“No, but do we really think Sterling is suddenly fancying some wine for his adventures?” Jerrick asks.
“We check every avenue.” When neither moves, I toss the second towel to the ground and grab a third. “We have a man who tried to murder our king’s fiancée, a woman who is now protected under the same vows that we gave King Dolian. Should I relay to His Majesty that perhaps it is time to test his guardsagain and see which of you might break?” Jerrick glares at me as fury radiates off of him, but the threat is enough. He and Silas are silent as they stride out of the room. I wait until the door shuts before I let my shoulders relax, Brisk and a guard named Anderson flanking me.
“Almost had me believing you truly care about the king,” Brisk says, running a hand through his short blond hair.
Anderson chuckles, both hands grasping the edge of the table. “So it’s true? Her magic saved her?”
I nod, making sure my hands are as clean as they can be before looking over the map. “The king was able to reach her in time before she…succumbedto her injuries.”
“You sound relieved by that,” Anderson says from my left, drawing my gaze.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
He sighs, the sound as exasperated as I feel. “She’s a threat.”
“Rhea— Theprincessisn’t a threat to anyone,” I counter, stumbling over my words like an idiot. It only causes Anderson to dig deeper into his stance.
“First name basis now?”
“For gods’ sakes.” I reach a hand for the siren figure, moving it from Lumen to our beaches. “It’s my fault you’re weary of her becauseIplanted that idea in your head. Now I’m telling you I was wrong.” Rhea had been a threat, at least a perceived one, months ago. But not now. Not after her interactions with Eve or how she carries her regret and guilt over the lives taken on the beach and those healed against her will. Not when I’ve seen what forgiveness from hermightlook like, if she’s able to fully give it all. I would understand if she couldn’t—just as I would have understood the same of Siyala. My chest clenches at the thought of her, her golden eyes bright in my mind.
“She’s mage, and she has the onlylegitimateclaim to this kingdom’s throne.”
“A throne that she has told me she does not want.”
Anderson releases a laugh, while Brisk shakes his head, giving our companion a warning look. “And you believe her? Knowing what you saw, what the king has done to her, you believe that she wouldn’t take that throne at the first opportunity? That she wouldn’t enact retribution the moment it becomes available?” He leans across the table until I’m forced to give him my attention. “We have worked too damn hard for too fucking long to have an outsider sit on that throne once King Dolian is removed.”
“Donottalk to me about the struggles we’ve faced as if I have not lived through them,” I snap, a fist forming on the table. “No one cares about what we are doingmorethan me. No one has as much invested in making sure that our plans do not stray more thanme.”
Anderson’s chest heaves, and Brisk comes around to lay a hand on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. “Hey, man, he’s right. Xander has spent far too much time preparing to let it slip from his grasp. If he says the princess isn’t a threat, we have no reason not to believe him.”
Heated seconds pass, and for a moment, I think Anderson might continue to fight me on this. But with a sigh, he nods, his chin falling to his chest. “I’m sorry. It’s just that we are so close, and I didn’t think we would have a wrench thrown in our plans quite like this.”
“She’s no wrench, trust me.” I move the sun figurine closer to the border of the Mage Kingdom, right where it touches our own. “All she wants is to get home to herrealfiancé.”
“If there is still afiancéto return to,” Brisk mutters under his breath, drawing our gazes. “What? You read the latest missive from Stephan. Sounds like the council is one strike away from just imprisoning the guy.”
“Let’s hope, for everyone’s sake, that doesn’t happen.” I need to help Rhea get that fucking ring off so I can get her back home to Nox before whatever is going on in the Mage Kingdom becomesmyproblem too.
The doors open, a young guard popping his head inside. “Commander, we caught him.”
My spine straightens. “Where did you find him?”
“Hiding in the throne room.” My brows lift towards my hairline. I would have expected him to have been found in the gardens or on his way to Vitour. “He was waiting for the king.”
“Well,shit,” Brisk says, his mouth tipping down into a frown.
“Shall we get him ready for public execution?”
“No. The king wants to make a spectacle of his death. Tell the men to bring him to the dungeons. I’ll go down and interrogate him once he’s there.” The guard nods and slips back into the hall.
“Would have made our jobs easier if he had been successful in any of his attempts to take a life today,” Anderson says, and I bite back the urge to remind him to exclude Rhea from that statement. Of all the people I want to see rot in this castle, she is not one of them.
“The blood oath would have just killed him. It was a fool’s choice from the start.” I run my thumb over my own crescent-shaped mark, tension gathering once more in my shoulders. “We aren’t ready yet anyway,” I say, checking that all of my weapons are in place before heading to the doors. “To move before we are would spell disaster. We wait until the right moment, and then we’ll take down the king and every one of those bastards like him.”
Chapter Seventy-One: Rhea
Inevergavemuchthought about what death would look like, but I hoped for something that resembled life. A part of me wondered if there would be an existence that mirrored the living one. Not quite the same—as it is death, after all—but one that I could find my own happiness in. Maybe I wouldn’t remember what had come before, but I would innately recognize someone who was important to me. Like my mother and father. Alexi and Bella. Tienne and Immie and anyone else killed in my name. I thought it might be a peaceful place.
