Janus sighs, her shoulders sagging. “Because we weren’t ready to tell anyone about the pregnancy. Not after . . .” She swallows.
“What?”
“Not after you poisoned me with the Harborym venom!” Janus yells, her composure finally cracking.
I stumble back a step. “I apologized,” I say weakly, knowing it’s insufficient.
“On national TV, never to me,” Janus says, and I shrink. The hurt in her eyes is genuine. But I never got a chance to apologize to her personally, not with how poorly our first audience went.
“It was a misunderstanding. I didn’t know Don would use it on you.”
Janus’s hands ball into fists. “And I didn’t know if I could trust you. Your uncle lied to us all. You lied to us about your magic. I was protecting my family.”
“I was protecting my people!” I fire back. “Someone is betraying us, telling secrets to Stellan to divide us, and you?—”
“You think that’sme?” Janus scoffs.
“You disappeared during a blackout. What else was I supposed to think?”
Janus laughs with so much disbelief and disgust that, despite myself, I can’t deny it—she’s not the mole.
We stand there, two leaders at a crossroads. But I refuse to back down first. She might not be the enemy I thought she was, but she lied to me. I was right not to trust her.
“Leigh, I’m disappointed in you. You can’t just run around assuming the worst of people and leading secret investigations with your friends.”
“Well, when people stop betraying me, then I will.”
A professional coolness masks the hurt in her eyes.
“It seems we should be worried about whoever just tried to have youabducted,” she says. My throat tightens at the reminder. “Did you see their face?”
“No,” I murmur. Just then, Alden bursts out from the growing crowd the guards keep at bay. He trots over, accompanied by Ravi.
“What happened?” he gasps, trying to pull me into an embrace. I push away from him as cameras flash in the distance.
Washethe one behind my attack? What purpose could the wolves have for kidnapping unless they’re trying to goad us into war? But why do that now if they’re trying to arrange a marriage alliance?
As I try to storm off, Isolde intercepts me. “There was an attack,” she breathes. “In Aurora. It just got called in.”
I straighten. Wilder.“What happened?”
“Stellan got hurt.”
Isolde’s words send a chill down my spine. “Is he?—”
“Wilder saved him, but he shot a man,” she whispers. The ground no longer opens beneath my feet when Isolde adds, “Wilder wouldn’t betray you.”
I nod, wanting desperately to believe her. There has to be an explanation.
As if on cue, phones start pinging in every person’s pocket—a telltale sign of a new article fromThe Tower Tribune. My heart squeezes, and I reach for my phone, but I must have lost it in the attack. Isolde hands me hers.
Scandal Rocks the Monarchy: Fynn Raelyn’s True Parentage Revealed
By Stellan Navis
ATa peaceful rally for my campaign earlier today, I was attacked. An Epsilon tried to silence my quest for justice. But the truth will not be silenced. I come to you from a safe and secure location with a new, inciting story.
In a stunning revelation that threatens the stability of our royal institution, my favorite trusted source has presented information that could redefine the Raelyn family’s lineage. It has been disclosed that Fynn Raelyn—previously believed to be the son of the late Prince Gwyn Raelyn and heir to the throne—is the offspring of Don Raelyn, the former Heir Apparent’s brother.
