Jesenia stood at the edge of the steps leading to the assembly, her shawl drawn close against the pale light, the noise of the crowd folding around her like a restless tide. Everyone within the walls of Solmiris was called to the plaza for an announcement by the king. As much as she wanted to hide or sink into the shadows of the crowd, she knew Val-Theris’s eyes would find her.
Despite her presence bringing him grief from his councilors and his people, she joined the refugees in the plaza. The unrest between the citizens and the foreigners simmered hotly between bodies, but graciously both sides kept to themselves.
Banners of crimson and ivory swayed faintly in the dry breeze, the carved marble platform at the top of the steps leading to the upper terraces glowing beneath the harsh sun. Jesenia could feel the judgmental eyes of the council watching her from behind Val-Theris.
He stood on the platform, his wings half-furled behind him, pale feathers catching the sun like fractured glass.
“We are one city,” he said, his voice calm but carrying, washing over the restless crowd below. “Our walls hold us together, our blood runs together, and our survival depends on our unity.”
Murmurs rolled through the plaza, harsh and uneven, the old wounds refusing to close. Jesenia caught a flicker of movement near the western archway, and something cold slid beneath her skin. And then she saw a glint of metal just a few people over, half-hidden beneath a sleeve, sunlight flashing briefly against the edge of steel.
Her breath stopped.
“Val-Theris!” she shouted, knowing that he would hear her, at least enough to heighten his attention to the people around him. Her body followed her voice, lunging in the direction of the figure with the dagger.
The sound of the crowd fractured in an instant, gasps swallowed by chaos as Val-Theris turned sharply, wings flaring wide as the blade clanged harmlessly against polished armor inches from his exposed neck, missing its target only because Jesenia managed to shove her body into the assassin’s just in time.
TheHastatisurged into motion, scattering through the lower tiers, pulling civilians down into cover as screams rippled through the plaza. Somewhere beneath the thunder of boots and the clash of armor, Jesenia felt a hard grip on her arm and stumbled backward—straight into Val-Theris.
His wings folded half around her instinctively, a shield of feathers cutting her off from the sight of the crowd, his voice low but razor-edged near her ear.
“Stay near me.”
She opened her mouth to argue, to say anything, but before she could, another figure broke from the crowd. This one wasn’t aiming for Val-Theris.
They were aiming forher.Jesenia barely saw the second blade before Val-Theris moved.
There was no hesitation as he stepped between her and the strike, his hand closing around the attacker’s wrist with bone-cracking force.
The would-be assassin crumpled to the ground as guards closed in, dragging them backward through the scattering chaos. But Val-Theris didn’t release Jesenia, his grip secure around her forearm.
“It’s alright. You’re safe,” he said softly, almost to himself, though his voice trembled with a quiet fury beneath the words. “I have you.”
She could hear the promise layered beneath command, and before she could respond, the plaza roared again as the crowd surged against theHastati, panic threading like wildfire through their ranks.
When both attackers had been restrained, Val-Theris turned sharply, wings still half-furled around her, his gaze cutting toward the cluster of councilors at the rear steps. Varin stood at their center, calm and untouched, his expression carefully composed. But Val-Theris’s stare burned like a blade driven clean through steel.
Jesenia’s pulse thudded violently beneath her ribs, the truth settling cold and heavy in her chest.
Of course they had something to do with it, even if there was no proof. The attempt had been staged, engineered to rattle his authority.
It had been a message.
Val-Theris stood inches from her, his chest rising and falling in sharp, ragged breaths and his pale hair disheveled. He pulled her to the side, away from the prying eyes of the council and shielded them both with the vastness of his wings.
“You should not have done that,” he said, his voice low, raw, the words more plea than scold. “If he had hurt you?—”
“But he didn’t,” Jesenia interrupted, her voice trembling but firm. “Val-Theris, he was aiming foryou.”
His wings twitched behind him, feathers unsettled, his pale gaze fixed on her with a kind of unblinking intensity.
“You cannot–” he cut himself off, almost raggedly, “throw yourselfbetween me and blades meant for my throat. I can bear my death. But I cannot—” His voice cracked with words he wouldn’t dare say out loud.
I cannot bear yours.
Jesenia’s heart thudded hard, her hand lifting without thought, brushing his jaw where it tightened. His skin was warm beneath her touch, trembling faintly.
“Do you understand what that would have done to me?” he asked softly. Jesenia opened her mouth, but Val-Theris cut across her silence, his voice low, ragged in a way she had never heard from him before: “I have tried to be your sovereign and friend. I have tried to be anything but this. But when that second knife struck?—”
