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“I thought it might come as a relief to you.”
“Is that all I am to you? A willing lackey? A reluctant king?” Flavian leaned a fist on a crenel, his face hard with determination she had never seen, but always suspected was hiding in him.
“No,” she said. “I always knew you had courage and strength of will, if only you would decide you’d had enough of doing what others wished of you.”
“Well, I’ve had enough now.” He gave her an angry smile. “I will not release you from our betrothal. I find it as useful to me at present as you apparently found me useful to you. What is a little manipulation between friends?”
Goddess help her. She had known he could become a politician, a leader, if he would ever step out of his father’s shadow and cut the king’s leash. She had never imagined he would prove her right in the worst possible way.
“How dare you,” she shot back. “I never toyed with your heart. I never came between you and Sabina.”
“No, but you certainly used our betrothal as a stepping stone to your ambitions. Pardon me if I do the same.”
“I have no ambitions now.”
“If finding your sister was not your reason for going to Orthros in the first place, then something else was. It’s clear you have Ambassador Deukalion wrapped around your finger, as surely as you did me. I might feel some sympathy for him, if it weren’t so wrong for him to slaver after you. Even I have never stooped so low as to lust after another man’s betrothed.”
Hespera’s Mercy. Flavian didn’t suspect she was in love with Lio. But he knew Lio wanted her. They were one wrong word away from him discovering the rest of the truth.
“I assure you,” she hastened to say, “Ambassador Deukalion has never behaved immorally with me.”
“Not with a liegehound to fend off unwanted advances, I can see. But until I know what you’re plotting with the Hesperines, I will not let go of such an advantageous card in my hand as our betrothal. I am nothing if not an excellent gambler, Cassia.”
Would she relive this moment during her Gifting, confronted with all the ways her choices had come back to punish her?
She focused on the cold rain, not her boiling blood. Control. She must be the Lady of Ice, as Flavian had always called her. “I will not marry you, Flavian. Whatever you intend for our betrothal, it will not end in a wedding. Sabina would have both our heads, and you know it.”
He made an exasperated sound. “Anthros strike me, this would be so much easier if I didn’t like you.”
She gave him a cold smile. “Yes, I once thought we might have been friends. I see I was wrong.”
In silence, he opened the door for her. She marched past him back into the solar, burning with humiliation.
She had miscalculated. Her plan was a disaster.
Everything was spinning out of control.
She couldn’t look at Lio. Couldn’t bear Mak and Lyros’s concern. She posed herself by her sister like a statue of a lady with a liegehound for a shadow, gathering the shreds of her self-mastery.
Flavian strolled behind the desk. “Your Highness, we rejoice at your safety. We will always welcome you as our beloved former princess. But if you wish to be welcomed as our future queen, you will need to secure the Council’s mandate.”
Her face betrayed no concern. “I am confident the lords will acknowledge the fact that the throne is rightfully mine.”
“I have labored to earn the throne,” Flavian replied. “If the lords deem me worthy, I will take it. If you wish to claim it instead, you will have to earn it as well.”
The air around Solia heated. Although Kella and Hoyefe didn’t reach for their weapons, Cassia saw the tense readiness in them. Tilili switched her tail, and Knight’s hackles rose.
“Lord Flavian,” Solia said, “are you declaring yourself my challenger at the Full Council?”
“No, Your Highness. I have spent weeks gaining support among the lords. You have come here challenging me.”
“This is madness!” Solia barked. “Lives depend on us acting quickly and decisively to crown a new monarch. Having two contenders at the Council will only mire us in lengthy negotiations. It will expose our true purpose and give King Lucis time to act.”
Flavian was undeterred. “Anyone who intends to claim the throne must be able to hold it in the face of those challenges.”
“Tenebra needs clear leadership,” Solia protested, “a single figure to rally around, if we are to ensure a peaceful transfer of power. We must waste no time uniting behind the rightful monarch, if we are to withstand Lucis’s retaliation.”
“Many will hesitate to rally around a woman or unite behind a stranger who has spent half her life in foreign lands. Can you protect your lords from the king who sent you fleeing? Are you strong enough to stand between us and his Cordian allies?”
