I set my jaw and peek out of the alcove down the hallway, where candlelight flickers from three different rooms. “Which one?”
“To the right.”
“Has Edward come back down yet?” calls a female voice, and I duck back quickly. She’s obviously in one of the rooms to the left. Her voice sounds a bit closer, and I wonder if she’s stepped into the hallway. “Maybe I should go see if he needs help.”
“I’m sure he’ll be back in a minute,” calls a man. His voice is kind, and he sounds like he’s as old as the man I tied up upstairs. “Have you found the logs from Kaisa yet? I’d really like to get through these ledgers so you can get home.”
“You know I don’t mind staying to help.” Her voice is muffled again, and lightly teasing. “Youneed to get home, old man.”
“Ah, Penny, hush.” He chuckles, his tone low and gentle.
They sound so friendly and kind that I want to climb back up those stairs, untie those suspenders from Edward, and throw myself out the broken window. I thought the first man was too much with hissirandyou’re not a gull, but I’m supposed to killthisone? I’m supposed to bring backhishead? He sounds like the grandfathers in the Wilds who’d share warm stories about their childhoods while Tessa and I were bringing them medicine. They’d pat me on the cheek and call me a good boy and wink at me, asking if I was sweet on Tessa when she couldn’t hear.
Just a little, I’d always say.
Lord, how she’d hate this.
I pull back into the shadows of the alcove, bracing my shoulders against the wall. My heart is pounding hard. I don’t want tohurt anyone—but my thoughts are so tangled up, and I don’t know how else to work with Oren Crane to find a way back to Tessa. There isn’t going to be anyone else in Ostriary who’s willing to stand against Rian—and I know what Rian will do if he gets his hands on me.
Lochlan looks at me, studying my face for a long minute.
“Do you have another idea?” he says.
“No,” I grind out roughly.
“Do you know why I didn’t kill your brother when we held the Circle?” he says.
The question comes out of nowhere, and I turn my head to look at him. “What?”
“When we held the Circle. In the middle of the Royal Sector. During the revolution—”
“No, I know when you mean. What are you talking about?”
He steps closer. “Doyou, Cory, know why I didn’t kill theking?”
“If you call me that again, I’m going to shove this dowel somewhere you won’t like it.” I glare at him. “If you’d killed the king, the army would have filled you with a hundred arrows before your finger left the trigger.”
“Maybe, maybe not. There was a lot of smoke. A lot of cover. And I had a clean shot at least three times. The king had armor, but I had a crossbow. I could have got him in the face. Or the throat. Tessa, too.”
I’ve gone completely still, frozen in place in the little alcove. I have to shake my thoughts loose and remind myself that hedidn’tkill my brother. That he didn’t harm Tessa. My hand is tight on the dowel anyway.
Lochlan’s eyes haven’t left mine, and he laughs under his breath, but not like anything is really funny. “Exactly,” he says. He leans inclose. “I wasn’t worried about the army. I’d seen you as Weston Lark, and I’d seen you as Prince Corrick. If I killed the king, I was afraid of whatyouwould do.”
I look away from him and shift to peer down the hallway. “I already know you think I’m a monster, Lochlan. It’s the only reason we’re here.”
He grabs my shoulder and jerks me back into the alcove. “No,” he growls, his voice low. “I actually kind of hate that you’renota monster.” His eyes are very dark in the shadows. “But I know you can do terrible things when you have to.”
I stare at him. It’s the closest he’s ever come to acknowledging that my actions are backed by something other than cruelty, andIactually kind of hate that he’s said it in a way that won’t let me enjoy it.
But he’s not done. “I hate all of this,” he says. “I don’t want to be a part of Rian’s stupid conflict either. But I want to go home as badly as you do. I wouldn’t have followed you this far if I expected you to hesitate. TheKing’s Justicewouldn’t hesitate.”
That shocks me still again. Lochlan is the last person in the world I ever expected to hear such a thing from. But maybe it’s a reminder I need, because I take a deep breath and let a cool band of focus wrap around my thoughts. I’ve done terrible things to protect Kandala for years. I’ve supported my brother’s reign for years. I can’t be better for Tessa if I can’t get us out of this mess.
I steel my spine, and then I tap Lochlan on the cheek, a little too hard to be friendly. “Love you, too. Now cover my back.”
With that, I slip out of the alcove. Cheeke’s room is first, and I cling to the wall, because shadows are shifting in the room where the woman is working. Cheeke is visible from the hallway, but he’s not quite as old as he sounded. He’s sitting at a desk, writing in aledger by the light of several lanterns. He’s slender, and doesn’t seem overly tall, with thick gray hair. A pipe sits on the desk beside him, and I catch a whiff of tobacco smoke. He’s facing the door, so there’s no way I’m going to take him unawares. I’m going to have to run at him, and considering his build, he’ll probably put up a fight. Based on the distance, he’ll have time to pull a weapon, if he’s got one.
But none of that is what’s really caught my attention. His clothes are buttoned up nicely, his hair and beard finely trimmed, but a massive cluster of burn scars run from his ear to the back of his head and down the side of his neck. The scarring is profound, disappearing down the collar of his shirt.
