Aldric met the duke’s gaze, unblinking. After a moment’s pause, he glanced to Rakon instead. “Gag him.”
Coreto balked, some of his seemingly ever-present smugness finally dissipating. “You cannot gag me. I am a member of thepeerage.” When Rakon ignored him and pulled a filthy rag from his jerkin—the very one he used to clean his boots—the duke blanched further. “The queen forbids you from gagging me,” he desperately reminded.
In response to that, Aldric could only shrug. “I suppose I’m not a very good lap dog, after all.”
A single curse slipped from Coreto’s lips before Rakon shoved the rag into his mouth, gagging him.
Aldric fought the urge to entertain a satisfied smirk at the other man’s expense. Gloating wasn’t his way. He wasn’t his brother, Edmund. But it felt good to remind the duke that he wasn’t completely wound around Sera’s fingers.
Keep telling yourself that. Maybe it’ll become true.
“Father?” a voice called from just outside the cell. Kyn.
Calix stepped back out into the corridor first, cracking a smile. “Look at that! Soft hands himself made his way down into the dungeons. Careful now, or you might step on a rat.”
Aldric soon followed, Rakon not far behind. “What is it, Kyn?”
Kyn took the time to shoot Calix an unamused look before handing over a folded letter addressed to him:Aldric. He knew without asking who it was from. His wife. He brushed his thumb over the swooping curves of his name penned upon the paper. He would know her writing anywhere.
And she was the only person who called him Aldric.
He hated how a part of him was starting to prefer it tothe Crow.
Calix craned his head just enough to catch a glimpse of the letter. Playfully, he let loose with a warbling whistle in imitation of Leif from the other day.
The whistle to warn of encroaching danger.
Aldric shot his half-Kunishi Son a withering look. “Shut it, Calix.”
A strange heat warmed the back of his neck as he shuffled off by several steps to open his letter and read it in peace.
Aldric,his kirei wrote,I had hoped you would join me this evening in my quarters for a celebration.
The very words made his heart seize. In her quarters? Alone?
But of course not. He should have known better. Why would Sera wish to see him alone?Fool,he cursed inwardly. As if she would ever…
Bring your men,the letter continued.The ones you trust most. Because I had hoped that you might trust me enough now…that you would consider bringing You-Know-Who, too.
Reyla. His kirei wished to include Reyla in the festivities. Clearly, Sera trusted him, inviting him and his most loyal men into her private quarters.
She merely hopedhetrustedher.
But if she was truly offering him her trust, then he could no longer deny her the knowledge of why she shouldn’t trust him at all.
That thought slithered through his gut, adding to the unease already resting heavy there. It carved out a place just beneath hisribs, making his chest ache.No more secrets. That was what he had promised.
“Boss?” Rakon asked, a note of concern in his voice.
“Lock the duke’s cell,” Aldric commanded, his throat thick. Carefully folding Sera’s letter, he tucked it beneath his jerkin. Next to his heart. That letter was nothing more than a mere piece of paper, and yet it seemed heavier than an anchor seeking to weigh him down—heavier than the truth he had kept buried for weeks.
Because he knew what he had to do now.
He finally had to tell Sera what truly happened that night with the assassin.
He had to tell her everything.
Chapter forty-one
