I step out of the hole fully, pooling heat to my fingertips. Magic crackles in my hands and I hold my chin up. I can’t let him get in my head, break my focus. Last time, I was sorely outnumbered, but up here his forces have been whittled down, thanks to our trap down below.

“The Mother doesn’t smile on this treachery,” I say to Kai. She flinches but doesn’t respond. “And the Chancellor can’t crown you on this island anyway. It’s not his. Everything he has he stole. Matter of fact, everything he has, he committed genocide to get.”

The Chancellor’s mug reddens. “She speaks nonsense. Do not listen to her.” He cuts a glance at the handful of men shrouded around him, onyx glowing on their wrists. A few glance at one another, questions wrinkling their brows. But their laser focus on me returns with a blink.

“Kai, you’ve done good work,” the Chancellor says. “Don’t let her seduce you with lies.”

A smirk tugs at her lips. “It wasn’t my original plan. That was spoiled… by someone I shouldn’t have trusted.”

“Someone you loved but killed.”

This time, her lip trembles. I continue. “I’d say that’s something you both have in common, but I don’t think that man is capable of loving anyone but himself.” This time his eyes narrow.

“The consequence of breaking a blood oath is death,” Kai says. “She swore she would report to me on your position and plans at all times. She swore if you somehow raised the Ancestors and survived it, she would kill you. She broke her word. I did not kill her, her lie did.”

“Blood is on your hands and you know it. For asking Zora, who loved you and served you, and would do anything for you, to be a snitch. For putting her in a position to either be loyal to the person she loves or betray her conscience. You a bitch for that. If you want to have me killed, do it yourself.”

“Is that supposed to intimidate me?” She titters, dusting her shoulder and straightening her crown.

Zora’s open-eyed stare flashes in my memory, her warm smile, the way she fought so fearlessly, the way she tugged on her gloves relentlessly. “You coulda shown mercy. She loved you. She was your sister…”

“Shut your mouth!” She spits her words like fire. “You know nothing of what you speak.”