“Don’t call for your guards.” He flipped his knife and caught the hilt with ease. “I can cross the space between us in a heartbeat and shove this through your throat before you’ve had a chance to blink.”
His words pulsed in her mind.
He could…cross the space between them.
In a heartbeat.
She assessed the floor, the bed between them, the wardrobe he’d have to skirt around. The answer was so crushing, she almost couldn’t voice it.
“You’re Darius,” she managed to say.
“Majesty, I wasn’t aware we were on a first-name basis,” he said, tone mocking.
That was when she noticed something about his eyes; they were so like Morkai’s had been, with that same pale blue color. She tried to find similarities to Ailan, but there were none. His complexion was tan but much paler than Ailan’s. His hair was gray where hers was black. But as her eyes fell upon his ears, she saw their subtly pointed tips. They weren’t as angled as Ailan’s but were more so than Morkai’s. Surely she or the gaoler would have noticed pointed ears on their prisoner…wouldn’t they? His hair had been shaggy enough to cover them, but?—
Another realization formed in her mind.
The only time she’d seen him had been before the Veil had torn.
Any differences in his appearance could be attributed to that. Though his aging hadn’t reversed nearly as drastically as Ailan’s had, it had darkened his hair, straightened his posture, and elongated his ears.
Terror tore through her. Darius…her enemy…was in her castle.
He washere.
Standing before her.
Teryn shifted his stance again, teeth bared in a sneer.
Darius raised his empty palm while sheathing the knife at his waist. When both hands were empty, he said, “I’m not here for violence. I’m here to talk.”
“Then talk,” Teryn said through his teeth.
“Lower your weapon and I will.”
Teryn held still for a long beat, then lowered the poker to his side. He kept it firmly in his grip, however, his posture defensive, still half blocking Cora.
“Right,” Darius said. “Now, I’m sure you have questions?—”
“It was you all along,” Cora said, her mind still reeling. With every breath, more of the pieces were clicking into place. “You were never a spy. You got caught on purpose.”
And the prisoner hadn’t been freed by a traitor. Sure, he could have had an accomplice, but it wouldn’t have been necessary. Because if this was Darius Solaria, King of Syrus, all he’d needed to do was worldwalk out of the cell.
Then worldwalk back with a decoy corpse.
Gods, what a fool she’d been. All this time, she’d thought her best defense against him was to keep him from ever stepping foot in Khero, preventing him from familiarizing himself with key locations and securing places to worldwalk to.
Yet he’d been here all along. He’d waltzed straight into her kingdom and into her castle as if he’d been invited.
He arched a brow. “Was that a question?”
“Why did you do it?”
“I wanted to meet you, and getting captured as a Norunian spy was my best bet.”
Teryn scoffed. “You could have sent a formal request for an audience. Or negotiated a meeting on neutral ground.”
“Yes, but would you have faced me with an open mind? That’s what I came to discover. I wanted to gauge my chances at peaceful relations between us, or see if your preconceived notions were too strong.”
