“After your tidings arrived, we set out with them,” Briar conveyed, swiping dust off her mantle. “Unaware of what we’d find by the time we reached this forest, I ordered one hawk unit as backup for us, the other as aerial surveillance of the camp.”
That made sense. Our missive had included the camp’s new location.
The princess and jester supplied the rest. Not wishing to publicize the traitor camp and instigate a civil uproar, they’d departed in secret with a legion of trusted avians instead of risking broader military forces. The latter had been essential, given they still didn’t know the identity of Rhys’s supposed spy or if any of the troops at court might be involved.
Aspen had conveyed to me that Rhys harbored an unknown secondary informant. In that regard, the clan’s rationale still held weight.
To remain inconspicuous among the court, Queen Avalea remained behind, along with Eliot and Briar’s ladies. As we spoke, they awaited a missive confirming the knight camp and the clan’s next move. Once given the signal, they would join everyone here.
Before they faded, I’d done a recount of the fallen. As I surmised from the onset, no more than half of the traitorous warriors were accounted for. Again, fewer participants could be the result of death and a host of sustained injuries from the camp explosion.
Nonetheless, that logic didn’t sit right with me.
Lifting my arm in summons, one of the hawks swooped down. Angling its body at a steep degree, the avian circuited around me before launching skyward again.
My palm traced the draft left behind. What I felt chilled my blood.
“Rhys,” I stated, his name slithering through the enclave like a deadly omen. “He dispatched this troop, retaining half in case the attack failed. The rest have fled with him, possibly to Summer.”
Briar reasoned, “If Summer was here, then he must have discovered you taking up residence in the enclave.”
I nodded. “He did.”
“But…” Her freckles shifted in deliberation. “But invading at the same moment we arrived is too much of a coincidence.”
Aspen swallowed. “It wasn’t a coincidence.”
No, it wasn’t. Yes, cornering Aspen after the explosion verified Rhys was monitoring us from then on. So although there had been no sign of him during our follow-up quests to the camp, the king could have established an alternate outpostfor himself, then seen us dispatch a messenger avian to the castle. Thus, he would have made the vital connection, suspected Aspen’s double-agent motives, and waited for the moment to strike.
“Rhys must have stationed members of his cult to scout the forest until we appeared.” The princess’s chin crinkled. “He knew we’d come.”
“Moreover, he knew we would show up without an entourage,” Poet hissed. “But in the first place, how the fuck did he trace the clues back to this enclave? Why the devil would that pissant even think to check here? Much less dare to step past the treehouse border?”
Shrewdly put. Rhys was as superstitious as many others in The Dark Seasons. But he was also reckless when the payoff was worth the effort.
Of all people, the female to my right knew this intimately. A tremor shook Aspen’s wrist, spurring me to bind our hands firmer together.
Half of me longed to heave the woman over one shoulder and race her out of here. The other half would stand by Aspen, regardless of the consequences. Her treason had become my treason. I would never abandon her or regret my choice.
For a terrifying moment, Aspen’s head swiveled to mine. Her sad grin sundered me to pieces, breaking past the boundaries of my heart.
Our grim silence did not go unchecked. Briar’s frown deepened as she scanned Nicu’s wary features, then transferred her attention to us. Skilled in the art of deception, Poet’s dark gaze cut a perceptive line from one person to the next.
“Someone had better speak the fuck up,” he requested in a fatally calm timbre.
On instinct, I moved to block Aspen. But she sidestepped the attempt, held fast to my hand, and erected her chin like a convict on the executioner’s block.
Then she dropped the truth like a firebomb. “I’m a spy.”
52
Aspen
Silence followed my confession, the words echoing through the treehouses. My pulse jackhammered as every thunderstruck gaze swung my way. Only then did they register my absent cloak, the motifs spiraling up my arms, neck, and face. In all our years together, I’d never exposed my markings to this extent.
On the heels of that, Briar squinted. As I grew up, I’d spun fewer casual bullshit tales than in my youth, reserving that tactic only to protect the people I cared about. So rightly enough, she refused to accept that I would lower myself to such an elaborately inappropriate lie. Much less, at a time like this.
Visibly, Briar’s rational mind sought a loophole, a reason why I’d resort to a falsehood. Anything other than the truth.
