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A very small part of me was happy to flee—to wake up—because none of this felt real. But I couldn’t deny my growing desperation to stay, either. For Del. For the boy.Liam,I reminded myself.
That was all we said to one another as I discarded the carpet roll and quickly followed her through a corridor that opened to a linen closet.
As we stepped into another hallway, the gravity of all that had transpired in the past two hours didn’t evade my muddled brain, but that Del was leading me to my son overshadowed everything. Each step grew heavier than the last, and when we eventually made it to the closed door, separating me from my son, I almost couldn’t breathe.
My body was humming with too much adrenaline, too much anger and confusion. All I could do was stare at the door.
Del reached for the handle, about to turn it, but hesitated. “No matter what you think,” she said, her voice a strange, quiet salve in the silence. She dropped her arm to her side as her eyes met mine. Sincerity gleamed back at me in the ocher glow of the hall. “It couldn’t have been my mother who attacked you. I’ve been monitoring her mind for years. I would have known. I would have stopped her. And even if she had done it—which she didn’t—it wouldn’t have been because of Liam. She didn’t even know the truth until recently.”
I lifted my chin. “And I suppose you’re going to tell me she isn’t behind the rhetoric being spread about the new prophecy, either. That she doesn’t know what’s going on in her own city and has nothing to do with the troops targeting my peopleagain.”
Del frowned and opened her mouth to speak when I felt a tingle in my mind and raised my hand to stop her.
“Fin?”Callon’s voice sparked to life.“Are you all right? You haven’t checked in.”
“I’m in the castle,”I told him.“There have been a few...complications.”
“But you’re all right?”he asked again, and I rubbed my temple.
“Peachy.”
“Did you find Del?”
“Yes,”I said and stared at the closed door. “But I need a moment.”
“We’re outside the east wall.”
“Fin?” Del asked carefully, her voice closer.
When I looked at her, she was inches away, studying me. “My friends are checking in,” I explained. “They’re waiting outside the walls.”
“Feline?” she said, a lilt of nostalgia lightening her voice.
I gave Del a sad smile. “Human. Beast is gone.”
“Oh.” She wrung her hands. “I’m sorry to hear that.” Del’s dark eyes lingered on me, swimming with uncertainty, and I hated the awkwardness between us. I hated that I felt like I barely knew her.
With a sigh, Del rubbed her hands over her face. “Is that why you’re here? Because you thought my mother was moving against you?”
“I’m here,” I said carefully, “because the prophecy King Eduart is spewing to his people is directly tied to your kingdom—we followed the envoy that was digging near my settlement all the way here. So if your mother isn’t involved, it’s happening right under her nose.” I glanced at the door again, realizing I would never have known the truth of who was on the other side of it if I’d never come. Jaw clenched, I met Del’s gaze. “Someone in Corvo is conspiring with the Sierra Kingdom, and they are coming for my lands.”
Though it felt like the desert lands were ours, the truth was, they belonged to no one. We had no legal claim over them. My people lived there because no one else dared to. It was supposed to be safe. And now even that was being threatened.
“Mother is dead, Fin,” Del said brusquely. “This isn’t her doing.”
That was...unexpected, and yet, I remembered hearing a rumor years ago that the queen was unwell.
“I’m sorry,” I said, surprising myself, and I looked away. Even if the queen was horrible, I couldn’t imagine juggling a dying mother, an abusive husband, and an ailing kingdom was easy.And a child,I reminded myself.
Sighing, I scratched the scruff on my face. “If your mother’s not behind the damn prophecy, then who, Del? Would Alastor contrive something like this?” After seeing what he had done to her, and knowing how ruthless and power hungry his father was, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Alastor had been plotting something behind his wife’s back. And by the look on Del’s face, she wouldn’t have been surprised either.
“It’s possible he was,” she admitted, rubbing her forehead. “But if Alastor has been scheming with his father, and now Alastor isdead, then we’re in even more danger than I thought. Which means, the only thing that matters now is what Alastor’s father will do.” The look of censure in Del’s eyes chafed a little.
I leaned in slightly, acutely aware I probably smelled as bad as I looked from swimming the moat and lugging a dead body across the castle. “I didn’t know it was him until after he was already dying,” I told her. “But even if I had realized who he was, I can’t say I would have reacted much differently. He was choking you.”
Del waved my growing irritation away. “It’s done now, but the fact remains—he was all that stood between my family’s rule and his father taking over the Corvo Kingdom.”
As Del reached for the door again, I gently clasped her wrist. A tingle I hadn’t felt in years shot through me, and we both stared at my fingers on her skin. Clearing my throat, I pulled away.
