The queen was not one to think rosily about the past. Yet to Imeria’s surprise, Duja closed the distance between them. Her next words dripped with such bald-faced sincerity Imeria willed herself not to pull away. “I owe you more than one apology, I think.”

She set her jaw. “If you’re talking about that accursed day, I’m afraid you’re twenty-two years too late.”

But Duja didn’t shrink back. She stared back at Imeria, pity flickering in her expression. “I never wanted to hurt you, Imeria. I was merely afraid.”

They spoke not of the tournament, but of another battle. A battle that took place twenty-two years before. A battle that refused to end.

At long last, the accusation tore from her lips. “How could you fear me?” Imeria asked. “I protected you. I am the reason you defeated him. Without me, he might have⁠—”

Imeria broke off midsentence. She knew Duja feared her powers. Feared the threat they might pose to her own. She remembered the heat of the fires that shot out of the crown prince’s fingers, the cruel echo of his laughter, the way his eyes glowed red. The eastern wing crumbled to ash before him, yet he did not stop. Would not stop. He turned to Duja. He would have hurt her too if Imeria hadn’t reached for her power, clawed deep into the rotten crevices of his mind, and stole his will from him.

She did this, knowing it would unveil her as the monster she was. But she took the risk and wielded her power anyway. Back then, Duja was the air in Imeria’s lungs, the sun in her sky. Imeria would have risked everything to help Duja. To save her.

“I know,” Duja said hoarsely. “I shouldn’t have been so harsh with you. But you have to understand⁠—I had lost so much so quickly. I was afraid.”

Imeria had watched Duja mourn her mother from afar and was not without sympathy. But as she grew older, she realized Duja acted with a cold rationale that was rooted beyond fear. “If you had asked me to leave the capital, I might have understood,” Imeria whispered. “But you didn’t just send me away. You made me marry him.”

Anguish flashed in Duja’s eyes before she tore her gaze away. “You forget how the memory of the rebellion was so fresh in those days. Few would have married the traitor’s daughter if not at my bidding,” she said breathlessly. “I didn’t want to cast you off on your own, Imeria. I wanted you to marry a good man.”