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Calista sighed. “I don’t want to get snatched again either.” She righted the chair, then went to her brother. “That’s what this is about, isn’t it? The North? You don’t want the same thing to happen.”
“Hard as the last journey to the North was, it had purpose,” Stefan said. “This is not the step. There is nothing good that comes from you giving yourself over to that lunatic.”
“Agreed.” Gunnar shocked us all by being the one to speak. A hush settled as the prince stood from his chair. “We’re not giving up Calista. Eryka would not allow it. But neither are we leaving her there.
“We’ve all fought wars. We’ve all lied, tricked, schemed. This bastard might be the flame behind our hate, but he does not know us. He does not know what we become when those we love are in harm’s way. Everyone here fights for people they love. Not because we hate the battle lord.” The prince chuckled darkly. “Dreams of being the one to take his head are merely an added benefit.”
“Well spoke, My Prince,” Ari said. “I think we can all agree, we’re not handing Calista over. But we’re not slapping away an opportunity to get Eryka back.”
“So, what’s the step?” Frey asked from the back of the room, still rubbing sleep from his eyes.
“There are secrets in the stars,” Ari murmured.
“That is a saying many have repeated.” I rubbed my fingers over his knuckles.
“I’ve heard it as well.” He cleared his throat. “We bring battle to the isles. It’s inevitable, and this is our moment to do it. We have three nights to plan and prepare. I suggest we arm everyone with a blade.”
Ari gave me a significant look, one lined in meaning.
This was not only our fight. This was everyone’s. Kings and queens were hidden in the shadows. They were called here for a reason, and whatever the reason, it was coming.
“The first council of three kingdoms,” I whispered, squeezing Ari’s hand.
“Four.” Calista raised her hand. “If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times. We might not be much to look at, but some say Raven Row houses the history of the first kingdom.”
I smirked when she laughed, smacking her brother’s arm like it was a grand jest.
“Interesting thing to consider,” Ari said, a bemused sort of expression on his face when he studied Calista. “Is that true?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. People sort of wander around in the West, talking about how the grandest royals walk on the shores.”
“I don’t know the royals of the West.”
Her smile faded. “All we’ve got is a mad king who hates the sun. Or so I hear. That’s why I saidhistory, as in the past. We’re all just the rotten leftovers.”
Ari folded his arms over his chest. “Odd to live in a place where no one knows much about the governing body, no one even thinks much of them, yet no one has made a rush for power?”
It was strange. Thoughts for the Western royalty were like a flicker of light before the wind snuffed it out. Ari made a good argument—why didn’t the Western Kingdom have skirmishes or tensions or any significant trade we of other lands discussed?
The more I thought on it, the more it was as if the place was a forgotten wasteland we sometimes dealt with. One small slab of rock and ale and game tricks.
Now that I’d spent time in Raven Row, I could attest to it. Still, Ari was practically interrogating Calista.
I nudged his arm. “Why the sudden curiosity in the West?”
He flashed his white smile, but there was something uneasy about the way he held his kiss to my knuckles before he spoke. “Just more rambling thoughts, sweet menace.” He looked down the table. “We agree then. We plan, we bring a bleeding war to the battle lord’s feet?”
“Agreed.” A ripple of murmurs rolled down the table.
“There are secrets in these isles,” Ari said, then faced me as if to drive the next words into my skull with a stare. “Secrets that, no doubt, will help us now.”
Chapter33
The Golden King
“They’re not out therein the ships are they?” I glanced at the sky. Dark and ominous clouds marred the sky. A storm was coming.
“No.” Halvar tossed a satchel with dozens of doses of Niklas’s elixir inside over his shoulder. They’d be warded against Davorin’s twisted magic at last. “I’m told Valen made a new isle.”
