Page 344 of Commanding Blood And Bonds

“What?”

“You can find him. That thing you’re suppressing—follow it.”

My eyes dropped to where I clutched at my chest. “I can’t. Not yet.”

“Listen to me.” His voice snapped like a whip. “Cyrus is never late. Never. Not for anything.”

“I kept telling myself he was just distracted.”

Carr flinched. “You don’t fucking deserve him if you believe that. And I know you don’t. So stop lying and let him in.”

“He has to choose.”

“He already did.”

“No. There are things he doesn’t know. I was supposed to tell him tonight.”

The door burst open again.

Calypso.

Shaking. Pale. Eyes glassy. She grabbed Carr like a lifeline.

“They took him,” she sobbed. “They took Cyrus.”

“Who?” he barked, hands on her shoulders.

“Mother and Juno. And I dunno who else. They’re saying he committed high treason. That he’s trying to steal the throne.”

“Bullshit,” Carr snapped as my pulse became a roar in my ears, blood chilling.

“I know. But they say they have evidence. They’re saying he was colluding with—” she looked at me. “They say he wants you on the throne.”

My fault.

This was my fault.

Ciaran.

I’d been so careful. So cautious. No concrete choices. No locked-in vision. Until today. I had been certain today.

“His trial?” I asked, voice barely audible.

“Before my ceremony,” Calypso said. “They’ve had him in interrogation for hours. I tried to see him—they won’t let me down. He’s in the fucking brig, Freya—they’ll kill him.”

My blades were already in hand. I was already moving. Already calculating.

This was what I did. I made the impossible possible.

I repeated it like a prayer to keep from puking. From collapsing.

This is what I do.

“Where are the Guards?”

“Orion is with Mother, but the rest are off duty.”

“And how many Wings are home?”