Page 72 of Sky’s Edge

I stomped across the vast space of the king’s bedroom in Berg Castle (to say this castle and the last were two polar opposites of each other would be an understatement) to the closet where I’d been unpacked by staff last night after I’d been deposited in this room, and after Tanyn left me there to go deal with things.

I found my gray cashmere robe and was shrugging it on when I spied Tanyn leaning in the doorframe.

And I was momentarily stunned out of my morning pique at the sight of how mega he looked wearing jeans—these less worn and faded, but they still fit perfectly—and another sweater—this one less thick and rustic, a lot more stylish, and definitely handsome—leaning against the doorframe.

“I’m glad you overpacked now, but your mom brought more of your clothes,” he remarked.

Hecate, deliver me.

I remembered my morning pique and resumed the fight we’d had last night on the jet, walking off the jet, walking into the castle, being shown to this very room.

“I’m going back to Nocturn.”

His eyes started going red. “The fuck you are.”

I tied the sash on my robe and threw out my arms. “We don’t even know who sent that comm!”

He didn’t come out of his lean, as in, he didn’t get out of the way of the door, he just crossed his arms on his chest before he said, “Allow me to educate you on what’s been happening while you were sleeping.”

I crossed my arms on my chest too and added a hip hitch so he wouldn’t miss my anger and frustration.

“No, we do not know who sent that text,” he stated. “But we do know it came from a comm unit in Nocturn.”

“Nocturn,” I cut in. “Not Abyssinia.”

“Nocturn is where you live, darling,” he drawled.

“So what?”

“Assassins can move between realms, Catla.”

“That wasn’t exactly a threat,” I told him something I’d told him a hundred times on the jet, walking off the jet, on our way to this very room. “It was a warning.”

“The warning of a…fucking…threat,” he fired back.

“I have a detail.”

“And so did Laura, when one of them was shot dead on the pavement while protecting her.”

Since this happened, and it had messed Laura (and Aleksei) all the way up, I clamped my mouth shut.

“My father’s body has already been exhumed and is being autopsied. A crew flew out first thing this morning to get Mom.”

I flinched, because I hated that for him, for Zyra and Mangold. I even hated it for that peaceful spot where she rested.

“Preliminary reports are already in,” he continued. “My father was drugged.”

I gawped. “Are you serious?”

“It wasn’t a lethal amount. It was the poison he ingested that they believe killed him.”

“Oh my gods,” I breathed.

“My mother’s body was covered in five inches of snow by the time Manny found her. The circling lynx and a piece of her coat that the wind had exposed was how he found her. In other words, there’d been snow, and there’s always wind, so if there was a struggle, by the time he got to her, any evidence of that was covered by the elements. And as a matter of law, as a royal, even one deposed, she was autopsied by a doctor who was sent by order from this castle, which was under Arnaud’s command at that time.”

He’d said it, and he didn’t even know what he’d said.

She’d gone out on foot, without her Palm.