“I saw you in the streets with him,” he said as she stepped from the bath.
She pulled the robe tighter around her and avoided his eyes. “Choosing decorations for the celebration tomorrow,” she explained. “It’s apparently going to be an extravagant affair.” She did a double-take at his figure as he stood in the light of the window, the shadows resting in his face settled into his features. His jaw tightened, and she shook her head at him again.
“Don’t,” she warned.
“I didn’t—”
“I mean do not look at me as though I am some broken filly,” she managed, feeling her chest begin to heave.
Draven’s gaze narrowed. “Why would you think I would look at you as such?”
“Because—because you saw me having to act with him today and you have to know how much that hurt,” she admitted, feeling a lump rise in her throat. “To have to walk beside someone who would condemn me tomorrow if given the chance. Act as though he has not turned into the monster kings of our past… as though nothing has changed and he has not become someone he promised not to be—”
“You cannot save him,” Draven whispered.
Her heart shattered into bits as she met his eyes. “But why can’t I?” she managed. “He is my brother. We grew up playing, laughing… We loved each other. We promised to beso muchbetter. What happened? Why can’t I save him from the madness of our predecessors?”
Draven stepped closer and held her hands in his. “Fear is our greatest enemy. It causes you to do things you never thought yourself capable of. Your brother is lost to the gravity of it. Everything you are, he fears. You are smart, strong, confident, intrepid… you could be the greatest leader this Echelon has ever known. And tomorrow, when our friends from the east and south get here, his jealousy of you will only get worse.”
He paused and pressed his lips to her knuckles. “I’ve no doubt every race will be calling you their queen before the week is over.”
“I would never ask them to,” she whispered.
“And that is why they will.”
She fell into his arms and he hugged her against his chest. “And what about when this week is over? When our guests have left and you have returned to the Forest?”
“Then you kill him,” he said with a shrug.
She pursed her lips up at him and shook her head. “I am not killing my brother.”
Draven sighed heavily, a low growl emitting from his throat. “It would save us a lot of grief.”
“And it would also start a war we do not need.”
His weight shifted, and his jaw tightened as he met her eyes. “Killjoy.”
She started to smile, but the door opened then, and Lex burst into the room.
“My Queen— Venari King, you both need to hear this—”
Aydra did a double-take at the sight of her Second’s widened eyes and bewildered gaze. Her arms fell from Draven.
“Lex, what’s wrong?”
Lex stopped at the edge of the bed, swallowing hard as she stared between them. Draven’s weight shifted towards her.
“Spit it out, Second Sun,” he demanded.
“Infi,” Lex said with a heave of her chest. “Infi reported in the smithing streets.”
CHAPTER FIFTY
“WHAT—AGAIN?!”
Aydra grabbed a dress from the closet and shoved it over her head. Draven tossed her her boots.
“How many?” he asked.
