Icarus sighed heavily. “I’ve lived for forty years as a pirate, free to do as I please. Why would I want to be king? No, Talon keeps his throne.” He stepped toward me, and pulled my chin up harshly, staring into my face. I didn’t have to fake the fear that coursed through me, though the touch of his hand made my stomach clench and heat pool in between my thighs. “He offered to share the Omega, though. I think I could teach her how an Alpha should be treated.”
Gullen and his guards grunted their approval. Talon’s men shifted uneasily, except for Brute. His grip grew tighter, and I winced. One of Gullen’s Alpha guards took my arm on the other side, and made sure to brush my breasts when he moved past.
The Brute watched it all, saying nothing, but Icarus looked like he might murder the man who dared touch me. Gullen wasted no time escorting us to the palace.
Naari stood outside the front doors, greeting Icarus with flowers and fresh juice. I held my breath, forcing myself not to react to her presence. I had been worried she would pay a price for her assistance in my escape, but her eyes skated over me as if we had never met. As I passed her, I whispered in Haviran, “Altair is safe. Icarus is good. No poison for him.”
Her eyes fluttered closed in acknowledgment.
Brute pushed me into Thorn’s room behind Gullen. “We did not move the spy’s belongings,” Gullen said, although I could tell they had. But some of the cloak’s pockets had openings that were nearly impossible to find unless you had been trained by the Guild. The one I needed to revive Talon still harbored the packets of powdered limbane and cofi root. I slipped them out of their hiding places and spoke quietly to Icarus and Brute as Talon’s sailors carried him in and laid him on the bed.
“I can make the antidote now, but I’ll have to make him drink a few sips at least every hour for three days. When he awakens, he’ll be very sick. He may vomit copiously. That’s when he’ll need liquids.”
Icarus and I had agreed that we should have a plan to overthrow Gullen by then; I would find access to poisons, or use the cover of darkness to slip out and silently kill the regent and his guards. In my heart, I was praying for Thorn to arrive and help with the killing. He had always said he didn’t know if being an assassin was the right career for me. I had always thought he was challenging me to step up my training, to prove myself.
Now, faced with the need to kill an untold number of men over the next few days, I felt torn. Poison had always seemed easier than killing with a blade, until I watched Talon’s waxy face sweat through the concoction I’d slipped him. For the past three days, I’d been terrified I’d given him too much somehow, misjudged the dose or the freshness of the ambersol.
The hourly feeding was a pretense, as Talon should be fine just a few hours after taking the antidote. But we needed a reason for me to stay near Talon to monitor him, and to give us time to gather the information necessary to be successful. And, Icarus whispered, to keep me from stabbing Gullen precipitously.
Now, that one I thought I could kill without batting an eye. He had it coming. He’d tried to murder my Alphas. A strange warmth settled over me as I realized that I had unconsciously claimed Kavin and Altair as well as Thorn. All of them were mine, no matter what they had done, whether or not I had forgiven them. Even if they didn’t deserve my claim.
Brute took up position inside the room, watching with Icarus and Gullen as I gathered my supplies. “I need papaya seed as well,” I explained, “and pure water.” Gullen nodded, but something in his stance set my internal alarms ringing.
When he returned carrying a pitcher, I took my time grinding the papaya seeds, shooting Icarus a glance I hoped he could interpret.
He did. “I need food, Regent Gullen,” he drawled. “Can you direct me to the dining hall?”
“Ah,” Gullen cried, suddenly obsequious. “Of course. Let us dine together. I’ll set my guards outside the room, if yours will stay inside?”
Icarus nodded at Brute, who growled. Gullen lingered until he saw me pour some of the water he had brought into the bowl of crushed seeds, then smirked as he left.
I waited a few minutes. “Keep going,” Brute demanded. “You don’t need an audience to heal my king.”
I lifted the carafe Gullen had brought. “If I’m not wrong, Regent Gullen just tried to fatally poison Talon,” I murmured.
Brute stared toward me. “Lies.”
“Hmm.” I reached into Thorn’s cloak again, hoping to find… Yes! I smiled as I located the particulate I needed. I slit open the thin wax seal, shook it into the carafe, and motioned Brute over to see. “Adderbane, which can be derived from plants grown here on Havira, is a very quick, extremely painful poison. If that’s what Gullen put in this water, and I mix the antidote with it, he will be dead within a half hour. But this is a powder that will adhere to any foreign particles in the liquid, no matter how small.”
Brute’s eyes narrowed. “Just make the antidote, woman.”
I huffed out a breath in frustration. “I can’t, Brute.” His brow furrowed at the nickname. “Sorry, Branton. I need something—water, fruit juice, anything—but no one should drink this.”
He grunted. I had no idea why, but he poured a glass of water from the carafe, and set it on the table. Then he opened the door and called out for one of the guards.
The one who had brushed against my breast responded. Brute muttered a request, and the guard returned a moment later with a glass of what smelled like spirits. Brute poured some of the liquor—it smelled vaguely of coconuts—into the glass that was half-filled with the poisoned water.
He handed it to the guard, and the two of them spent the next few minutes sharing what disgusting things they planned to do to me when Talon cast me aside. The longer they went on, the harder it got to just sit and listen.
By the time the guard left and Brute came back inside, my jaw ached from clenching it. “Make it with the rum,” he instructed.
“Not a bad idea. Talon would probably like the taste better anyway,” I murmured, and began.
Halfway through the mixing, Brute spoke again. “Why did you suspect the water?”
“Gullen poisoned Altair for years,” I said, “and tried to poison me and my friends.”
He tilted his head slightly. “Where are these friends now?”
