The first thing I did was call Raad.
“Brother,” I said when he answered, “you’ve made a terrible mistake letting Emell go.”
“I know,” he said. “I could see the guilt in her eyes when we arrested her, but there was no physical evidence. Plus VBione Corp had already started to ship the inhibitor antivirals to slow the virus. They’ve promised a cure within thirty hours. We had to release her.”
“Thirty hours is too long,” I said. “That’s two million human lives, Raad. I’m positive Emell is biding her time until the very last second. She must want maximum casualties to make Zawne and me look incompetent.”
“I figure the same thing,” Raad said. “But my troops searched the VBione Corp main lab and factory. There was nothing. Protectors searched Emell’s home, her known places of affiliation. They didn’t find a single thing.”
“What about the reopened plant in Krug?” I asked.
Raad shook his head. “It was a dud. VBione Corp had the Medseet factory stripped. It would take at least two weeks to rebuild the proper systems and get new machines online.”
“Darn,” I hissed. Then I looked to Raad. If I was going to become a Min, I needed to be sure he would chase Emell to the far corners of the planet. I needed to know he would get justice for Mama. “Raad,” I said, “I talked to the ex-queen, like you suggested. And, well, we both figure it must have been Emell who killed Mama. We think she’s been planning her revenge for twenty-five years.”
Raad’s eyes grew huge in anger. “What!” he bellowed. “I had Emell in my flyrarc! I had her in custody. And now you tell me this? Had I known she was responsible for Mama’s death, I would have … I would have …”
“I’m sorry,” I said, “but I just found out. It turns out Emell has a vendetta against our family and Zawne’s family. She’s poisoned the world to rid the throne of us. She killed Mama to get revenge for being banished all those years ago.”
“I knew she was the mistress in Mama’s story,” Raad said. “But I never suspected murder. I can’t—”
“I’m sorry,” I said, “but I have to go. There’s something I need to do, and every second I stall means more lives lost. I love you, brother. Get justice for Mama. Find the truth.”
I ended the call with tears in my eyes. How could I say goodbye to Raad for the last time? He would be so upset when my body was found. I was thinking about what the Crown of Crowns had told me: a painful and tragic death. It scared me, but I needed to be strong. Strong for Mama, for Gaard, for my friends.
My tears only worsened when I called Papa, Nnati, then Tissa. They all knew something was wrong, asking me a thousand questions.
“Is it Zawne?”
“Is it the virus?”
“Is it the images of war on the news?”
“Why are you crying?”
I wished I could tell them about Shiol, Min, my plan to save millions of lives. All I could do was thank them for their friendship and tell them I loved them. Then I sat in the dark and wept. Only one person left on my list.
“Hello, Zawne.”
“You’re still up too?” he asked.
“Yeah. I can’t sleep with all this turmoil.”
I struggled to hold back my emotion. Going through with becoming a Min meant I would probably never touch Zawne again, never taste his lips, never smell his musk. Will he let me slip back into his life? I wondered if it was how Lordin had felt, if she had felt anything. I still wasn’t totally convinced she was evil. I asked Zawne, “Did you hear the news about Emell?”
He nodded, twisted his face in a grimace. “It’s hard to believe my dead fiancée’s mother was arrested on suspicion of planned genocide. I hope it’s not true. I only met the woman once at Lordin’s funeral, but she seemed okay. I can’t believe someone like Lordin, someone so divine, would have been raised by a murderer.”
I suddenly felt bad for doubting Zawne, thinking he was somehow involved in the KS3 mess. His eyes were too sincere to be lying. I knew in that instant he had nothing to do with Emell’s plotting. It gave me hope that Lordin was innocent too.
“It’s not important now,” I said. “I just wanted to say good night.”
Or goodbye, I thought. Goodbye forever, my sweet king. I must make this ultimate sacrifice for the good of our people. It’s what Mama would have done.
“Good night, Kaelyn,” he said. Zawne blew me a kiss through the screen. I caught it, and tears spilled down my face.
“I’m going to miss you in my dreams,” I said. It felt like my heart was being ripped in half. I could feel shards of glass tearing through my body, wrecking me until I quivered and lost my breath. Things had been so much easier three years ago, following Roki blindly through the pretend market. Why did Geniverd’s salvation have to fall on me? Why couldn’t I just have my happy ending?
“I’ll miss you too,” Zawne said, and he ended the call. No one had any idea what I had planned.
It was difficult to keep my eyes closed for all the tears spilling out of them. I didn’t think I had cried so much in my life, yet this decision was immense. I had said goodbye to my friends, to everyone I had ever loved, and when I awoke, I would face a terrible demise. I took a deep breath, hugged my blanket tight, and spelled Shiol over my heart.
“Welcome, Kaelyn,” Riedel said as I materialized in the void. “We have been waiting for you. We’ve listened to your heart, and we understand you have made the decision.”
“To become a Min,” Hanchell said, visibly excited from the way her light pulsed.
“I have no choice,” I told them.
