“Looks like a bag.”
What if the squad noticed them? The captain expected Miya to work Lance, not spy on his soldiers with him.
“We should leave,” Miya said.
“You should. What if the captain sees you?”
“You too. Let’s go, Lance.”
He lowered the binoculars, hesitating. “You're right.”
Miya needed to find out what they were doing in the woods and figure out what the captain wanted with Lance. Getting caught watching on the roof with her target sounded like the worst way to accomplish that.
Normally, Miya preferred cautious approaches. Her line of work opened her up to many unexpected dangers, but not knowing may kill her in this situation.
She’d learned her lesson as a girl that no one would give her a thing, even something rightfully hers. Despite being her father’s oldest child, the promise of the throne passed onto her younger brother, because a woman had never ruled Caspador. As the crown prince, he took all the power that would have been Miya’s. The captain wouldn't grant Miya permission to save herself.
They took her power in the palace. They took it at Rafferty & Company. The captain wouldn’t hesitate to take it as well. If she wanted leverage, she had to do the taking. And she'd become incredibly good at that.
Hopefully, if Lance was innocent, this didn't hurt him in the process, but she was done waiting for answers about him.
CHAPTER 17
Kira
The Capital
Kallum, Ciondo
833 P.C. [Post-Collapse]
The Riven estate towered before Kira, ensconced in thick woods that groundskeepers pruned the wild from, manicuring the trees too neatly to look natural. The shadow of the Phaedra's tower fell upon the massive home in a show of protection and promise. It was a perfect depiction of the unfairness of Ciondo. While families in the territories starved, the Riven's front doors rose to twice her height. Carved wooden pillars spiraled from the pebbled landscaping up to the roof that covered a wraparound deck. The estate screamed power.
Cool air nipped her skin, ripping her back to that freezing tank.
A human part of her wanted to run from the prison into the warmth of a real home. When Kira returned from Dr. Cooper's to the prison, she expected to never walk out of that indomitable building alive. This looked like a gift, but Kira didn't know what awaited her in this house.
The Phaedra extended her no kindness. He wanted her here. Like Dr. Cooper's clinic, she entered another trap, one she never anticipated. That sanitized facilityseemed deceptively safe until he locked her in a tank and nearly killed her. Death closed in so fast.
She was about to walk into another tank, just with better decorations.
How had she ended up at the home of the most powerful family in Ciondo? The Phaedras didn't rule by bloodline but by appointment. They were selected. The Rivens stood at the side of every emperor for the last two centuries in a military dynasty that protected the power of the Phaedra. While the emperor possessed far more authority, the Rivens were the first and last line of defense. They were the foundation of the empire.
After the Collapse, chaos crawled up from the ashes of the Old World, and the Phaedras forced order upon their lands with their insurmountable might. The population grew once more. Times of peace even came. Times of hope and change when the people shared some of that power. But the world circled back around to the unyielding hand of power. And the Rivens were there, helping to usher in this era of control almost two hundred years ago.
This house represented the empire as much as the Phaedra's tower. And so did this man standing beside her. Body marked with loyalty and service, Zayne would inherit his father's position and power, and further the bloody legacy of the Riven men.
Kira didn't belong here—not at this house and not beside him.
Zayne didn't think so either. His silence spoke far louder than his gruff words or grunts. Whoever decided to move Kira didn't request Zayne's approval. In the week she'd known him, she learned the coldness of his discontent well.
“Don't forget your rules,” Zayne said.
Or else.
Kira almost spoke that part out loud for him.
Any violations meant returning to the prison. She didn't plan to do anything overt, like plead for help from any visitors who entered the estate. These were loyal people. It worried her how badly she wanted to follow his rules, though. The days of isolation and darkness in the prison, especially after the tank, wore down her spirit. Being trapped there again terrified her. What if Kira slipped into compliance? She needed to stand strong.
