“Exactly!” she exclaimed, as if we had somehow found common ground. “It is a pity you are mated to the Prince of Damrienn.” Sawyn adjusted her crown. “I would’ve liked to keep you around.”
“Why can’t you?”
“Because Damrienn is poison, just like the rest of them. And I will not have it in Olmdere.” Her eyes narrowed. “And more, Nero needs to learn. After all he’s done, this is a lesson he will remember. I won’t rest until every Wolf kingdom is ruled by their rightful heirs.”
“Grae is not like his father,” I pleaded. “I’d gut King Nero myself if given half the chance.”
“If we are so in agreement, what makes you think you have more right to Olmdere than me?” Sawyn hummed.
“Because you aren’t doing your duty as Queen.”
“Excuse me? I am fully in control—”
“You let your people starve,” I growled. “Our people. You let them die, pitted them against each other, threatened and tortured them. You may have had a claim to be heir, but you squandered it when you abdicated your responsibility to your people.”
“Humans,” she spat.
I yanked against my chains, snarling at her. “So you pity the daughters of kings, but have no sympathy for the people who actually make up your kingdom?”
“Wolves are the natural-born leaders. Humans are weak in both mind and body, nothing more than ants under our boots,” she hissed. “They knelt before the Wolf kings because they couldn’t drive out the monsters themselves. They are barely worth the grain to feed them. They let this world be what it is, and they wouldn’t lift a finger to save you.”
“You’re wrong.”
She cocked her head. “Then where are your precious humans now, hm?”
“They’re waiting.”
Sawyn snorted. “Just as they’ve waited for hundreds of years. Because nothing changes!”
“You can’t expect anyone to fight when they don’t even know when their next meal is.” My chest heaved. “But they would if they weren’t trying to survive.”
“Then they haven’t tried hard enough to save themselves, and it still proves my point.”
“The dark magic has rotted your heart, Sawyn, if you think you can pick and choose in such a way.” My eyes and throat burned as her green magic filled my veins. “You hate the Wolves for what they’ve done. You hate the humans for what they are,” I snarled. “You let thousands of people suffer, and the only one you care for is yourself.
“You’re selfish. And you are alone.”
Her final tether snapped as she whirled on me, balling her hands into fists. “I have suffered!”
“And you’ve punished innocent people for it,” I spat back.
“I will save the Wolf daughters,” she seethed.
“That is meaningless unless you care about human daughters, too,” I gritted out. “Are you the last cause that’s important? Once your battle is won, all that suffering evaporates into thin air? No, you’re lessening your pain only by putting it on others. That isn’t a victory at all. It’s nothing but cowardice.”
“You know nothing of bravery. You know nothing of the decisions I’ve had to make in order to survive—”
“In order for you to survive! Don’t you hear yourself? You are the queen who cares nothing about her people. How are the humans supposed to survive?”
“They get by. I called them ants before, but they’re more like roaches, no? They keep popping up.” She laughed at the analogy, a tinge of madness apparent in her voice. “Humans are dangerous when given too much hope. They’d threaten our very way of life.” She curled her lip, unknowing that she only cascaded her pain down onto those she still had power over. Kings crushed queens, queens crushed humans, and everyone’s suffering only compounded. “You are such a disappointment, girl, that you can’t see clearly what would happen if we let them off their leashes.”
“Don’t call me girl,” I raged. Now that I had claimed my true self, that word grated against my skin, the irritation it caused before increased tenfold. I’d spent so long being silent about it, letting each time I was called “girl” chip away at me a little more, and I wasn’t going to take it anymore, especially not from Sawyn. “That is not what I am.”
Sawyn rolled her eyes. “You want to be a man so you can have everything to yourself, don’t you?”