“He goes to speak to the gods, and when he returns, he’s himself again,” Antonia says.
“By ‘himself’ you mean…?” My heart thunders as I wait to hear what she has to say. This has to be it. This has to be the information I need.
“Well, not old, for starters,” Charlotte says. “But maybe he’s ready to hand over the empire.”
“Charlotte,” Antonia hisses. She looks around, then turns her attention back to the other woman. “You can’t say things like that. Especially now, with the enforcer so close.”
“I’m not interrupting anyone, am I?” A male voice cuts in.
I turn and find Caiden smiling at us.
“If it’s not too much trouble, I’d like another dance with my bride-to-be.”
“I’m not sure I’m up to that tonight. It’s been a lot,” I say.
He holds out his hand. “Nonsense.”
I accept it, and he leads me to the dance floor again. “I thought you said I only had to do this once?”
“There’s been a change of plans.” He glances over to where Brevan was, but the enforcer is gone.
In fact, most of the night legionnaires who were stationed around the room are gone.
“What’s happening?” I ask.
“Just a few rebels trying to ruin our evening.” He leads me out onto the dance floor.
“Again?” I rest my hands on his shoulder and hip, then begin to follow his movements.
His brow furrows. “How did you know?”
“You made another man sleep in my room,” I answer.
“Oh, that’s right. I did.”
“Should we be concerned?” I notice the double doors are now closed.
“No. They can’t access this room.” His hand moves lower on my back, his fingers brushing against my ass. Whispers follow in our wake.
“So we’re locked in and need to distract your court while the night legionnaires take care of the rebels? Is that why you’re causing such a scene with your touch?”
He laughs. “You have no business being as smart as you are.”
“I don’t think it’s difficult to figure out what’s happening.”
“You’d be surprised.” He twirls me, and I stumble, but regain my footing enough to complete the spin.
“We did not practice that,” I hiss.
“Yet, you did well.”
“Shouldn’t you be out there helping your men?” If only the rebels could get to him and take him out so I could be done here.
“Every time they break in, there’s only a handful of them. Three or four that manage to bypass our defenses. If they do make it past the guards, they always try to get into the library or the vault. It’s gotten to the point where we just increase security in those places, and once they reach them, we kill them.”
“This happens often?” I knew the rebels occasionally try to get into the castle, but I thought it was for assassination attempts. Then again, I’m not privy to much. Especially since my mother died and Lee took over.
“More often than it used to. But it works out in our favor. There’s only so many of them. Eventually, they’ll run out of people to send.”
