Golden by Melissa de La Cruz Page A

they would be safe. Nat never realized how much she needed that until now. She never thought of herself as anyone who needed rescue, but the Queen’s presence stilled her fear. Nineveh was not just the Queen of Vallonis; to Nat, she was the living embodiment of it—pure, sacred, incorruptible magic.
    She breathed deeply. They were not alone in the their fight. Help had come. She looked to Wes, expecting to see relief, but his face was pale, his eyes uncertain.
    â€œWhat is it?” she asked.
    Wes was moving along the wall, one step, then another, retreating into the smoky haze, away from the lady in white. He shared none of Nat’s relief, not a bit of her excitement.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” she asked, raising her voice a little. They should be greeting the Queen, exchanging pleasantries and titles, or whatever you did when you met your sovereign. Nat didn’t know. But Wes looked like he wanted to run. And Nat wasn’t sure what she felt. Something was definitely wrong. Nineveh stood twenty or thirty feet away. She was coming closer and Wes was backing away from her.
    â€œNat,” he whispered, urging her to join him.
    She went to his side, a bit reluctantly. The smoke enveloped them, making it seem as if the two of them were alone.
    â€œI don’t know about this,” he said.
    â€œWhat do you mean?” she asked, startled that he did not feel the same as she did. Of course Wes would be wary, he was only being cautious, but she had to convince him otherwise. Nineveh was only here to help, Nat was sure of it. So what was wrong with Wes? She gestured to the battle that raged on every side of them, the sound of bombs echoing all over the city. “Look around you. This is our only way out.”
    â€œYeah, but I’m telling you, I have a bad feeling about this,” Wes said. He chewed his lip, his eyes flickering back in the direction of the Queen of Vallonis. She approached, greeting the others in their crew. Liannan was kneeling already. “I mean, it’s hard to explain, but I know she used her connection to me to get here, and my gut says something’s up.”
    Nat silently absorbed this information. She had a feeling Wes wanted to say more, so she held her tongue and her arguments for now.
    Wes sighed and scratched the scar on his face. “The Queen—whoever she is—I’ve met her before . . . I’m pretty sure she was the one who stole Eliza. She took her, that night.”
    He was confirming what she already knew, that Eliza had been taken by the rulers of Vallonis. Nat recalled Eliza’s bitterness toward Faix in the White Temple, her disdain for him and the Queen
. I called them Mother and Father,
Eliza had said.
    â€œNineveh took your sister because she thought your sister was the one who could help them break the spell and cast a new one,” said Nat. “And when Eliza realized she wasn’t the one, she turned against them.”
    â€œIt still wasn’t right, what she did. She shouldn’t have taken Eliza away. My whole life, I was haunted by her voice, her face, what happened that night. And then, just now, when I was dead, or when I thought I was—when I was lying next to you on the deck of that ferry—I heard her voice in my head again. This time, she said that she’d made a mistake. I think I was the one she wanted all along.”
    â€œBecause you are the true child of Vallonis,” Nat said. She had seen the strength of his power, how he had been able to defeat Eliza and her illusions. His ability to dispel magic was a powerful gift.
    â€œWhatever I am, I don’t know what she wants from me now. Why she’s here. And I’m not sure we should do what she wants us to.”
    His face was so anguished that Nat was torn. She didn’t want to doubt the Queen’s intentions, but she didn’t want to dismiss Wes’s wariness either.
    The Queen had her reasons for