My insides turned to ice.

My father said, “While it’s customary for the accused to select the door, today, Princess Kateri will pick the door instead.”

Rodric shoved me to my feet.

I caught myself on the railing. It jiggled loose in its moorings, the metal burning my palms.

Only my breathing sounded through my ears. Every eye in the arena was on me.

Including Cion’s.

For the first time, something like hope sparked in his eyes. And I so desperately wanted him to hold on to it.

My eyes swung back and forth between the doors. I wanted to point to the door with Latia, but I couldn’t figure out if Rodric was tricking me. Thoughts flew through my mind at an alarming rate.

If I picked the door with the tiger, I knew what was going to happen. But I doubted if I chose the door Latia was behind he’d let them go. He’d probably have soldiers escort them to the desert and kill them there. Was it better to let them die quickly here?

And for all I knew, Rodric had already lied. Maybe Latia wasn’t even behind one of the doors. Or maybe she was, and he’d purposefully told me wrong. But if Latia was behind the door I picked and Rodric didn’t keep his promise, maybe it would be enough to incite the people to fight back.

“Decision time, Kateri,” Rodric said. “Is it the lady or the tiger?”

Cion’s gaze stayed steady on me. He appeared calm and collected, which was the exact opposite of the sandstorm brewing in my stomach.

My heart clenched.

I hadn’t thought love could truly exist in this desert. I thought it was the biggest mirage of all. Something meant to trick those who sought it out, to distract them from their miserable lives, the ones without futures.

But it wasn’t. It was about hope. It was about having a future worth living.

I’d known from the moment Cion had given that bracelet to Latia that he would never be mine. I just hadn’t admitted how much I’d wanted him for my own. But watching him stand there, knowing no matter which door I picked it would be the last time I’d see him, broke something within me.

The wind caught wisps of his hair and pulled them across his forehead. Even in the arena he still managed to look wild and untamed. He managed to look defiant. Free.

And I wanted him to stay that way. With Latia.

I took one long last look at him, at the gaze that I would never be able to claim as my own. I let it burn into my memory.

Then I steeled my face and pointed to the door on the right.

CHAPTER

30

Rodric waited a moment before signaling for the door to open. “I should’ve told you that I made sure Cion knew that you knew what was behind each door, that he knew you held his fate.”