“Marry the king,” I said firmly. “Then be with your lover. I doubt Ivenrail will notice.”
Reyla’s breath hissed out of her lungs, and she deflated against the cushions. “You shouldn’t . . .”
“Shouldn’t what?” I said. “I’m not going to lie to her. Would you want to marry him?”
Horror tightening her face, she shook her head.
“We’re in agreement, then.” I straightened in front of Brenna. “I know what it’s like to love someone more than anything, to only want to be with them.”
She gazed up at me. “Surely not the controller.”
“Do you trust me?” I asked rather than answering.
Her shrug shifted the pristine gown across her shoulders. “Did you kill Delaine? That’s what everyone’s saying.”
“What would you say if I told you she attacked me, and that sometimes, a person has to act in self-defense?”
“She could be mean at times,” she said carefully, staring down at her hands clasped on her lap. They trembled and were paler than a corpse freshly drawn from the river. “Delaine wasn’t mean to me, naturally, but I heard what she said to you. I saw how she mistreated Reyla and not just that one time.”
“You saw only a fraction of the real Delaine.”
“I don’t know what to think about this, Tempest,” Brenna said.
“Do you trust me?”
Reyla watched us, saying nothing.
Brenna’s head tilted as she gazed up at me. “Do I have a choice?”
“There are always choices.”
“Not in this,” she said simply. “There has never been a choice in this, only duty, demands, and my need to give into a will stronger than my own. But yes, I trust you, Tempest.”
Leaning close, I whispered by her ear. “You won’t end up with the king.”
She gasped and thrust her frame against the sofa, but before she could speak, someone knocked on the door. The guards opened the panel and High Advisor Adwarin swept in. As the door closed behind him, the hatred in his eyes pinned me in place.
“The king wishes to speak with you,” he said.
“Tell him I’ll see him at the wedding,” Brenna said. “That’s soon enough.” She’d mustered some strength and there would be no stopping her now.
“I meant the collared Nullen.” When his icy glare shot from me to Reyla and back again, I understood what he wasn’t saying. If I didn’t go with him now, my friend would soon be dead.
“I won’t be long, Lady Brenna,” I said in a breezy tone, rounding the sofa and approaching the high advisor.
If only I held a blade in my hand.
His hand snapped out, latching onto my arm, and he flitted.
We landed in the king’s living area, and he dragged me over to the chair, forcing me to sit. Vines snaked around my limbs before I could yelp.
Vexxion,I hissed, sending him the image of the high advisor smiling with glee and the king lounging on the sofa, watching me with an equally snide smile.
My love opened the outer door and strode inside the living area, Drask soaring in behind him. “A party without me?”
“Go away, Controller,” the king bit out. “This doesn’t concern you.”
“But it does. Tempest belongs tome.”
