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I almost deflated with disappointment. It didn’t sound like it had anything to do with me.
Graham let out a long exhale, changing the subject. “Why did no one tell me about an arsenal?”
“It’s Cambria’s greatest secret,” I said. “It flies in the face of everything this kingdom claims to be built upon.”
“But I’ll have access to it if I become king,” said Graham. “As my father did.”
“True,” I agreed.
He looked down at his hands, his mouth tight. “You continue to evade my questions about Pearce. What did you do to him?”
“I gave him atinysip of poisoned brandy.” I clenched my teeth as I awaited his disapproval. “That’s it. Only enough to temporarily numb him, but I’m certain he’ll be fine.”
Graham lowered his head, looking at me in disbelief. “You’re certain, are you? You poisoned the man!”
“Look,” I said, “on the slim chance he doesn’t survive, I’ll go straight to the Academy and turn myself in. I’mthatcertain.”
In truth, I knew I wouldn’t follow through if it came to that. Killing a noble would nullify any immunity I claimed as an Immovable. I would be executed for sure.
“Where did you get the poison?” asked Graham, his voice taking on a harder edge. “Ruskin wasn’t involved, was he?”
“No,” I lied before going quiet.
With the Immovable Homes dotting the circular city like numbers on a clock, but with the massive city gates in the twelfth position instead of a House, Cael’s home wasn’t far from the First House. As we approached it, the driver took us not only to the open gates but right through without stopping.
Unlike other Immovable homes, the Ruskins had enlarged their path to be wide enough for a carriage. I’d been to Cael’s home before, but not since I was a child, when his father and mine had first become friends. It had been decorated entirely differently from my home, even when my mother had been alive to make ours beautiful. All noble homes had a degree of opulence to them, but the Ruskins took lavishness to a new level. They weren’t content with the wood and neutrals found in most homes. Everything in theirs was unnaturally bright and flowery, an explosion of pastels.
Insecure with their place as the final home in the line of inheritance, they’d always had a way of reaching to make up for it, to be seen as the noblest of the nobles. While Cael pretended to be less concerned with fashion, even claiming it was beneath him, he still maintained an impeccable public appearance, both in grooming and in speech. His family’s inferiority complex manifested differently in him than it did his parents and sisters, but considering his desperation to be First Immortal at any cost, it manifested nonetheless.
The carriage stopped and I moved to get out before Graham stopped me.
“No,” he said. “We have to wait for Ruskin.”
“Why are you working with him?“ I asked. “It’s not like you.”
“Like I said,” Graham muttered, “you don’t know me.”
“Graham,” I said, my voice carrying a hint of pleading. “He’s blackmailing you, isn’t he? Is it about Ewan?”
He started at the sound of his brother’s name, his eyes flitting to mine, then back out the window.
“Back on the islands,” said Graham quietly, “I felt as if I had a place, as if I fit into the community as an equal. I didn’t want to leave, but now that I’m back, I’m seeing the city with new eyes and I know I can do good here. I may evenwantto be king now,and Cael wants that too. We’re each in a position to help each other. It makes sense to form an alliance.”
“Have you forgotten what he did to you on Tramore?” I asked. “He could’ve killed you!”
“You took me there to get captured,” said Graham, his voice rough and rising in anger. “Andyou’veclearly been working with Cael to keep your father from prison.”
“He did that on his own,” I said. “Believe it or not, Cael actually likes my father.”
“That I do believe,“ said Graham. “Cael asked me to stop speaking out against him.”
“I wish you hadn’t in the first place,” I said.
“Why are you still protecting him?” asked Graham. “I thought for sure you’d want to hold him accountable for his deception. If what you tell me was true, he was unspeakably awful to you, Mara.”
My face burned. I’d been asking myself that same question constantly.
“Why?” he asked again.
