Alarge candelabra douses the room in a warm glow and the smell of softening beeswax. The springs of the swivel chair squeak as I kick back and forth, tucked amongst a fluffy throw, gaze cast on the drawing spread across Rhordyn’s desk.
I trace the slants of the streets etched on the paper with poised precision. Study each shadowed line.
I can’t bring myself to look at his bed again. That morning was packed full of so much potential. I could feel it prickling my skin, kissing my lips with phantom hope, pouring into my lungs with every breath. I could taste it in the fruit he fed me; in the water he left on the bedside table.
It was in the casual way he’d dressed, like he was paring back one of his many hard layers, giving me a glimpse of a softer side.
He wastrying.
And I …
I was too lost tosee.
Zali drags her spoon along the bottom of her bowl, and I catch another hint of chowder in the air. A chill scurries through my veins, and I tuck deeper into the throw, swallowing, my tongue still stained with the acrid residue of my own regurgitated serving.
“We need a plan,” she says, setting her empty bowl on the floor beneath the window she’s leaning beside, pulling the curtain back to peer out on the gloomy street below. A simple, dark blue tunic and black leather pants cling to her shapely curves, her sodden cloak hanging on a hook beside the door.
“We?” I croak, and she looks at me, dropping the curtain, her eyes sparkling like amber jewels in the flickering candlelight.
“You and me.We.”
I frown. “I … You don’thateme?”
A brow hikes up as she crosses her arms and leans against the wall. “Do youwantme to?”
I stab my stare at the drawing again.
Yes.
Rhordyn was close to getting the ships her people so desperately need, and I killed him. Killed hundreds, maybe thousands of her people with that one faithless strike.
But that tiny, two-letter word sits inside me like a rib notched into its rightful place. Like an antidote I wasn’t aware I needed until this moment.
We …
I need her hate. Deserve it. But I think …
I think I want her friendshipmore.
“You’ve taken out the most formidable man on the continent.” I look up, catching Zali’s blunt stare. “Cainon has the advantage, and his father was always one step ahead. I doubt the apple fell far from the tree. Whatever grand tapestry he’s been weaving before your eyes, you need to assume it’s laced with the threads of his own motivation to gain political traction.”
I think back to the conversation we had in the Unseelie burrow, then flinch away from the poisonous thought.
Was I reallythatnaïve?
Has he been using me as a pawn this entire time, wielding me into his own personal assassin?
Hot, noxious shame flares my cheeks, chasing away the remaining drabs of my caspun-induced chill.
“The Vruk raids are getting worse, and Rhordyn was one of the few actively cutting them down,” Zali continues, making bile blaze up my throat. “Without him, there will be more casualties, more villages wiped out across Ocruth and Rouste. So what’s our plan?”
“We still need the ships …”
“Yes.” She shoves off the wall and begins to pace the room, her black knee-high boots clapping against the floorboards with each restless step. “I take it Rhordyn didn’t work out where they’re docked?”
“Not that I’m aware. Can’t you send a sprite out there to hunt for them?”
“No,” she murmurs, then plants her hands on her hips and tosses her stare at the ceiling. “The winds are too steep.”
