“It is. I’m a hostile person,” she said dismissively. But he waited the way he always did when he wasn’t sure she was clearly thinking through her decisions.
She sighed. “Anyone who finds it hostile isn’t someone I’d ever be able to convince otherwise. I won’t refuse my own nature to appeal to people who will never accept me anyway.”
He gave her a look somewhere between resignation and being impressed. “Then, long live the Mer Queen,” he said. He kissed her ring and started to leave.
“Another thing.” Yemi stopped him. “The move against the Drakes’ malcontents. Did that bear fruit?”
“Thirteen captured, twelve still in holding. The last one shattered his femur jumping out of a window, so he’s in the infirmary.”
“Idiot.”
“All signs point to the Drakes as the root. Dorian specifically, despite that display of his in the throne room. It’s likely he was either buying time or trying to gauge the Bear Queen’s state of mind concerning what you witnessed.”
“So Dahlia is just the face of his movement?” she asked.
“From what we can tell, the daughterishis movement. He intends to see her on the throne, even if he’s the power behind it. No specifics on how yet. Notes are in your office.”
A chill chased down Yemi’s spine. Hermother’soffice.
“Well, they’re certainly not planning to seduce me,” she muttered. It was a good thing the bulk of the conspirators were jailed. Any time in the past week would have been ideal for a strike if they’d had their personnel in order. “We may have already wasted too much time,” she told him. “Collect them for me, will you? The Drakes. I’ll grant them the honor of being my first audience, and that will be the last time I or anyone entertains them.”
Cutter nodded solemnly and lingered as if there were more troubling news on his mind. Yemi waited.
“You should know, My Light, that once this business is concluded, I intend to offer my resignation.” His tone was apologetic, his gaze steady, if glistening.
Yemi swallowed hard. “Oh?” she replied, certain that what she’d meant wasno.
“I have failed your family twice now.”
“Cutter, please,” she started gently.
He exhaled hard through his nose and cast his eyes downward. “This heartbreak… I thought it would make me stronger, more driven. A better protector. It hasn’t.”
Yemi said nothing for a few moments. Of course, she’d suspected how hard losing her parents had been for him. But his words, the promise ofhisloss, too, now cratered in her gut. And she was already feeling hollow.
“Nova is more than capable,” he assured her. “She has the allegiance of your forces and the… stamina the job requires.”
And there it was. There were no more elders. At twenty-five, she was to be the whole of the country’s wisdom now, too.
She gave him a small smile. “You deserve honesty, so I have to tell you I’m disappointed. But I do understand. For what it’s worth, I don’t blame you for any of this. And I hope that you leaving your station doesn’t mean you’ll be leaving my life entirely. We still need you.”
A small, relieved breath escaped him. He’d no doubt expected her to protest, to pull rank and demand he stay. Without another word, he reached down and kissed her ring, bowing deeper than she’d ever seen before, then left her alone in the office.
Yemi sat in her mother’s office, going over the notes Cutter had produced from his interrogations of the prisoners. The desk was large and scratched on the surface where the Bear Queen’s right arm would frequently have rested against it.
Caphree’s testimony was still proving the most useful. He was described asforthcoming. Lucid. Pragmatic.There was little other information on Wall than his enlistment documents.Hostile. Combative.Tenerive wasaloof. Reluctant but flexible.
None was described asremorseful. Just as well. She picked up the phone and rang down to the prison, the receiver still scented like the oils in her mother’s hair. She needed information on what a nonnegotiation might look like. Perhaps Caphree could be redeemed.
She idly traced the scratches on the desk as the phone rang out and no one answered. She hung up and tried again, chewing her tongue. Her parents and grandparents watched her from photos set in gilded frames with what she hoped were expressions of secret annoyance that she couldn’t get anyone to answer.
She hung up with a huff. “If you don’t want royals wandering around in the prisons, pick up the damn phone,” she muttered and decided to go down to retrieve him herself.
She made her way through the palace, past household staff wrapping up tasks for the night. Painters in the west wing worked feverishlyto complete a fresco of the Bear Queen on a wall near the library. Juniper drifted in through open-air porticos and mingled with warm scents of cinnamon and caramel wafting from the kitchen. There was no sign of Orie, who was usually milling about at this hour, collecting end-of-day paperwork, complaints, and schedules that would appear in neat stacks on the queen’s desk by morning. Nova was nowhere to be found, either. Not the best quality in a personal guard, but Cutter was taking her training seriously.
Outside, it was quiet as she descended the tiered gardens. The sun had been down an hour, but there were no Kept watchmen floating blessed lanterns over the grounds the way they did for hours until the moon was high. The palace seemed sleepier tonight, as if they’d all entered the recovery stage of grieving and were desperately in need of rest before being able to move on. It was Yemi who couldn’t turn off her brain. Loss had long ago destroyed her relationship with time, so much so that there was no longer any of it to waste.
She entered the prison at a jog down the stairs, startling the guard posted at the entrance.
