“Why the fuck is this even a conversation?” Draven interjected, stepping forward. “Kills her—”
“—I am to simply sit back and do nothing?” Lex continued. “How—”
“The same goes for you,” Aydra suddenly told Draven.
Draven’s nostrils flared, and he stilled as though paralyzed against the post, arms crossed over his chest. “What have you not told me?” he asked deliberately.
Aydra swallowed hard, her weight shifting as she dodged his question. “If he hurts me, you are to do nothing.”
The glare in which he stared at her with then made her bones tingle, the hair on her arms stand on end. “I will rip him to shreds with my bare hands,” he uttered.
“You won’t get the chance with his fire,” she argued.
Wind knocked the grand window open so violently that one of them shattered against the stone. Draven stared at her, nostrils flared as his arms tightened across his chest so firmly that veins popped to the surface.
“Why do you think Duarb gave the Venari King wind?” he said in a low growl.
Aydra paused and met his gaze. “If you kill him, you will start a war. The Belwarks and Dreamers will not listen to Dorian even if he tells them not to go to war with you. They will want vengeance for him.”
“And they won’t if you die?”
“The Bedrani Council has wanted me subdued for some time. His killing me would be a welcome reprieve, especially after this week.” She looked between the pair and crossed her arms over her chest. “Swear to me. Both of you.”
Lex exchanged a glance with Draven, and at the same time they both said, “No.”
“Please—”
“We shouldn’t even be having this conversation,” Draven interjected.
A knock on the door signified that it was time. Aydra swallowed hard and shook her head. “I have to go.”
She disappeared from the room without look at them.
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
THE RAVEN FLEW in one of the open windows and perched on her shoulder as she walked down to the Council Chamber.
Plan?it asked her.
Buy time. I do not wish to make a saint out of him.
Rhaif was sitting at the long table when she arrived. A Belwark led her inside, and she took Draven’s seat across from him. His chin sat against his hand, and he was leaned back lazily in his seat.
“Close the windows,” Rhaif instructed the Belwarks from his chair. “Then leave us.”
Aydra’s chest tightened.
He did mean to hurt her.
She shifted in her seat, jaw tightening. “Think they don’t know how to break glass?” she asked, knowing why he was closing the panes.
Rhaif stared at her, but he did not utter another word. Each grand window closed, and throughout it, she nor he moved, or blinked.
But once the doors shut, she felt her breath stop.
Rhaif sighed, and he allowed his hand to hit the end of the chair arm. “What is your plan, sister?” he asked across the table.
Her brows narrowed. “Excuse me?”
