The King's Queen | ✔

Chapter 74

Leaving the mountain with a rejection hung heavily on my shoulders, despite Luca's encouragement that the Council would give my words more careful consideration when we were gone.

I refused to give up. I would protect them whether or not they wanted me to and show them that peace could reign between both sides.

***

"You're getting better at this."

Demetri looked up from the chessboard to give Jackson a somewhat cynical look. "And you're still not giving it your all."

"My wins say otherwise." He carefully positioned his queen out of the path of Demetri's advancing rook.

"You could win much easier if you didn't hide your most powerful piece away. This is a war, isn't it?" And with that, he repositioned his king to the end of the board, effectively knocking down his opponent's king.

Jackson shook his head with a dismal sigh. "And just when I complimented you on your gameplay, you decide to do this. Your king can't move here."

"Why not?" He gave an innocent shrug of his shoulder, but his eyes glittered with a mixture of mischief and victory. "Maybe my king wanted a rendezvous with your queen. He can't exactly do that with your king around, can he?"

"You're so unserious."

"It's the opposite, actually," Demetri said, toying with a pawn. "If this is a war, then only the ones who stand victorious at the end get to decide what's fair and what's not. There isn't time for ideals and pretty words."

"You say that, but you protect your pawn well. They're the most expendable pieces, you know."

"Maybe we're the same then," he murmured as Jackson reset the board. "You value your queen, and I value the pawns."

"Why is that?"

"Because they sacrifice themselves for the king. They're usually useful after they die."

***

The Damaris, Gaignory, Nu, and Xie families were the most supportive in their efforts, and Luca was a strong and reliable leader able to rally his people together and lead them.

The current goal of the war was complete Origen surrender. We suspected that if Crysauralia fell first and Meryllia publicly pledged their allegiance to Ashton, the other kingdoms would follow suit.

The Spade Kingdom was the wild card, though. Malekh was obviously against Crysauralia, but he was no longer an ally of Luca-he never was. I did not know what he was after, and that made it difficult to surmise how the war would truly play out.

The allied Origens were helping to locate and destroy all the Nightshade plants they could find. Tensions were high across the world as all the human-led governments watched to see how the war between two of the biggest kingdoms would escalate. But the human war was only a ruse, and they were being kept in the dark about what was really going on.

Ezra and I huddled beneath the sprawling branches of an oak in the Spade Kingdom. We were serving as volunteers, tending to the wounded Origins that had made their way across the border from Crysauralia. The day before, I'd hesitantly brought up the strange hieroglyphs, hoping Ezra would figure something out about the language Sybil had heard. Unfortunately, he knew nothing about it.