They would need numbers, and affinities, and an organized front. Information, too. And Josie knew exactly who could get it for her.
“Is Clyde Marin still Lead Councilor?” Josie asked, interrupting their bickering.
Natali rose a brow. “For now. But with his and his husband’s known ties to your family, I would not be surprised if they’ve fled.”
A laugh rasped from Josie. Finally, something Natalididn’tknow.
Lucas and Clyde would rather die than flee in the face of a fight, especially if fleeing meant betraying her brother.
“This is why sayings about assumptions exist, Natali,” Josie parroted.
Perhaps she and Aidon should have returned that loyalty with honesty far sooner. Perhaps Aidon would not have felt so burdened by his secrets had his friends known the weight he carried.
You trusted someone with your brother’s secret once, and look how that turned out, that bitter voice in Josie’s mind reminded her.
She batted the thought away as she turned her attention to Cole. “You’re sure about going to Sitya?”
Her friend shrugged in that easy way of his. “Someone has to.” It was as good a confirmation as any. Natali seemed to think so as well, because they stood, their palms smoothing down their pant legs.
“Now that that’s settled, I’ll fetch the Anima,” they murmured, leaving no room for argument as they turned on their heal and left.
Cole stood as well, his back popping as he twisted fromside to side. “I’m going to wash up. This will be my last chance for a decent bath for quite a while.” He squeezed Josie’s shoulder and nodded to Aleissande before he followed Natali from the room.
The door closed behind him, a heavy silence descending as Aleissande and Josie watched each other.
“You can’t kill Viviane,” Aleissande finally said.
Josie’s eyes narrowed, even as surprise rippled through her. Of all the things she expected the general to say,thathad not been one of them. Yet disarmed as she was, irritation won out, becauseof courseAleissande would think her incapable of doing such a thing.
“You truly think that I would not be able to bring myself to—”
“You can’t kill Viviane,” Aleissande interrupted, her voice growing louder as she gave an exasperated shake of her head, “because you aregood. And she is not worth the stain it would leave on your heart.”
Her gaze traced Josie’s face, flicking from her eyes to her lips to her cheeks and back again. Josie swallowed against the lump that had suddenly taken up residence in her throat, her voice coming out scratched and breathless as she said,
“My heart already has stains.”
Aleissande’s lips, still chapped but with that flush of pink returned, pulled down in the corners. “Scars and stains are not the same,” she murmured. “Trust me.”
Trust me.
There it was again. That impossible request. Except this time…
This time, Josie did not shy away from it.
Slowly, she reached for Aleissande’s hand, laying her own atop it gently. Aleissande’s eyes flared at her touch, but she did not pull away. Not even as Josie stroked her thumb across the top of her hand, memorizing the way small scars interrupted the smoothness of her skin.
“I do,” Josie admitted—to Aleissande and to herself. She swallowed down her fear as she wove her fingers through Aleissande’s. “I trust you.”
27
It took Dauphine the better part of a week to assemble a team. Aside from that first night he’d accompanied Liam to secure the Athatis, Will hadn’t left the safe house once.
By the sixth day, he was tempted to ask Aidon to burn the entire thing to ash.
He didn’t, of course. Mostly because he was afraid the effort might kill the king, and that would meanhisefforts at keeping him alive would have been a waste.
Aidon was getting better at managing his affinity, but he was nowhere near ready to wield his fire in any meaningful, strategic way. Will tried to remind himself that at least the power wasn’t killing him. Not yet, anyway.
