“You’re surrounded, Enforcer,” Yara retorted, glancing to the other warriors standing at the ready. Not one of them had drawn their weapons.
They were wanted alive, then.
“A challenge, but not the worse I’ve endured,” Will replied, his voice deceptively light in a way that always spelled danger. “Liam went through great lengths to save your lives. It would be a shame for you to lose them now.”
“Will,” Aya murmured. She would not attack them. She couldn’t. Not after all Liam had gone through to save them.
You are and always will be my family.
Aya cocked her head, her brow furrowing as she scanned the line of soldiers again. “I’m surprised you all so easily fell into line behind another zealot. Or did you forget what the last queen we served was capable of? Your blind obedience spits on the memory of the Dyminara she manipulated.”
Yara laughed, a bitter, cynical sound that scraped against Aya’s nerves. “And you were so innocent?” she asked. “The Queen’s Eyes. One might think she manipulated you most of all.”
That truth did not hurt nearly as much as it once did. Aya had been through far too much to let that sting linger, to let such goading cloud her judgment.
“I am not your enemy, Yara,” she insisted quietly. She didn’t bother to hide the hint of pleading woven through her voice.
Yara lifted her chin. “You can make that case to Queen Hyacinth.”
55
When Josie and Aidon were younger, Aidon used to beg Josie to play soldiers with him. He would take one of the maps from their father’s study and spread it out on the floor, using the figurines as toy soldiers as he marched them around the map.
Josie never really understood the appeal. She liked playing with the pretty wooden figures, imagining the individual sword strikes they’d use, but Aidon was obsessed with placing them just so, waxing on and on about strategy and better ground and location advantage. He’d rattle off street names and identify hidden crevices of Rinnia, and Josie would eventually tune him out as he got lost in his own world.
Staring down at a map of Rinnia now, she wished she’d paid more attention. Then again, how was she to know that those games they’d played as children weren’t games at all, but preparation for a reality she never would have imagined?
Aleissande stood at her side, her hands braced on the wooden table that sat in the center of the small study in the bowels of the Maraciana. Natali was across from them, their brow furrowed as they toyed with a figurine, while Lucas and Clyde stood clustered together at the head of the table.
Clyde had marked the main areas where the Bellare patrolled:
Old Town, particularly near the Council building; the main thoroughfare that curved with the beach; the palace, of course; and…
“Why this street in particular?” Josie asked, pointing to the last circle.
“Two of the Visya Councilors live there,” Clyde said darkly.
“They’re monitoring Visya Councilors?” She’d known they were watching Clyde, but she’d assumed that was because of his ties to her family.
“Are you truly surprised?”
No, she wasn’t. But shewassurprised to learn they were doing it in such a blatant way. The Bellare had clearly gotten bold. Perhaps that would work to Josie’s benefit. Hubris led to mistakes, especially in a battle. It was a lesson Josie had taught Aidon when they were just two teenage siblings using the furthest sparring room to fight.
Aleissande sucked on her teeth, her eyes darting across the map in careful concentration before she plunked one of the wooden figurines down. “Here. We stage the protest here, and draw the Bellare in.”
She took two of the smaller figurines and placed them on opposite sides: one near the Merchant Council building, the other closer to the main thoroughfare.
“We’ll use two protesting groups to engage the patrols,” she explained, moving the pieces until they were clustered around the main one, “and we’ll trap them within the heart of the city.”
“Meanwhile,” Natali murmured, placing their own figurine down by the palace, “the main contingent will be taking back the palace.”
Clyde pursed his lips as he hummed in consideration. “And the Royal Army has agreed to come to tend to the protest?”
“Half of the Royal Army will come under the guise of assisting the City Guard with calming the crowd,” Josie corrected, plunking down another figurine. “The other half will join us as reinforcements at the palace.”
“The City Guard will think they’re receiving aid, but really…they’ll find themselves surrounded by soldiers loyal to us,” Aleissande filled in. “Soldiers who will keep them at bay while Josie and I do what needs to be done.”
“You won’t be joining the raid on the palace?” Lucas asked curiously.
