Rix stiffened. She had a feeling the only thing he’d heard was her husband’s name.“Has he been forcing himself on you?”
Her eyes widened. “No. Never.” She was appalled at the very notion. Carver had never been anything but kind, patient, and respectful. She couldn’t bear to have Rix see him as some sort of villain. But of course, that’sexactlywhat he saw. He, Torin, and Bram had all planned to kill Carver in order to free her from marriage with him. She needed to explain to Rix that she was in love with Carver. Beg her uncle not to hurt him. And to convince Torin and Bram—
Amryn’s stomach dropped.Bram.What if he sought Rix out once they were back at the palace? Anything she told Rix, he might tell his former bodyguard. And if Bram learned that she was in love with Carver Vincetti . . .
The rebels might not trust her anymore. They might change their plans and decide to steal the dagger without her. They might even do it some other night when the treasury wasn’t prepared. The second bloodstone could be lost. And everythingshe’d done to secure a pardon for Rix and Torin might be for nothing, if she wasn’t able to help arrest the rebels who had infiltrated the palace.
Those were risks she could not take. Which meant she needed to be careful with what she told her uncle right now.
“Amryn?” Rix’s tense voice broke into her thoughts. “He hasn’t hurt you?”
“No,” she said, no hesitation. Because even if she couldn’t tell her uncle everything right now, she refused to let him believe Carver had ever caused her harm. “Carver isn’t what you think—or what I expected. He’s saved my life many times. I never would have survived Esperance without him.”
Rix’s emotions remained conflicted, a war waging inside him. Relief and anxiety. Anger and confusion. “What happened in Esperance?” he finally asked.
Even if they had time for a detailed retelling, there was so much she couldn’t share with her uncle yet. She refused to put him in a position where he would have to lie to Bram. But she told him what she could. About the murders, and Trevill’s guilt in them. And about how Tam had endangered her and the rest of the Chosen with her poison. She decided not to tell Rix that she’d healed everyone. That would require telling him about the bloodstone, and though she trusted her uncle, something made her hesitate. She honestly didn’t know if it was Felinus’s warnings, or the bloodstone itself prompting her to keep it a secret. But she listened to that small whisper of caution.
When she told him that Tam knew Amryn was an empath, his already pale face lost all color. She felt his horror. The gulf of his fear and the sharp tang of his anger. “What?” he gasped.“How?”
“Someone told her.”
“Who?” he demanded.
“I don’t know.” But at least she now knew definitively that it hadn’t been Rix. His reaction had been the proof her soul had been craving, even though she’d never truly believed it was him.
“Blazing Saints,” her uncle cursed. New urgency rose in him. “Has she told anyone?”
His fears aggravated her own, making her stomach twist. “I don’t know.”
He swore again, spinning away from her with his hands on his hips. “This is my fault,” he rasped. “You’re exposed now, and it’s all my doing. I never should have let you go. Everything you’ve suffered is on my head—”
“No.” She grabbed his arm, turning him back to her. His expression was as tortured as his emotions felt. She squeezed his wrist. “None of this is your fault.”Feeling the deep well of his remorse and self-blame, she knew she wasn’t going to manage to change his mind right now. Instead, she asked him a question she needed answered. “Are you a rebel?”
He blinked, clearly caught off guard. His brow furrowed. “No. You know I’m not.”
She swallowed. “Bram approached me soon after we arrived at the palace . . .”
Understanding dawned. “He told you that he’s a rebel. That I asked him to join.”
She nodded once.
“Has he been able to watch over you?”
He recruited me for a rebel mission and I’m betraying him.That’s what shedidn’tsay. “He’s been able to guard my room a few times.” Holding Rix’s gaze, she said, “I need to know if you and Torin are part of the Rising.”
“No,” he repeated. “We’ve both been asked. I nearly said yes, but . . .” She felt the faintest stirring of guilt. As if he felt bad for not agreeing to join the Rising.
Amryn felt only relief. It meant everything she was doing to secure his pardon—and Torin’s—would be worth it.
There were so many things she wanted to share with her uncle—and ask him. She knew they’d have time to talk later, but there was one thing she needed to tell Rix now. “Tiras was in Zagrev.”
Her uncle stilled. Dread washed through him, followed by an icy brush of terror. “You spoke with him?”
“Yes.” A chill settled into her bones. From feeling her uncle’s emotions, or the memory of Tiras’s remoteness as he’d stared at her, she wasn’t sure. “While I was in the city a couple of weeks ago. He came to take me.” She frowned. “He said the two of you made a deal, and you reneged.”
Rix’s grip tightened, but she still felt a tremble snake through him. “Bloody Saints,” he cursed.
Wariness wrapped her lungs in a vice. “He said you promised to keep me safe if he disappeared and never came back. Is that true?”
