“No!” I shouted. “We can’t go.”
His eyes searched mine, his mouth a tight line. “What do you mean, no? Lyr, we can’t stay here! Seathorne, as long as my father breathes, is a death trap.”
“I meanno.We’re not leaving. We’re not escaping,” I said. “Not until the Valabellum.”
“The Valabellum? That’s in a month! Do you know what kind of damage he can do to you by then? Do to us?” Rhyan’s breath came quickly, his chest rising and falling in rapidly as his face contorted with a mix of anger and confusion, one eyebrow lowered. “Lyr. If we stay here, you marry Kane! Do you get that? Do you know who he is? Did you see? Because when he touched you, when the Valalumir lit up again, I had another memory. I saw him, and I remembered. He’s fucking Shiviel!”
I shuddered, even though I’d already known the truth of it. “I thought so. I felt it.”
He shook his head, the movement frantic. “I can’t. Can’t let him hurt you. He was bad enough when he was just Kane. He’s always been a nightmare. But—fuck.” His knees bent suddenly, his fingers violently pushing through his hair before he straightened. “Gods! I spent years trying to prevent this. To stop this. To protect you—” His voice shook.
“I know. I know you did, but you can’t now. Not yet. It’s not that simple.”
“Yes, it is,” he gritted. “Whatever oath you swore, we’ll find a way to break it.”
Shaking my head in defeat, I said, “There’s something else I need to tell you.”
“What?” He sounded defeated.
I took a deep breath, pulled him back to the bed and sat beside him. Then I told him everything that had happened in his father’s tower. Told him about Vrukshire and the interviews Imperator Kormac conducted. Told him that they knew we were there that night—that they knew we’d killed Brockton and the others. That the sole reason they weren’t calling for my public arrest was to use me to make a claim on Bamaria. That his father threatened to use the nahashim to go through me and turn us both in for what the Empire would consider far worse crimes. And that the only way to stop my wedding to Viktor Kormac, the only way to keep Imperator Kormac from showing up here with a legion to claim me, was my marriage to another.
Rhyan nodded, his jaw muscles working. I could see he knew some of the details I shared already, or that he’d been close to piecing them together with the way his eyes darkened.
“Okay,” he said, when I finished explaining the role Kormac had in this. “But, partner, these are Imperator games. Not ours. We don’t have to be his servants to get what we want. We’ll run away,” he said urgently. “I’ll protect you from Kormac, and from my father, I swear. I’ve been ready to leave with you since Valyati. The plan hasn’t changed ...”
The plan to run away. To forget all of this and leave the Empire behind. Rhyan had first promised to take me from danger if I didn’t survive the Emperor’s test in the arena. And then again when he learned Arianna was my enemy.
“The plan has to change,” I said. “You know that. You know I won’t leave. Especially because there’s more to the bargain.” Tears fell down my face. “It’s about Jules.”
Rhyan’s eyes widened, watching me warily. “Jules?”
“He knows she’s alive. He told me.”
“Of course, he fucking did.” Rhyan shook his head in disgust. “All this fucking time and he kept it to himself.”
“He promised to help us get her back.”
“Help? Help! My father! Do you hear yourself?” Rhyan leapt off the bed, and began pacing back and forth. “For fuck’s sake, Lyriana! That’s what this is really about? Jules!” One eyebrow lowered, the muscles in his jaw working. Then he came before me, falling to his knees. He took my hands into his. “He’s not going to help you save her. He’s not going to rescue her! He’s incapable. I swore to you we’d get her back, and I meant it. Look at me. I’ve never broken an oath to you. Not once! Lyr, please. Tell me you still trust me.”
I squeezed his hands. “Of course, I do.”
“Then trust me when I say my father was fucking with you, just like Brockton was.”
“But Brockton wasn’t,” I yelled. “That’s the thing! He was telling the truth in the end. He was right about Jules. And your father showed me proof—he knows exactly where she is. He was able to get to her. His nahashim saw her in the Palace.”
“So?” he roared. “Auriel’s fucking bane! It doesn’t matter what his snakes have seen. It’s nothing we don’t already know, that we didn’t figure out on our own. All it does is bind us to him, and put us in danger! Showing that to you was nothing more than manipulation.”
“Manipulation?” My voice was ice cold. “You think I don’t know that? That I’m new to this game? I knew exactlywhat he was doing! And I know exactly what he is. It doesn’t change the facts. Doesn’t change that she’s in grave danger.”
“Yes, it does, it changes everything. Because binding yourself to him puts you in danger. And I need you safe!” he said.
“I need Jules safe,” I sobbed.
He released my hands, moving back to the bed. The mattress dipped as he took a seat beside me. But he was distant now. His body no longer touched mine as he stared toward the fireplace. “Let me guess. He said he’d kill Jules if you didn’t agree to everything he wanted.” He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees, his face turned away. “He was bluffing. He’s powerful—too fucking powerful for his own good. But,” he growled, “he’s second to Imperator Kormac. He always has been. If Emperor Theotis has Jules, that makes her a Kormac pawn, and I can tell you this much: Kormac doesn’t share outside the pack. My father does not have access to her.”
“Just like Brockton didn’t have access to her?” I cried out. “Just like Brockton didn’t rape her? Because he wasn’t important enough? Only he did. And your fatherdoeshave access to her. He knowsexactlywhere she is. I saw it with my own eyes. His snakes can reach her. And you know Godsdamned-well what they’re capable of doing under orders. He has spies in there, guards he’s paid off. You know it’s true. And he can disguise her after—disguise himself going in using Aiden.”
A long moment passed, the muscles in his jaw ticking, before he nodded. “Okay, fine,” he said, his voice low. “Say he can get to her. Say he has all the access he claims. Why wait? Why hasn’t he taken her before now? And why in Lumeria would he offer to help you?” He lifted his hands, his palms raised as if in question. “Threaten her to gain your submission? That I understand. But why offer you anything else beyond keeping you safe from Kormac?”
