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“It’s subject to interpretation,” she went on. “What I see during a probe is mixed with my insights as an enchantress. I have to use my experiences to paint a picture in my mind.” She again gestured at the canvas. “This is what I come up with.”
“Then your visions are guesses at best.”
She scowled at my summary. “If you believed that, you wouldn’t have me employed here. I’m the best enchantress in the kingdom. I haven’t failed you or your father.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her that she was the one who had suggested that Mirielle stay, but I realized what a hypocrite I’d be to speak the words. If not for Endora, I never would have found my mate, and now that Mirielle was here, I didn’t want to let her go.
“She needs to go back to the Locaza Forest, Zen. I’m sure of it. The answers are there.”
“What answers? What are the questions?”
Endora finally stopped rocking, and I exhaled.
“I suppose you’ll find those, too,” she replied.
Her response irritated me.
I stood up. “It’s too much of a risk based on nothing at all. This can wait.”
“I don’t know if that’s true. There is a reason this is all coming to fruition now and didn’t before,” Endora told me as I headed back toward the door. “Something’s brewing.”
Cautiously, I turned and looked at her. “What do you mean?”
She shrugged. “It’s just a sense I got when speaking with the prisoners.”
I paled and advanced on her. “Why? What did they say? Why didn’t you mention this?”
Endora held up a hand. “Woah. Easy there, tiger. There’s nothing to say or tell. Nothing has happened, but like I said, I have experience in these matters. In my bones, I can sense something coming. The Order has always managed to lay low and hide in the shadows, but this storming of the castle without regard for lost lives, this tells me he’s desperate, and that Mirielle is the key.”
It was the same sense I’d had. Coming into the castle was a new risk that I’d never known the Order to take. Before now, their attempts had always been public, like the affair with my father in Cyrus during his speech. Attacking a guarded castle was far too dangerous unless the reward was worthwhile.
“You might be right,” I agreed slowly. “More the reason to keep her out of his sights.”
“It’s more the reason to figure out what the hell he wants from her,” Endora corrected me. “Hiding her and pretending that it’s not happening won’t do anything, Zen. And what is your long game? Do you plan on keeping Mirielle locked away on the royal floor like Cyndella for the rest of her life?”
My blood ran cold at the comparison.
“My plan is to keep my kingdom safe!”
“The best way to do that is to figure out where the threats are and annihilate them, not hide from them.”
My jaw clenched defiantly, but I had to admit that Endora was right—again.
Without responding, I headed out of the enchantress’ suite and toward the royal floor.
For a long moment, I merely stood in the common corridor, deciding. It wasn’t fair for me to make decisions for Mirielle, but when those choices affected the safety of the kingdom…
“Alpha?”
I hadn’t realized that Isa had been in the shadows, outside our wing. The tiny female guard showed herself fully.
“Isa.” I nodded at her.
“Is everything all right?”
That was a good question. I was about to make a decision that might have dire repercussions. But if I refused, the result could be equally bad.
“Yes,” I sighed, heading toward the east wing, past the guard. “Good night, Isa.”
