"I can help," Eva said.
"No, you're going back to the barracks for the night," Caden said before anyone else could speak.
She started to object.
"He's right. You're the one this plan hinges on. Some of my warriors can help Reece. We don't need to risk you getting infected by this seed when there isn't yet a cure," Darius said.
His words were law. Push him and he would not like it. Eva wasn't sure even her position as the Kyren’s intermediary would protect her from retribution.
There was a warning in Caden's gaze that told her she wasn't going to win this one. She jerked her head down in a nod.
Caden flicked his fingers at Jane and Drake, sending them to accompany her back to the house Fiona had shown her.
She couldn't leave without one last look at Caden. "Be careful."
*
Caden watched Eva disappearwith his warriors.
"That progressed fast," Darius observed. "Not interested, my ass."
"Keep pushing," Caden warned. "And maybe I'll let Fallon know how you and a certain woman, formerly of the Snake clan, have begun to disappear together at night."
Darius narrowed his eyes at his friend. "Fair point."
Fallon wouldn't care that the woman was snake clan, but considering the amount of ribbing the warlord had gotten from his general when he fell for Shea, he'd be more than happy to dish it out in kind.
Caden didn't know if the two's relationship was serious, but he knew Darius wasn't the type to fool around with people in his own chain of command. The woman from snake clan might have lost everything when her clan leader betrayed her oaths, but she hadn't let the moment define her. She’d even managed to land on her feet.
That alone made her a woman worth respecting.
Caden didn't think it had advanced to the physical yet, but he knew that look in his friend's eye. It was only a matter of time.
"Do you think this has to do with what we've been hearing?" Caden asked.
"It's a pretty big coincidence otherwise," Darius muttered, looking over the garden with somber eyes.
The two men traded grim looks.
"Why do I get the feeling this entire city is a trap?" Caden said.
"For the same reason I'm beginning to believe we were lured here," Darius muttered under his breath.
Caden gave him a sharp look.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm not casting accusations at your herd mistress. I have a feeling she was just as much misled as all of us," Darius said.
Caden let out a deep breath. "The mythologicals are playing a deep game."
"At least one of them anyway," Darius said.
"But which one?"
There was no answer, but Caden didn't really expect one. Sometimes when spiders wove their webs, the only thing you could do was let them hang themselves with a noose of their own making.
*
Eva yawned and huggedher legs closer to her chest on the small window seat next to her bed. She leaned her head against the cold glass as she watched the moon high above.
