What mattered was getting Selene out of here. On the open sea, aboard theEntia, she would be within reach. At least there, he would have his footing again. His confidence. The control that captaining a ship offered.
He would not lose her.
“I could start with the kitchens.”
Selene’s voice broke through his thoughts, and he realized she’d been talking for a while.
“Sorry?” he said. “What were you saying?”
She squeezed his hand. “The people are probably starting to panic. No one’s working.” She motioned to the empty corridor. “Haven’t you noticed?”
Augustus looked ahead, then back. “I suppose we’re missing a roaming soldier or two.”
Or all of them, actually. Wherewaseveryone?
Selene’s mouth drew into a line. “Anyway, the servants, the guards…they keep the palace running. I want to talk to everyone. If they trust Dimitrios, if theystay, everything will fall back into place.”
He was plotting their escape, and she was talking about peacekeeping with the help? Did she have no sense of self-preservation? Someone assassinated the entire council and tried to kill Dimitrios. They might have tried getting to her, too, had she been around.
“And Dimitrios will need names for a replacement council,” Selene continued, staring ahead. “People he can trust.”
Augustus slowed her to a stop and faced her. Once he had both of her hands, he said, “I love that you want to help, but let’s be honest. There’s a much bigger problem here. Nothing you’re planning will change one simple fact: Dimitrios is not the king.”
“Not yet.”
He frowned. One didn’t have to be fluent in the local politics to understand that without a governing body, council or otherwise, Dimitrios would have totakethat crown with bloody hands from those seeing an opportunity to claim it.
One in particular might finally raise her head. “This is a perfect opportunity for Alexandra to make an appearance,” he said.
Selene stared blindly at their clasped hands. “I hope not.”
Augustus didn’t recognize the tone she used. At the very least, he hadn’t heard it since their first days together. She spoke like a slave, and he refused to let her go backward. She’d come too fucking far.
He knuckled her chin up. “We’ve buried too many people fighting for someone else’s crown. We’ve givenenough.”
Selene nodded, but the moment her gaze drifted, he knew she hadn’t heard a word.
“I’m going to send word to Lili,” he said firmly. “We’re leaving as soon as possible.”
“Augustus, we?—”
“Every time we fight for someone else’s cause, we lose something. You lost your mother. I lost mine. Who’s next, Selene?”
Selene sank back and released his hands. “Maybe this isn’t about kings and kingdoms. Maybe it’s about not running soyoucan avoid doing the right thing.”
A man cleared his throat nearby.
Augustus clapped his mouth shut. He straightened to his full height, and his body felt as if it were buried in sand as he turned toward the sound. “Blaze.”
Blaze looked between them. “I hope I’m interrupting something.”
“No,” Selene said, just as Augustus said, “Yes. Go away.”
Blaze, lips slanted in a grin, met Augustus’s glower with increasing delight. “You’re quite growly around me these days, Augustus. Why is that?”
“As much as I’d love to get into the complexities of my?—”
Selene groaned, then muttered, “Under Idon’s Eye.” She scrubbed color back into her face. “This is getting us nowhere. I just want to find Dimitrios and find out exactly what happened.”
