My hands clenched. “I knew they were occupying the city. I didn’t realize they were in your homes, or that they were stealing from your families. I should have.” Should have known their cruelty would be worse to our people than it had been to us. My family had suffered greatly under their rule, but we were still nobility, still able to find ways to work inside the system. Bamarians like Branwyn couldn’t. “I should have known it was like this,” I said. “Because I know exactly what they are.”
Branwyn shook her head. “What could you do? You were not Arkasva, nor Arkturion. And then you were away, and for good reason. You had to save your sisters.” My sisters. Morgana and Meera.
I’d only saved one.
Branwyn’s eyes swept over me. “Lyriana, it’s not your fault.”
But it felt like it was. This was my country. These were my people. And they deserved safety. Privacy. Dignity. They deserved to keep their own resources for their families, to not have foreign soldiers invading their homes stealing from them, intimidating them. Especially the wolves. It was going to stop.Somehow, I was going to find a way. I was going to banish them from my country.
I had far more than one wrong to right. But Rhyan was first.
“Branwyn,” Auriel said, “I’m sorry for all that’s happened. But this is important. Can you get in touch with Sean?”
She pressed her lips together, and shook her head. “I don’t know. We have one illegal vadati that we keep in secret. It’s shared between us and our friends. Everyone on the route you took to get here. There’s a handful of allies that it can connect to across the Empire. We use it to communicate, but it always depends on who has the stone.” Branwyn’s eyebrows drew together. “I told him to take it with him. But he refused. He wanted to keep it here, in case anyone else needed it more than him. In case you did.”
“Fuck,” I said. We had a spare vadati, but now there was no way to contact him. “Branwyn, I need you to trust me on this. We can’t explain right now, and this is going to sound farther than Lethea, but I need you to believe me.”
Branwyn nodded. “Okay.”
“You need to get in touch with Sean. Tell him to abandon the mission.”
“What?”
“Tell him there’s another way. Tell him I said not to hurt Rhyan.”
But before I could explain further, another knock exploded against the front door.
We all froze, barely daring to breathe.
“Are there any wards in place?” I asked.
Branwyn shook her head. “I was about to before they?—”
The knock sounded again. Louder, more violent this time. The walls upstairs shook with the force.
Auriel’s jaw clenched, his brows furrowed and I knew we had the same questions. Were these soturi looking for the men wejust murdered? For Sean? Or for us? Or worse—just here for Branwyn?
My throat dried, my stomach twisting.
Blue light erupted from my palm. The vadati I’d stolen from the dead turion.
“Shit!” I hissed. Auriel clapped his hand over my mouth.
“Turion Tiberius,” came the call.
I closed my hand around the stone. “We need to go, now!”
Auriel was already making his way to the balcony, reaching for my hand, and gesturing for Branwyn.
But she shook her head. “If I don’t answer the door, they’ll surround the neighborhood. They could hurt everyone we’re friends with—all of our allies. The number of soturi out there now—we don’t stand a chance.”
“Come with us. We’ll take the route,” I said.
“No. I need to be here. I’ll try to get word to Sean. But I need to let the soturi find me.”
“Tiberius!” shouted the soturion. The pounding started again.
I took Branwyn’s hand, urging her to come with us, but she shook her head sadly. “You need to get out. If I stay, I can hold them off. They’ll be distracted by the carnage.”
