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“I feel the same about a lot of aspects of your life.”
Ayla smiled ever so softly and learned forward to rest her forehead against mine. “We both have rather shit backstories, don’t we?”
“We do, but if changing a thing meant we wouldn’t have met, then I’d endure it all over again to end up right here with you.”
I loved watching the color cross her pale features, her cheeks rapidly flushing pink. She was far too cute given how powerful she was. “Same here.”
With that, we shared a kiss, and I knew no matter what happened, it couldn’t be that bad if we were together.
We just had to make sure everyone plotting against us failed.
Chapter 8
Kai
“Is he awake?”
My eyes fluttered open when I heard Aodin’s voice. Groaning, I craned my neck to look at the window and figure out what time it was.
I’d slept on and off in the back of the wagon, but when we’d finally arrived at the safehouse, I was still completely exhausted. Ayla had managed to get my wound to stop bleeding, but without the rush of battle, her magic was still misbehaving.
It was convenient that the safehouse was disguised as a hotel, so our group could find a smattering of rooms. Darla and Oren were together while Ayla and I were in another room. Granted, the assignment of who was sleeping where just reminded me of Mad Dog’s absence, and I just hoped he was all right.
“I am,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes. Gods, I felt like I’d been hit by a truck and then a minotaur with an anger management issue. I was achy in a way I hadn’t been in a long time. I’d forgotten how awful it felt to clash with the only real alpha with a hold on me.
Funny how much my father had taught me about being a good alpha by showing me the opposite of what I wanted to be. Every aspect of him was repugnant to me, and I’d rather cut my own hands off than follow in his footsteps.
“Did you need something?” I asked Aodin as Ayla hurried a glass of water over to me.
“I was just hoping to talk. A lot has happened, and I’m afraid I took some risks on this that my superiors back home in Blath won’t exactly be thrilled about.”
“Blath?” I parroted, feeling like my brain was still catching up with the situation.
“That’s the city on the particular island I’m from. The Verdana Isles are plural for a reason. There’s thirty of them in various sizes.”
I thought of the sheer logistical nightmare of attacking such a scattered territory like that on blast. No wonder we’d really never gone to war with them even in the earliest, most bloodthirsty days of our history. Camdaria had a navy, but it wasn’t all that great, and most water-based cryptids had, at best, a lot of contempt for land dwellers and sheer hatred at worst.
Again, I was struck that they’d be quite great allies in the struggle against my father. But just because one of them helped us escape didn’t mean the whole nation was willing to sign on, especially since they were particularly scattered. I needed to make sure to not put the cart before the horse.
“Are they anti-Camdarian?”
Aodin made another of his vague gestures as he crossed to one of two chairs in the room and sat down. I noticed he was still wearing the formal robes that he’d had on at the gala, and while they were significantly dirtier, they showed I couldn’t have been out for all that long.
“Hard to say. I would say my people are incredibly wary of abuse of power and ending up at the wrong end of a shifter’s claws. Both Camdaria and Vekas are run by shifters who don’t seem to hold most other cryptids in that high regard, so my people see them pretty similarly.”
I had my own issues with my family, to the point of knowing I’d need to fight my father to the death to get peace. Still, I felt defensive.
“Look, I know we’re not great, but surely you can’t be saying Vekas is the same as Camdaria. They’re killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians with their invasions. They’ve taken over half the nations on our continent and left a trail of blood behind them.”
Aodin’s expression didn’t change, and he leveled me with a flat look like I was a child that’d said something specifically naïve. “Your Highness, while I appreciate that Camdaria hasn’t participated in violent takeovers of other kingdoms, how many of those conquered nations reached out to them for help? Begged for their armies to come in and back them up so they wouldn’t be massacred?”
His question took me aback. “I… I don’t know.”
“And of those conquered nations ravaged by the Shrouded Shriek and other boogeymen of Vekas, how many of their people were allowed refugee status within the borders of Camdaria?”
“I… don’t know.”
“That is understandable, Your Highness. I understand you’ve been quite occupied defending our borders, and I commend you for being the most effective member of the royal family on that front. But to answer, twelve of the last fifteen conquered nations have sent envoys to your capital begging for aid. Of those twelve, not even one was granted that aid. Two were executed for supposed threats against the crown.”
