I strip the last piece of chicken from the bone.
Lochlan made me eat, too.
I’m not watching you kill yourself.
No, it’s more than that. I study him, trying to figure out his angle.
He peers at me from under a fall of hair. “Why are you looking at me like that?” he says.
“I’m trying to figure out why you care if I live or die.”
He shrugs and says nothing.
“I was tied to a mast on the ship. You could’ve killed me and all your problems would’ve been over.”
He spreads his hands, gesturing around the cell. “Really? You think so?”
Well, no. Maybe not. I sigh and turn my attention back to the food.
But then my hands go still. Lochlan once figured out that Prince Corrick and Weston Lark were the same person, and he was savvy enough to find my workshop in the Wilds. He trapped me and Tessa, then led a mob to attack me. And as much as I hate him, Lochlan was also smart enough to lead rebels intothe Royal Sector and imprison the consuls. That took strategy and planning.
He also spoke up for me on the ship, when I worried things were going to unravel with Rian. Things could have gone very poorly, and he saw a chance to help defuse the tension.
I remember sitting around a table in the palace during one of the few meetings between the rebels and the consuls that resulted from the attempt at revolution. Consul Sallister was speaking with nothing but disdain, while Lochlan was sitting there seething. On the ship, Lochlan confronted me about the way Sallister committed far more egregious crimes than Lochlan ever had, but the consul faced no penalties at all—just because he was a man of wealth and power. There was more to it than that, but at its base level, there was truth to it.
Everyone sat at that table and treated Lochlan like an uneducated fool. He was belligerent and angry, but now, looking back, I can’t really blame him.
He wasn’t a fool, though. We were, for underestimating him.
I can’t imagine he wants me for an ally, but maybe he sees no other choice.
“We need to get back to Kandala,” I say quietly. “But if we get out of this cage, I’m going for Tessa first. I’m not going back without her.”
“Me too. Karri would never forgive me if I left her here.”
Oh.He keeps surprising me.
“Rocco as well,” I add.If he survived.But I don’t say that. I hope he survived. I hope Tessa isn’t alone.
Lochlan studies me anyway. “He was badly injured.”
I frown, remembering the stab wound in my guardsman’s waist. “If they die . . .” My voice trails off, and I feel a clenching inmy belly. Rian was responsible for all of this. I think of all his lies, the way he judgedmefor my crimes, while ignoring his own. I think of the way he stood on his ship and told me that the people in Kandala weren’t sick from a fever at all, but that they were being poisoned somehow. Rage surges in my belly, hot and sudden. “I’m going to kill Rian.”
“Good. I’ll help. But go back to the part about us getting out of here.” Lochlan glances at the bars. “Lina said Oren would be back soon, so we don’t know how much time we have.”
“If Oren is coming back,” I say, “it might be our only chance out of this cage. We need to make a plan.”
“Well, we have no weapons, and we’re clearly outnumbered. What else do you have in mind,Weston Lark?”
For an instant, my chest tightens. There’s so much at stake, and panic threatens to overwhelm me. But I think of Harristan and Kandala, of everything that’s gone wrong. Of every promise I’ve ever made to Tessa. Of wanting to do better. Tobebetter. Of everyone and everything I might never see again. Of everyone I’ve failed—including the man in front of me.
I’ve had to play a thousand roles to help my brother hold Kandala together. I can play one more.
I take a breath.Still breathing.
“His daughter, Bella, was on that ship,” I say. “So he’s going to hate Rian as much as we do. We’ll need to think of something to offer him. Something that will grant us a little freedom.”
Lochlan’s eyes light with surprise, and then he smiles a little dangerously, a little ruefully. “I’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”
