The Woodland queen hummed, drawing the attention of the room. She shook her head and said, “Or they’re growing desperate. Perhaps it isn’t boldness that’s making their moves now, but a need for this to end.”
Others echoed their agreement. Queen Embry stood, switching places with the soldier to stand at the front. Evelina’s eyes wandered to where the soldier took his seat beside Keir. His back was to her, and his dark hair was long and unkempt.
“Evelina.” Her mother’s voice cut through the room. “Do you agree with your siblings?”
Evelina’s face heated as every head in the packed roomswiveled toward her. It heated further when the soldier slowly spun around with an unreadable face. He was looking at heragain.She shifted in her seat, flustered beneath the heat of his gaze.
There was something familiar about him.
“Agree?” She knew better than to blindly agree without knowing what it was she was agreeing to.
“That we need to focus on restoring the faith of the crown,” the Rider offered, his voice somehow smooth and rough at the same time.
Evelina shot him a look, not quite a smile, for saving her the embarrassment of admitting she hadn’t been listening. Only his face was smug, annoyingly amused.
“May I?” he asked. Queen Embry nodded, giving him the floor again. “We’ve yet to discover new information on the rebels.” His voice rang through the room. “And we can’t win against an opponent that we don’t know. The realm knows that—otherwise, we would’ve put a stop to this years ago.”
He paused and took his time to meet the gazes of everyone in the room. His face was calm, his voice even and strong. “I’ve seen the defeat that weighs on everyone’s shoulders.” He paused again. “On the villagers that are relocated after an attack, on the soldiers that haven’t had a reprieve since the war started.”
Evelina could agree with that. The refugees she visited seemed to have long given up the spark of fight within them.
Carwyn stood, her angular, foxlike face stoic as her icy blue eyes flicked around the room, confident in every muscle she moved. Ren stood with her, the only other Manor sibling who had a chance at the throne. But Carwyn was eldest, and the only sibling to have two affinities, making her the obvious front-runner as the next fae ruler.
Carwyn cleared her throat and turned to Keir. “The progress to fully squash this rebellion has stalled for quite some time.”
Keir nodded, every bit an Aegis. His skin was riddled withscars and burns. He had been a council head longer than any of the others, his experience invaluable.
“Progress has been slow in making any significant gains,” he said in a gravelly voice.
Silence fell over the room, a reminder of what had been lost.
Carwyn broke the tension. “We need a secret weapon, something that the rebels won’t see coming. We need an edge.”
Keir leaned forward and braced his elbows on his knees, a jagged scar along his neck stretching as he tilted his head. “And what is this secret weapon?”
“We’ll know it when we find it,” said Carwyn firmly. “Eurydice will make sure of it.”
Keir burst into laughter, joined by other council members.
“What you’re saying is, we should find a secret weapon, but you don’t know what that weapon is?” Keir’s eyes danced with amusement.
Carwyn raised her chin, refusing to be belittled by the Aegis leader. She was the most brilliant fae that Evelina knew, her strength matching her cleverness. It was the thing that set her apart from the rest of Evelina’s siblings. Ren was nearly as strong, but Carwyn was far more calculated. It was the only reason Keir still allowed her to speak.
“The Goddess of the Moon always provides,” she said without hesitation. “We need only to be steadfast in our faith.”
Evelina had always admired Carwyn’s confidence in Eurydice. When everyone seemed to doubt the goddess who watched over them, Carwyn was firm in her belief that they had not been abandoned. But Evelina had seen a lot of lives lost and too many people uprooted from their homes, forced to relocate to overcrowded refugee camps. It was hard for her to stay as confident as Carwyn more days than she could count.
Keir cleared his throat, bringing the attention of the room to him. “The losses were heavy during the attack on the edge of Drogheda. They killed our flight’s healer as he was tending to the injured.”
The other Rider nodded his head, a deep frown tilting his mouth down. “We’ll need a new one quickly. Especially if the rebels keep pushing further past the border.”
“Healers shouldn’t be a target on the battlefield,” Maliena hissed. Neve placed an arm around her, grunting in agreement with his wife.
Senna shifted his weight and said, “Perhaps we should instead station the healers at the camps. We’re too overwhelmed on the battlefield now to protect them, and we can’t afford to lose any more.”
The queen turned, her gaze landing on Evelina. “Two of the best healers in the realm reside in the palace,” she said slowly. Heads turned, following the path of her gaze. “Gloriana and Evelina have been working with refugees for years.”
Queen Embry paused, pulling her gaze away from Evelina, redirecting it firmly toward Keir. “They will accompany the Alpha Fleet as their healers on the border.”
