Ethenn blinked, his expression unreadable. “We’re family?”
“Seems that way.”
Brea began to chuckle. “If Ethenn is Evylin’s cousin,” she said, turning to Thom, “that makes himyourcousin too.”
“By marriage,” Thom said, a curious lift to his brow. His grin shifted slyly. “Why, Lainy,” he exclaimed then. “That makes you my cousin too!”
Though Ethenn looked ready to protest, Ilain reached across the kitchen bench and slapped the back of Thom’s head.
“Ow,” Thom protested, rubbing the spot.
“So then,” Isla said, “we’re one big happy family. Look what love can do for a band like ours.”
“Excepting the lovely lieutenant and myself, of course,” Rafferty piped up.
“Nonsense,” Brea said. “You’re the brother they never wanted.”
Lighthearted laughter swept through the room, lifting their road-weary hearts. It’d been too long since they’d laughed together like this. Too much darkness had crept into their lives. The loss of Hewitt and Auden. The weight of saving their nations. The responsibility of recovering the Relics. The fear of fighting Blount.
This laughter, this joy, this reminder of family was what they needed to keep them going.
Evylin took in the room’s occupants with fresh joy. They werefamily. In their own strange way, admittedly, but in the end, they were all bound together. Granted, Ethenn and Ilain’s betrothal seemed broken, but that didn’t make their bonds as a group any less real.
For the first time in a long time, Evylin felt a rich sensation of peace. With these people by her side, she knew she could face any future.
“I see you’re all back,” Lawton said, appearing in the doorway. His serious gaze swept across the room, and they collectively sobered.
Deckard dipped his head in a slight bow. “Just for one night, sir. We apologize for the inconvenient hour.”
“You’re very welcome here,” he said. “Though I would ask that you contain your gaiety. This is an old house, and the noise carries.”
Evylin and Calyn shared a knowing look at the recurrent lecture.
Lawton raised a hand, an unopened letter in his grasp. “This came while you were gone.”
Deckard took the letter with thanks. Lawton departed then, disappearing down the hall.
“You know, Eve,” Rafferty said. “You’re really nothing like your father.”
“They’re more alike than you’d think,” Deckard said absentmindedly as he opened the missive.
Evylin pursed her lips in disapproval but was too distracted by the unsteady emotions drifting off Deckard to correct him. “What is it?” she asked.
A jolt of panic cut through the air just before Deckard met her gaze.
Evylin’s heart dropped, knowing something dreadful had happened. “Jonn?”
“It’s from Carlile,” Deckard said weakly. He scanned the letter again, then announced, “Blount tricked us.”
The troop jolted up from their relaxed postures, alert and tense. At the side of the room, Calyn watched uncertainly, entirely forgotten by the others.
Deckard held Evylin’s gaze as he explained. “He never went to Carrickbrack. It was a diversion. The reports the Alliancereceived were false. Blount completely played us. He let us go after the Relics while he returned to Mouroc.”
Evylin frowned, uncertain what gambit the prince had played.
Deckard’s lips twisted ruefully. “He killed his father. He took the Waulden throne, assumed control of their army, and...” He paused and glanced at the letter as though wishing its words had changed. Then he said, “Rouland Blount II, King of Wauld, has marched on Ephria with the entire force of the Waulden Army and every aterian in the country. They aren’t entirely certain of his expected arrival, but even with a force that large, I’d only expect it to take two weeks at most.”
Evylin’s lips parted in shock. Blount hadn’t bothered retrieving the Relics because he knew they’d do it for him. Instead, he took the power he had, murdered his father, and subverted them in the most unexpected way.
