She nodded, drew a deep breath, and stepped into the study. The door closed with a heavy thud, and Ahnna’s eyes skipped around the familiar room. Past the roaring fireplace and expensive artwork. Past the large cart full of bottles of all shapes and colors. Past the velvet curtains that covered the window from view. Finally landing on William, who sat on a sofa with a blue drink in one hand and his sword in the other. A half-consumed glass of wine sat on the table across from him; everyone in the Sky Palace seemed to be in their cups tonight.
“Drop your weapons on the floor or I call back the guards.” William’s voice was wary, his fingers flexing on the hilt of his sword. He wasn’t the swordsman his brother was, but Ahnna knew he was more than capable of using the weapon. He’d proven that today with Katarina.
Unsheathing her various knives, Ahnna left them in a pile next to the door and slowly approached.
“Who did you murder to get that uniform?” he asked, looking her up and down. “I’ll add them to your tally.”
“I took it off a corpse on Midwatch.” She took him in, wondering if he was aware that his wife was giving birth to his child as they spoke. William appeared exhausted and unwell, his normally clean-shavenface rough with stubble and his green eyes bloodshot. The facial hair made his delicate beauty more masculine, and she saw echoes of James in his features. It made her heart ache, but she couldn’t succumb to her fears for her husband right now. “An Amaridian killed him in the fight to take Katarina. We watched it all.”
“Ronan indicated that Katarina’s poison wasn’t as effective as she’d thought.” His fingers flexed on the hilt of his sword. “Is Aren alive?”
“Hundreds of people died choking on their own blood. Perhaps more.” Her mind’s eye filled with memory of the bridge. The bodies with their unseeing eyes. The sharp stink of vomit mixed with the copper tang of blood. “They were hungry, and everyone who had the chance to eat, ate. Not one of them deserved to die—they were just an obstacle that stood in the way of Katarina’s greed. Alexandra’s greed.Yourgreed.”
“I didn’t know.” He let go of his sword to scrub his fingers through his hair. “I wouldn’t have agreed to that. Poison is a woman’s weapon.”
“Oh, fuck you, William!” Her disgust got the better of her. “This was the weapon of someone with no regard for human life. An expedient choice that ensured nearly certain success with no cost in gold or soldiers’ lives. You sit there trying to wash your hands of culpability, but the truth is that you were content to allow Alexandra to rule and scheme and murder in your name while you drank, whored, and threw away money at the horse races. You are king of Harendell, which means you are responsible for all that your kingdom does.”
“It’s not my fault everyone lies to me!” He downed his drink, then slammed the cup on the table. “I don’t even know what the truth is anymore, Ahnna, because everyone twists it to their own ends. Giving pieces and holding back others, and how am I supposed to know what the reality of circumstances truly is?”
“Because it’s yourduty.It is your birthright.”
“But it isn’t, is it?” He gripped both sides of his head. “It’s James’s birthright, wherever he is. If he’s even alive.”
He’s alive,her heart screamed.He has to be.To William, she said, “A birthright he had no interest in claiming.”
“Well, others seemed damned intent on claiming it for him!”
“Have you asked yourself why that is?” Ahnna couldn’t keep the frustration from her voice, every part of her wanting to grab hold of his shoulders to shake sense into him. “Have you stopped to consider that it has nothing to do with legitimacy or birthright and everything to do with you being a puppet controlled by Alexandra?”
His face flushed dark. “She doesn’t control me—she supports me! And she’s the only one who ever has!”
“Really? Tell me, William, what part of this strategy was yours? By your own admission, you were kept in the dark and lied to, so what part of it do you claim? The deception? The murders? The attempted genocide? Or do you just claim the results, which is a fancy bridge to put in your toy box and wealth to fund revels for all your friends?”
“She did the dark things so I didn’t have to! She was only protecting me!” He was shaking, looking nearly ready to burst into tears. “If I’d known—”
“You know now. What are you going to do about it?”
William stared at his empty glass but didn’t answer. For all he acted foolish, he was not a stupid man. His weakness was not intellect but spirit, and that made this not a war of logic but of emotion. Under the guise of protecting him, Alexandra had made it so that Williamneededher. Had made it so that he could not begin to comprehend life without her, and that was what everyone was asking him to do.
Watching him tremble and shake, then reach for more liquor to steady himself, Ahnna knew that William would rather cut off his own arm than cut the apron strings linking him to Alexandra. That he would do everything and anything to keep her at his side, which meant that was what Ahnna needed to offer him.
“You’re in a tight spot, William,” she said, taking a seat across from him. “Half the nobility was in that throne room today, and while you can keep them all locked up in the Sky Palace tonight, you can’t keep them all locked up forever. Word of what happened will spread, and people are going to believe the accusations because the way yousilenced Katarina makes you look so very guilty. They don’t care about Siobhan or Cormac or all of my dead people, but they do care about Good. King. Eddie.”
William lifted his head.
“Your people might have accepted regicide if you’d done it with that sword, like a man, but your mummy had him murdered in his sleep. It’s not very kingly, William. They might not risk their lives to pull the crown from your head, but they will never respect you.”
As the words left her lips, Ahnna noticed that the rim of the half-full wineglass was marred with pink lip stain. Her hackles rose with the sudden sense she was being watched. “You can come out, Alexandra. I know you are listening.”
“She’s not—”
William cut off as a bookcase against one wall swung open on silent hinges, revealing a narrow hiding space. Alexandra stepped out.
It was the first time Ahnna had seen her since her flight from the Sky Palace, and she was struck by the toll that injury and strain had taken on Alexandra. The cut in her cheek had healed poorly, the skin puckering as the muscles in her face moved, all the more pronounced given how gaunt she’d become. Like a skeleton with skin stretched over it, though her green eyes were as sharp as ever.
“Ahnna.”
“Alexandra.”
