“Offer to trade me for Scotlind.”
“The King will never agree,” Rainer deadpanned in between a bite of eggs. He was sitting next to the Fire Prince and was the only one who hadn’t stopped eating throughout the entire encounter. Peter glanced at his plate, eyeing his bread, but I elbowed him hard in the ribs before he made a dive for it. He was pissed at me that I made him spar longer than usual this morning, and by the time we got here, all the croissants were gone.
Wells turned toward Tezya, who’d been staring at him in a stilled silence he seemed to have adopted. “Don’t trade with the King. Make it with Arcane.” His voice faltered slightly as he said the eldest prince’s name, but he kept going, “He’ll agree. You know he’ll agree.”
“And then what?” Savannah snapped. “What do you think will happen to you when Arcane’s father realizes he’s been hiding a human in his bedroom?”
“We won’t actually go through with the trade. Set the terms and meet him onourground. It’s the only way we can get Scotlind out of the castle long enough for us to rescue her.”
“Are you sure you want to do this, Wells?” Dovelyn asked. “He won’t come alone.”
“And neither will we.” Wells nodded, a little breathless. “Set up an ambush. If it’s on our terms, we’ll have the advantage.”
“That might work,” Kallon said softly. The girl’s hair was half black, half aqua today. She’d been sitting at the table with Tezya, but Rainer was in between them as a buffer and neither of them had spoken to one another as far as I knew. Savannah looked at her friend in earnest, probably pissed she didn’t side with her and wasn’t automatically shutting down the idea.
“Why would you risk your life for her?” I asked Wells because as far as I knew he never even met Scotlind.
“Arcane is an asset to the King. You said yourself that he created a vapor out of Alluse. If we do this, if we can get Scotlind back and capture Arcane in the process, it might give you the edge you need in this war. If they both stay in Lux, we’ll never have the chance,” the boy said as he fidgeted with his thick-framed glasses. He then proceeded to take them off and wipe them across his shirt even though there wasn’t a smudge on them. “I’d been thinking about it more and more since you came back. The idea for a trade came to me this morning.”
“And what makes you so confident the prince will agree to it?”
“He will,” Dovelyn answered me. “Arcane has been desperate to talk to Wells ever since their… fight.” I turned to stare at the mortal. He seemed shocked by what the princess was saying, but he did a good job masking it. “My brother cares very little about a lot of things, but the few things he does decide to give his attention to, he becomes obsessive. If Wells offers a trade, my brother will agree.”
“So we kidnap Arcane, and then he can’t make anymore Alluse vapors or serums,” Kallon said more to herself as she set her amber-filled drink back onto the table.
“Exactly,” Wells grinned, pushing his glasses back up his nose. “They’ll eventually run out of the stock they have. I’ve been in Arcane’s lab before, there’s not a single Luxian who works for him that’s capable of what he can do. He’s unmatched, irreplaceable… If we can convince him to be on our side…”
“My brother isn’t going to automatically join our side,” Dovelyn interrupted. “He’ll agree to the trade, but he won’t change his beliefs.”
“We’d have to keep him locked up, Wells,” Sav said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Are you prepared for that?”
He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. “It’s worth a shot. I can’t think of any other way to get Scotlind back.”
“Dravenburg won’t approve it,” Rainer said as he started biting into his croissant, and Peter visibly tensed next to me. “The vote will probably fail.”
“Then don’t vote,” Dove cut him off, surprising everyone, me included.
I looked around the crowded tent, raising an eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure someone here will tell Dravenburg before we even walk out of the tent.”
Everyone was staring in our direction.
The princess smirked. “I’m an air user, Dark Prince. I put a shield over us the moment you and Wells approached.”
“So my dad doesn’t need to know a thing until it’s too late.” Wells grinned.
Everyone turned toward Tezya as if he had the final say. I was surprised he’d been quiet this long. He stood. “I’d agree to any plan that gets me out of this camp.” He threw his fork down on the table, leaving his food untouched. We watched as he stormed out of the tent without another word.
“So does that mean he’s in?” Peter asked, swiping the roll from his plate.
Dovelyn nodded. “Yeah. He’s going to contact Arcane.”
THIRTY-THREE
SCOTLIND
I wantedto vomit as I forced myself to take another bite. They stopped having soldiers hand feed me after I sank my teeth into them one too many times. Now my hands were chained in front of me—for the duration of my meals only—with only enough slack to allow me to bring my fingers to my lips.
Vallie was chained to the floor from across me, starving, while I was ordered to lick my plate clean after every meal. They’d give her just enough scraps to stay alive, only feeding her every couple of days.
