Councilor Persevault gives him a particularly nasty look as he shoves past.
Eugene swallows and walks into the office. It’s not as dim as when he broke in a few nights ago, but beyond the wall of windows lies only periwinkle twilight and the scattered glimmer of lanterns in the city below.
Enver shuts the door behind him.
“It occurs to me,” Enver says, “that I’ve neglected to speak to you, when you must be in a very difficult position.”
Because you murdered my father and drove my mother into exile?Eugene keeps that to himself. He has one very specific job toaccomplish here, and he can’t squander all the work that put him in this room.
Then Enver surprises him: “A position that, perhaps, only I understand.”
“Your Majesty?” Eugene braces himself on the back of an armchair. If this is Enver’s apology, he’s coming at it from a bizarre angle.
Enver paces over to his desk and casually shuffles some papers. “It’s not easy being a royal consort, is it? Of course you love the girl, but it’s different to love a queen. To know no matter how hard we work, we will always come second—for the country, second to the queen, and for the queen, second to her country. I was a duke, and I still never felt good enough. It must be a thousand times worse for you, coming from an orphanage.”
Eugene would like to deny it.
He would also like to have spent the last six weeksnotconvinced Rapunzel’s parents were waiting for an opportunity to send him packing.
“I don’t know what to say,” he answers truthfully.
Enver sets the papers down—oddly. Almost fanning them out.
As if he’s hiding something beneath them.
“I just want you to know that you belong in Astera as much as I do, and you will always have a place with us.” Astonishingly, Enver strides over and clasps his shoulder. “And despite your parents…here, at least, you can rise to be your queen’s equal. Just like me.”
Unbidden, Hughes’s words echo back to Eugene:They believed better things were possible for all of Astera.
So, too, do Cressien’s:The king and queen saw their potential, not their rank.
His parents dreamed of lifting everyone. And Enver—growing the apple tree, attacking the council and the People’s Dagger, closing the Starlight Spring, keeping Astera on a leash and dangling the hope of Verette’s reign just out of reach—Enver has only ever climbed for himself.
Someone like that could never be satisfied with anything less than the only crown in a kingdom.
That’s not Eugene’s dream. Or his parents’.
And he has it on good authority there’s a new life already waiting for him—as an apprentice spymaster.
Maybe it’s time to apply himself to the job.
Enver has spent this whole conversation trying to get Eugene to identify with him.Just like me. It’s not easy, is it? We will always come second.Maybe he’ll give up more information if Eugene plays along.
Maybe he’ll let Eugene get close enough to the desk to see what’s under the papers.
Eugene butters his face with humility and gratitude. “You really think I could be like you? I mean—I never believed an orphan like me could actually be important. I’m just some guy, you know?”
What he’s really asking isWhy are you suddenly trying to convince me to stay in Astera?
“Nonsense! With hard work and dedication, a lad like youcould go far in a kingdom like this.” Enver straightens up, and then—he winces. One hand strays to his burgundy doublet for a moment before he seemingly shakes it off. “I could see you contributing a great deal, in fact.”
Eugene rubs the back of his neck and wanders over to the windows, really laying on the “simple little guy” act. “I don’t know…I really don’t want to split up with Rapunzel.”
What he’s asking now isAre you after me, or both of us?
He hears the shift in Enver’s voice, the veneer of fake sympathy. “That is certainly a challenge…I’d never want to choose between my homeland and my heart.”
“I don’t know that I can,” Eugene fibs. He shuffles a little further, angling himself so the desk is halfway between him and the office door.
