“A third Relic?” I breathed, out loud. “But how—?”
“Godfather?” Gavin was staring at Arsenault, surprise blurring toward betrayal. “What is that?”
“It’s a Relic, godson, as your cousin intuits.” Arsenault gave Gavin a look I couldn’t read, then turned his chalk-ash gaze to me. “Your father may have been complacent in his middle age, but he wasn’t stupid. When Severine murdered her brother for his Relic, Sylvain realized his daughter was hungry for the Relics—hungrier even than he had been in his youth. But she wasn’t doing things therightway—she wasn’t playing the game Sylvain loved so much. So he sent his remaining Relics far away—far enough away so Severine could never find them.”
I frowned. All these narratives—of Severine, and Sylvain, and the barbarous games they played—had tangled in my head until I couldn’t sort the truth from the lie, the embellishment from the bias. Was this the story of a wicked, twisted princess hungry for power? Or was it the story of a girl who loved her brother too much and went too far to save him from a world too cruel for them both? I didn’t know if I’d ever truly find out.
“Ambric, he sent with his last bastard.” Arsenault dropped me an unkind nod. “Dristic, he sent to his greatest enemy, a man who had once been like his brother—the man who already held the kembric Relic in his possession. Xavier d’Ars. I suppose he had more faith in his old rival than his grasping daughter. But Xavier was done with all the Sun Heir business. He had fallen in love with an Aifiri noblewoman. He had a young son.” He gave Gavin a small smile. “So Xavier gave the blade to me, for safekeeping. He knew my loyalty to him transcended everything else, and he trusted me to do with the Relic what he would want done.”
The court held its breath.
“But now I offer it up as the tiebreaker of this generation’s Ordeals of the Sun Heir.” Arsenault touched the edge of the blade, almost reverently. “Notbecause I believe in these ancient, dangerous games that killed my old friend and tore my comrades apart. But because I believe to my core that Gavin—as the son of Xavier, who was cheated out of his rightful place by your scheming and ambitious father—is the rightful Sun Heir. He has been ordained by the Scion and shines with his light. And if you will not step aside, lady …” The greying man glared at me, and I quelled a shudder. “Then the Ordeals must go forward.”
The door opened into the choking silence following Arsenault’s words. Sunder stepped into the Congrès, flanked by a few of his wolves. His hair was wild and his eyes shone with weird light. I gave him a questioning look. He gave his head a stiff shake.
He hadn’t caught the Red Masks who had killed LaRoche. I swallowed a hot blur of guilt and rage.
“We can still do this the easy way,” Gavin said. I frowned—he’d said the same thing when I challenged him. But when I glanced toward him, he wasn’t looking at me. He had his eyes fixed on Sunder.
“And what’s that?”
“We could get married,” Gavin suggested.
“What?”My thoughts scattered like bits of broken glass, reflecting apprehension and distaste and a sudden shadow of regret. A memory curled around me: his hands in my hair, his mouth on mine. Had I given him the wrong idea, had I—?
“You ended Severine’s rule, but I legally inherited the Sabourin fortune. You are Sylvain’s daughter, but bastard-born. My lineage is distant, but unassailable.” His voice was too serious for me to think he was joking. “Neither of our claims to the throne is without flaw, but if we were wed? You would earn your rightful half of the fortune you deserve. No one from outside our Scion-blessed bloodline would dilute the purity of the throne. Our children would be undeniably Sabourin and could rule with impunity. And neither of us would have to descend into darkness and yield our destinies to the Ordeals of the Sun Heir.”
It was a long, aching moment before I funneled fury and confusion and impossible hilarity into three calmly stated words:
“Everyone. Outside.Now.”
Fury and panic beat wings about my ears as my Congrès slowly rose to leave. Papers shuffled. Silk and leather rustled as they rose from plush chairs. Footsteps clomped toward the exit. The door hissed shut.
But not everyone had left. Sunder stood glowering in the empty space, and if ice could burn, we would all be on fire.
“Sunder.” Gavin’s mouth lifted into a grin, but it wasn’t the kind of smile that made me want to join in. “Never met a marriage proposal he liked.”
Sunder stalked across the room toward Gavin. His movements were spare—almost careless—as he lifted an elbow, jammed it into Gavin’s throat, and shoved him toward the opposite wall. Gavin’s arms came up, grappling with Sunder’s, but though both boys were strong, Sunder had the advantage of height. Gavin’s back slammed against the hard surface, his head jarring and his breath knocking out of his lungs. Pebbles of plaster rained onto the marble floor.
“What in the Scion’s hell are you still doing here, d’Ars?” Sunder’s tone was almost conversational. His face was very, very close to Gavin’s, and his lips were bared over his teeth. “I thought you’d have already run from court with your tail between your legs like you did four tides ago.”
“What can I say?” Gavin choked out. “I enjoy the company.”
Sunder ratcheted up his choke hold on the other boy, and Gavin groaned, the tips of his boots scrabbling on the floor.
“Sunder!” I shouted, picking up my skirts and dashing across the room. “That’s enough. You’re hurting him!”
“Good,” Sunder growled, without looking at me. His eyes narrowed to knives of green. “This is between me and d’Ars, Mirage. We have unfinished business.”
“That’s right—you never did manage to kill me.” Gavin swallowed hard against the forearm at his throat. “What was it you threatened to do? Crack every one of my ribs and crush my heart?”
“I’ve learned a few tricks since then.” Sunder’s smile was a jagged blade forged for torture. “Recently I’ve been dying to see what happens when I pull a man’s spine out through his mouth.”
A froth of fear surfaced in Gavin’s gaze, although he tried to hide it. “It would ruin that pretty outfit of yours.”
“I’ve got spares.”
“Will both of you stop it?” I snarled, to mask my unease. I’d never seen that look in Sunder’s eyes, not even when he—
