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Camet left that ballroom, a pair of bubbly nobles clinging to his arms and a stupid grin on his face. I let him have his fun for now.
I’d see him later.
* * *
An hour later,Honor was safe enough in the ballroom, even if I didn't appreciate how the nobles spoke to her. She’d run into some knights and nobles who murmured their loyalty to her, casting furtive glances to make sure they weren’t overheard. But there were others who seemed eager to throw their lots in with Camet.
And Camet... I was pretty sure Camet had determined that this was his moment to seize the throne. He had almost gotten Jaik killed, and I would have killed him for that. But the way he had disrespected Honor... He was lucky he couldn't die more than once.
He was a threat to Jaik and to Caldren and to Honor.
I told myself that was why I slipped out of the room while she was speaking to the nobles, and I made my way to find him.
But the truth was, cold fury simmered in my blood at the way he’d spoken of her.
The door to Jaik’s room was locked again. But I went through the familiar routine of opening it. As a boy, he’d often slept through the time he should’ve woken. The servants had been afraid to wake him, but I hadn’t minded. The memory of him at ten or so, in a deep, exhausted sleep, his dark hair damp with sweat from the monsters he fought at night, rose in my mind as I saw the canopied bed. It had always been a heavy, dark room, too much for a child, but Pend had their mother’s apartments with the boys’ old bedrooms sealed as soon as she’d died.
The room was empty now, the covers sliding off the bed. Camet was whistling in the adjacent bathroom. The girls seemed to be gone, hastily dispatched after they finished pleasing him.
When Camet walked out of the bathroom, he didn’t see me for a moment. He was donning his jacket again when he finally registered me waiting in the shadows, and his face was stricken with horror and fear.
“Hello, Camet,” I said quietly.
His face shifted as he recognized me, arrogance hardening his features once again. “What did you want to ask me for, Damyn?”
Well, he’d misread this situation.
“What do you intend to do with Honor?” I asked.
“Just what I said. I wanted a conference with her, and I knew Jaik would never let her go.” His lips twisted, as if his thoughts amused himself. “He’s following in the steps of the isle’s other rulers. He’s taken a pet.”
Something hardened in my chest. “I see.”
“I recognize you, you know. Lysander’s boy.”
“I was never his boy.”
“You weren’t?” His brows arched in amusement. “You dogged his heels after he rescued you from that arena, didn’t you? What was that like—being five and fighting for the amusement of the crowd?”
“Not that different from fighting for the safety of spoiled nobles.”
He laughed. “Oh, you still have bite. Lysander loved that about you.”
Every time he saidLysanderso familiarly, I wanted to slap him. “What are you really intending to do with Honor?”
He still seemed so pleased with himself as he told me, “He could never resist taking in strays. I suppose his good deeds were repaid in the end, since eventually, Danen found her, took in his brat and hid her from the Royals.” He shook his head. He was speaking so openly, he must know one of us wasn’t leaving this room. I cocked my head curiously, sure he had already called his guards somehow. “It still amazes me he could hide her so well.”
“You were one of the ones hunting her.”
“In service to my new king, of course.”
“You were always on Pend’s side.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I was loyal to Lysander until he proved himself a fool. He and Amily wanted to undo the Scourge magic… but they couldn’t get the others to agree.”
Gods. The realization Lysander had been killed because he tried to undo his wrongs unfurled in my chest. It made perfect sense.
I had to make sure Honor knew. It would mean so much to her to know her father was never a villain… or if he was one, he’d tried to fix everything.
