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Lio raised a brow at her. “I thought you said he doesn’t take tokens from his flirts.”
She put a hand to her belly, trying to catch her breath between laughs. “Cup and thorns, what a sentimental idiot. I would recognize that color of thread anywhere. It’s Hadrian blue.”
“The romantic plot thickens,” Hoyefe said. “We find evidence of Sabina, but no Sabina. Where could she be?”
“And what offense did he commit that explains why he’s sleeping alone?” Lio wondered.
“It’s a long list, I suspect,” said Cassia, “and staying betrothed to me is at the top.”
Lio gave a humorless smile. “If Sabina is done with him, I will make good on my threats to break important parts of him.”
“Alas, he still has a younger sister at home who would mourn him,” Cassia replied. “Let’s do some damage to his room instead.”
The four of them made quick work of the chamber, despite the challenge of finding anything in the disarray. Fortunately, Flavian was unlikely to notice if they made a further mess of it. Lio and Cassia were still searching, and Knight still sniffing, when Hoyefe stretched out in Flavian’s chair by the fireplace, holding up a familiar packet of papers. “Is this what you’re looking for?”
Cassia accepted the packet from him and clutched it in her hands. “Thank you, Hoyefe. Lio and I have risked so much for these.”
Lio put a hand on her back, looking down at what had once been a guarantee of her escape from Tenebra, which now entrapped them in a tangle of politics. “Where were they?”
“At the bottom of his chamber pot, in an enchanted box.” Hoyefe twirled his lock picks in the air. “My tools make quick work of the spells. What you’ve all told me about incompetent Tenebran mages is entirely true.”
Lio wanted to break even more parts of Flavian for hiding Cassia’s masterwork in such an undignified location. “I’m glad to see these restored to the brilliant politician who dictated them to me. I look forward to watching Flavian flounder without them.”
“He has gotten his use out of them, I suspect.” Regrets swirled in Cassia’s aura.
“Not at all.” Lio looked down his nose in disdain. “He kept them instead of burning them. As if he couldn’t even follow through on the overthrow without referring back to your instruction manual.”
“There’s another reason he might have kept them.” Hoyefe’s drawl held a note of warning. “They’re written in a Hesperine ambassador’s hand.”
Goddess. Now who was the fool? When Cassia had dictated these to Lio, he had never considered Flavian might use them to cast blame upon Hesperines.
“This is my fault,” Cassia said. “You trusted my judgment about Flavian. But I promise you, you can trust me to undo what I’ve wrought.”
Lio shook his head. “This is equally my responsibility. I was so eager to foist the kingdom off on him so you could stay with me that I didn’t think through the implications.”
“I found something else in the chamber pot,” Hoyefe said.
“Do we want to know what it is?” Cassia asked.
“Besides this?” Hoyefe dangled Flavian’s amulet of Hedon from his fingers, studying the god of pleasure’s aggressively phallic glyph. “If this is what Tenebrans consider godlike, they will be easier to impress than I thought.”
Apparently Lio was pettier than he realized when it came to Flavian, because he snickered just as hard as Hoyefe did.
Cassia’s smile was wicked. “Well, I can say that a Hesperine has already impressed Flavian’s betrothed.”
Lio didn’t usually allow his bloodborn proportions to inflate his pride, but at the moment, he returned Cassia’s smile with a fanged one of his own. “If I steal his betrothed, Hoyefe, will you work on dethroning him in the eyes of the rest of the ladies of Tenebra?”
“Challenge accepted. But I’m afraid I found something more concerning than the disappointing proportions of Tenebran manhood.” From the bottom of the box, he withdrew more documents. On the small slips of parchment, a series of letters were written in a tiny, nondescript hand.
Lio frowned. “Is that a cipher?”
Hoyefe nodded. “Someone has been gathering information on the happenings here at Patria and trying to sneak it out of the perimeter. It appears Flavian intercepted these.”
“You’re certain he isn’t smuggling information out himself?” Lio asked.
Hoyefe shook his head. “This information could be very damaging to his attempt to take the throne.”
“You’ve already decoded them?” Cassia asked.
