I let my head crash into his chest and allowed myself a moment to enjoy being surrounded by his brilliant heat as I fought back my tears.
When I finally gained some semblance of composure, I pulled back and looked up to meet his lilac eyes. “What should we do?”
I caught the surprised smile before he could hide it and cursed myself internally. I was supposed to be maintaining my distance, not hugging him and using words like “we.” I pulled back, and the frown that appeared on his face as a result had me closing my eyes briefly. I couldn’t win.
Calix cleared his throat, stepping back as well and looking briefly at the others in the room, who all pretended to be busy with something other than staring at us. “The Etheralta Mountains sit on the border of our lands. It’s a good, neutral point between us. We have a fort there that the miners use year-round. Write her back if you like, and tell her we can meet there in a week.”
“And if I don’t want to write her back?” I winced, feeling like a coward. But what did one say to the woman—to themother, they didn’t know? The one who’d abandoned them only to introduce themselves via letter and give no explanation.
The sympathy on Calix’s face wasn’t helping. I didn’t want sympathy, I wanted to… I wanted to go shift and blow off some literal steam.
“Then don’t.” Calix shrugged casually. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Really?” I asked, my eyes lighting up. He chuckled warmly, and I was very proud of myself for holding back my response to the sound.
“Really. I’ll let her know when and where to meet us and that you’re looking forward to an actual explanation,” he growled, his eyes narrowing.
A smile twitched on my face.So protective.
Chapter Thirteen
Arien
Frustrated with my father,as always, and now with my mother in a totally new way, with both sets of frustrations centered totally around Asteria, I couldn’t stand to be in the palace any longer.
I quickly made my way to my rooms to change out of my armor. My rooms were one of the few places that had no gold in the palace. After a particularly bad fight with my father as a kid, I demanded that everything gold be covered up or replaced.
I couldn’t say I regretted it. It was a nice break from the constant gold my father insisted be on everything.
“We must show others our superiority. Our blood is that of Earendel himself, king of all gods. The sun runs through our veins.”
I scoffed, remembering my father’s words now. Those very same gods he thanked for his powers now chose a woman, and he’d be all too willing to ignorethat, according to the Oracle.
Though, he also seemed to ignore that Erebus was just as much king of the gods as Earendel was. It must chafe that Calix was equal to him in that way.
Either way, I was glad these rooms weremine. No gold, just a comforting cream and brown color scheme. Old leather and wood making the space feel warm and comforting, as opposed to the ostentatious displays of wealth my father preferred. Even the other buildings in Sunglint District used gold as a nod to the royal family. Sometimes, I just ached to escape to CloudBlur District, where I could lose myself in the human slums. There was definitely no gold to be found there, despite being part of Avalon.
I was changing into my regular courtly attire when a breeze caught my attention. My windows were shut, so I grabbed the knife strapped to my side and turned quickly to the secret door in the corner of my rooms.
My shoulders dropped in relief as Lord Ergun casually strolled in, flicking a coin back and forth between his fingers.
“Sorry for just dropping in,” he joked as he relaxed back into my brown leather sofa and made himself at home.
I rolled my eyes. Ergun had made a good show of following my father dutifully, to everyone except me. He didn’t even want my mother to know the truth. He insisted that he wasn’t going to followher, but that his allegiance would be to thenextqueen, only.
I knew how much my mother would hate that, but we also needed every ally we could get. She’d just have to deal with it and forgive me once my deception came to light. Which would probably be sooner rather than later at this point.
“I’ll ignore it just this once,” I joked back. He dropped in like this every time he was in the city, passing along any information my father didn’t want me knowing or that he’d found out from his own contacts.
His face quickly grew solemn, which roused a sinking feeling in my gut.
“Something is going on.” He shook his head, leaning forward out of his casual sprawl. “Your father has been keeping secrets, even from us. Not even Kem seems to know what’s going on for a change.”
He scoffed at the idea, but it brought me pause. If my father was being paranoid enough to not even tell his closest advisors, something was surely afoot.
“What makes you think he’s keeping secrets, specifically?” I asked as I finished lacing up my top, tilting my head so I could take in any nuances in his expression. I may be a General, not a spymaster, but I’d been raised playing this game.
“He’s allied us with Dusk Kingdom, against Night Kingdom, but he seemed to slip as I was asking him questions after the meeting earlier,” he explained, a skeptical sneer growing more prominent. “Apparently, we’re allied with Prince Cyrus, not King Astraeus.”
