“They’re searching for you,” Saam whispered. “They think you stole papers from the bank.”
“Because I did.”
Saam sucked in a sharp breath. “You two will be the death of me, I swear. I hope whatever it was is worth it.”
The paper pressing against her stomach had the power to change everything. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know. A suite, but I don’t know whose.”
Zarrah squinted in the faint light coming in the window, then smiled as she caught sight of a Cardiffian headdress sitting on a table. “Lestara’s rooms.”
Pulling out the few pages she needed as proof of Alexandra’s involvement with the infected cattle, Zarrah hid the rest under the mattress of the bed. “One more nail in her coffin when they find this. Let’s go.”
Feet thundered past the door, and when they were gone, Zarrah cracked it open and looked both ways. “Let’s go.”
They left the room, but she immediately walked to the portrait hanging on the wall opposite and tucked the pages she needed behind it. “Saam, when the dust settles, you need to get these south to my father. He’ll know what to do with them.” Behind the next portrait she came to, Zarrah hid the letter that Edward had sent Keris, grateful she’d had the foresight to keep it on her. “All right, let’s get this over with.”
67
Ahnna
“I can’t believe Aren consideredabdicating.” Ahnna paced the room in front of Lara, leaving a trail of rainwater on the polished wood floor. “I can’t believe he was willing to concede.”
“Yes, you can believe it.” Lara looked up from a box of cosmetics she was digging through. “You know full well that Aren would rather fall on his own sword than hurt his people. Giving up power? Giving up a crown? It’s nothing to him if he thinks it is the right path. Fortunately, he’s now been offered an alternative by your soon-to-be husband.”
A path that comes with its own costs,Ahnna thought, James’s resigned expression filling her mind’s eye. He had no desire to rule and even less desire to harm his siblings, but claiming the crown of Harendell was the only sure way to stop Alexandra in her tracks. Andsurewas an enormous stretch, because achieving his birthright would be no easy task.
Lara abandoned the box of cosmetics and approached, gripping Ahnna by the shoulders. “We know what we need to do, Ahnna. For one night, let go of everything that is happening outside this island, because you are about to be married to the man you love.” Her azure eyes narrowed. “You do want to marry him, yes?”
More than life.“Yes.” Ahnna blew a breath out from between her teeth.“But I don’t need a ceremony and a feast or guests, I just need him. Our time is better spent on planning our strategy and bolstering—”
“One night.” Lara’s grip tightened, her expression fierce. “For one night, Ahnna Kertell, you are going to let down your guard and live every second for yourself.”
“I can’t—”
“You can.” Lara’s tone was more command than request. “I will stand watch until morning. I will be your proxy. Not just me, but Aren and everyone else. Let us give you this moment, sister.”
Ahnna’s eyes burned, because it felt selfish to accept.
“All we can be certain of is the moment at hand,” Lara said softly. “The future is unknown, and you do not want to look back with regret for notlivingwhile you had the chance.”
It was a poetic way of saying that tonight might be her only night with James, because after meeting with the commanders tomorrow, he’d be leaving to travel north to Cardiff. With luck, King Ronan would turn on Alexandra and support James in a bid for the crown, but there was just as much chance he’d fall along the way and that they’d never have another night together.
Her eyes pricked with tears. “I should go with him. My place is with him.”
Lara pulled her into a hug, and Ahnna rested her cheek against Lara’s blond hair. “You can’t. You know you can’t, especially since we need you here. If Mara and the others are as close to breaking as is said, then Aren needs you to back him in this plan, Ahnna. You led Ithicana through the last war—they trust you more than anyone alive.”
Between her desire to be at James’s back as he took this enormous risk and her need to protect her family and people, it felt like her heart was being torn in two. A tear slipped down her cheek. “Fuck.”
“I know.” Lara’s arms tightened, always so much stronger than her frame suggested. “I know better than anyone, which is why I want you to have this moment. Trust me to watch your back through it.”
“I trust you.” She felt Lara relax ever so slightly, and it took the edge off Ahnna’s sense of selfishness because she knew her trust meant something to the other woman. “Do you have anything I can wear?”
“I thought you’d never ask. Go have a bath and leave the clothing to me.”
Curious, Ahnna left her queen digging through her closet and went out to the hot spring, the storm easing overhead as evening fell. She badly wished that James were still here, but Aren had hauled him away with very vocal threats about what he’d do ifillicit actstook place before the wedding. In the past, such behavior from Aren would have annoyed her, but this felt different. Not like he was trying to control her but like he was trying to give her tonight, much as Lara was, and it caused emotion to swell in her chest as she stepped into the hot water.
A bath alone was a gift, because other than dangerous swims in the ocean, she’d not had a proper wash since she’d been scrubbed and dressed for Katarina’s entertainment, and she grimaced as traces of the awful white cosmetics came away with the scented soap. She washed her long hair three times to get rid of filth and tangles, mats floating downstream, and it was hard not to wince at how awful she must have looked.
