. Kayu backed up with a surprised noise, Raffe stiff by her side.
“By the power given to me by lines upon lines of Valleydan queens,” Neve said, getting the words out in a rush, “I hereby cede my title, my holdings, and my queenship to my successor.” The next line was take up this task in the name of the Kings, but Neve refused to say that. She wondered how long their legend would hold, how many more years would go by of people clinging to a lie before it finally faded away. “Will you take up this task, Okada Kayu?”
The other woman’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly. Eammon looked surprised, still holding Red close to his chest, and Fife and Lyra seemed mostly confused. But Red had a small smile on her face.
Heartbeats of silence, then Raffe turned to Kayu. “It will mean safety,” he said quietly. “Your father won’t be able to marry you off.”
The word safety made Kayu’s shoulders settle, a deep breath leave her mouth. She turned to Neve, nodded. “I’ll take up this task,” she said quietly. “But… why?”
And Neve couldn’t stop her eyes from drifting toward where Solmir stood in the snow. “I’m tired of it, frankly.”
“And I would rather cut off my foot with a spoon than be the Queen of Valleyda,” Red said cheerfully.
“That’s as good a reason as any,” Kayu conceded.
“You’ll be fine,” Neve said as she rose. Queendom seemed to fall from her like a cloak, much easier to shed than godhood had been. She’d been for a different kind of throne, apparently, and now she had none.
A weight lifted.
Anxiety flickered in Kayu’s eyes as she nodded, looking at Neve with slight wariness. She wondered how she appeared to the other woman, ragged and so recently dead, in a ripped nightgown and boots stolen from an underworld.
On the ground, Arick stirred.
Raffe’s eyes went to him immediately, hidden against the snow in his white tunic and breeches. His gaze cycled from surprise to joy to horror as he ran forward, fell to his knees next to his friend. “Arick?” He looked between Red and Neve. “How—”
“You wouldn’t believe us if we told you,” Red said.
A moment, then Arick sat up, pushing snow-dampened hair from his eyes. He looked at Raffe, puzzled, then to the rest of them, brow furrowing further in confusion. When his gaze landed on Red, the confused look wavered, like it might change. It didn’t.
“Hello,” Arick said carefully, pushing himself up from the ground. He chuckled mirthlessly. “Forgive me, but I’m not quite sure what I’m doing here.”
Neve pressed her lips together. One tear slid down Red’s cheek. Neither of them spoke, knowing instinctually what had happened.
The two of them sacrificing their souls had somehow brought Arick back from the strange half death that had tied him to them, to the Heart Tree. But it’d come with a price.
Though Neve wondered if Arick forgetting the whole nightmare, forgetting them, was actually more of a blessing.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” she asked quietly.
Arick pursed his lips, thinking. “Floriane,” he said finally. “I live in Floriane, I think.”
Horror shifted into sorrow as Raffe stared at his friend. He looked to Neve, as if asking her what to do, whether he should try to fill in the gaps in Arick’s memory.