“He’d be pleased to know that.”
Harthon was being uncharacteristically chatty. It was as if some of the heavy focus he’d carried for the past two days had lifted. Perhaps it was because we were so close to his home.
His lips lowered to my ear. “He’s more bark than bite.”
I scoffed as he pulled back. “Right. And spirits exist.”
“They very well may,” he countered.
My eyebrows shot up. “You don’t strike me as someone who believes in fables.”
“Perhaps they aren’t fables.”
“That’sexactlywhat someone who believes in fables would say.”
“I believe that if unexplainable things akin to magic exist in this world, then spirits can too.”
I immediately thought of my eyes and the woman from the woods. “Are you referring to the Domus or my eyes?” I asked.
He paused for a moment. “Both. They’reconnected.”
I went silent, processing what he’d just revealed.
My eyes, linked to the Domus. If he was right, it confirmed my suspicions. But I needed details. I needed to know thehow, thewhy, thewhatbecause knowing of a simple connection gave me no answers.
“You do have more details to share, don’t you? It can’t just be that,” I asked, needing to know that those answerswouldcome.
“There are many more details,” he confirmed.
“When we get inside those walls, right?”
“Yes.”
I eyed the black shadow that marked the city in the distance. “Will you tell me right when we arrive?” I needed to understand why I wassoimportant that two Princepes would invade each other’s Territories—commit acts of war—to capture me. More importantly, I needed to know how far they would go to chase me when I eventually ran. Would they invade Second? Force their way into my home?
“There are a few things I need to handle when we arrive. Our defenses and strategy are more important than anything, given Koerlyn’s little show of aggression.”
I never would have thought that twenty-five violent soldiers chasing us down counted as alittle show, if not for how easily Harthon’s men cut them down.
“I’ll explain everything as soon as I’m able, but it can’t be my first priority.” He said it not as an apology but as a statement of fact.
The response frustrated me, even as it made sense. Being taken by Koerlyn was technically worse than enduring another day of confusion. But that depended on what my days at Harthon’s home were going to look like. I was a captive, and captives usually resided in dank, dusty dungeons, eating fly-infested scraps from the floor.
Yet something told me that wouldn’t be my experience with Harthon.
In Carmen, I’d slept in luxury and received clean clothing that was better than any of my own. He’d welcomed my questions and answered patiently, even though North would have preferred to trample me beneath his horse. He’d left my hands free and tended to my wrists with surprising care. He’d warned me not to disrespect him in front of his men, yet did nothing when I spoke in frustration. For him to do all that and treat me as one normally would treat a prisoner would…well, it just wouldn’t make sense.
Yet, he was still the ruthless Princeps of Four. The one who’d killed his way into power and held me away from home. Small kindnesses had a way of blinding us to lurking threats. It was something I needed to remember.
“What is it like there?” I asked a while later as we crested yet another hill.
His hand had yet to move from my waist, but its presence was an oddly reassuring weight as the horse rolled. He wouldn’t let me fall. While Harthon was largely a mystery, the one thing I certainly knew was that he valued my survival.
“At the Citadel?”
“The city center, the Citadel, where you live, all of it.” Having never left our village for a city, Fourth’s city center was a realm of unknown. We’d stopped at Carmen, but it was miniature compared to the steadily growing shadow in the distance.
“It’s loud and chaotic most of the time, but the noise and chaos only mean it’s alive. Given today’s world,aliveis good. The city houses a fair amount of people, and while half of them simply live, the rest work toward building a culture. In the years that I’ve been here, I unfortunately haven’t been able to spend as much time in the city as I’d like.”
