And in that moment, Roa remembered: Essie’s code.
She’d taught it to Dax when they were children playing gods and monsters.
Pay attention,it meant.
He was trying to warn her.
Her mind flashed back to the day of the Assembly and how afterward, as she spoke with Rebekah, he’d done the same thing: reached for her wrist and tapped the bone twice.
Was he warning her then, too?
“We have no idea the ways in which she’s compromised him,” said a man’s gruff voice. “I have sources saying scrublander rebels are on their way to the city. That she uses that bird of hers to send messages to their leader—her lover.”
Roa’s thoughts spun. The council was meeting abouther.
But why wouldn’t they be? Roa was a threat to the throne.
“She has no love for him. It only makes sense she’ll try to dispose of him—and that will put Firgaard in a very dangerous position. If we don’t act again soon, it might be too late. Ourhomewill be overrun.”
Roa stepped closer, wanting to know who was speaking. Wanting to know who these sources were, so she could warn Theo.
Before she could, Dax’s arm came around her, drawing her away from the danger.
It made her wonder,What is he doing here?
Clearly this was the meeting he’d told her about. But why was he hiding instead of joining them? Why was hespyingon his own council?
If he’s clever enough to spy on his council, he’s far more dangerous than I thought.
She needed to keep her head. She needed to calm her pulse. And yet, it was impossible not to be aware of him. Of his heart beating through his shirt. Of his fingers curled firmly around her hip. Of the warmth of his forearms wrapped around her midriff.
She could feel him becoming aware of her, too. Of her weight, leaning into him. Of her breathing, so traitorously aligned with his own.
Roa went rigid at the thought.
Sensing it, Dax loosened his hold and stepped back.
His boot hit one of the scrolls on the shelves, and its heavy wooden handle fell to the floor with a softthud.
The voices stopped.
Roa turned to face Dax, her gaze a mixture of terror and accusation.
“Did you hear that?”
There came the sound of wood scraping wood as multiple chairs were pushed back at once.
Caught. In less than twenty heartbeats, the king and queen were going to be caught.
Roa’s first instinct was to run. But there was nowhere to go. And if she ran, the council would know she’d heard everything. They would know their lives were forfeit—because the price of treason was death.
The realization would likely make them desperate. If, in their desperation, they tried to dispose of her, right here, it would be easy. Roa was cornered and outnumbered, not to mention undefended.
She thought of her father’s gods and monster’s board. Of what he always told her about getting trapped.
Confuse and disarm.
Roa looked to Dax.
