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When I’d first planned to remove Graham as the heir, I’d felt far more eager to gain my father’s pride than to take the throne. Of course, that should’ve been my first hint that I was doing it for the wrong reasons. It was no wonder I was so willing to believe his lies when all I could see was an opportunity to make him love me.
If intentions counted at all, like my father believed they did, then even my intentions were corrupt.
Even now, as I plotted to leave this city behind, I couldn’t claim my intentions were noble. But I was caring less and less by the day. Maybe it was time to stop caring what everyone else wanted or expected of me. Caring too much was at the root of my problems.
If I could find a place removed enough from the noise of other people’s desires, I might finally be able to hear myself and be myself. Here, everyone I knew had the power to sway me, pushing me to places I never hoped to go.
No more. I would not be beholden to anyone once I got out of here.
Three pounding knocks shook my door.
I didn’t move to open it. “What do you want, Cael?” I muttered.
“Is that a ‘come in’?” he said.
“No,” I said, “but this is.” I opened the door and gestured dramatically to the room “Come in, come in, sir!”
He scowled. “I don’t want to. You come out.”
“Oh, you want something of me? Well, I prefer to stand right here.”
“Remember that you’re in my . . .” he paused, looking around.
“You haven’t decided on a word for this place, have you? How about lair?” I asked. “‘Secret lair’ has a nice ring to it.”
“What I mean is, you’re under my hospitality,” he said. “Don’t waste my time.”
“What do you want?” I asked.
“To discuss your proposal.”
“I don’t remember proposing to you,” I said. “I’m sorry, but I just don’t feel that way about you.”
His mouth was set in the most irritated frown I’d seen from him yet, which was exactly what I’d hoped for. I left the room, walking past him into the open area. If I couldn’t have power over him, the best I could do was to let him know I did not respect his claim to authority over me.
“And I feel nothing but contempt for you,” he said.
“If you didn’t say that out loud, I would’ve had no idea,” I said.
“Your plan,” he said. “I’ll agree to it, except for your condition of being present when the weapons are returned.”
I shook my head. Without that condition, I wouldn’t get into the hoard. There would be no point in doing any of it. “Then I won’t testify.”
“Come on! You get everything else you want. Isn’t it enough to see Dunn secured?”
“Those weapons are an enormous threat to Cambria—and to Graham,” I said. “It’s going to be hard enough for me to leave him, and I won’t be able to leave at all if I don’t personally witness the weapons put away for good.”
He looked at me with disgust. “I liked it better when you pretended you didn’t have feelings for him. This is nauseating.”
“Why are you so opposed to me escorting the weapons back with the other Enforcers?” I asked. “I’ll look just like one of them. No one but you will know.”
“You don’t get to go in there,” he said. “It’s not meant for people outside of the Academy to see.”
“I don’t even care what’s in there,” I said casually. “And I’ll be leaving, so who would I tell anyway?”
“I don’t believe you don’t care. You’re nothing if not curious.”
“Cael,” I said, “all I want is to leave and to be left alone. I’m not interested in what any of you are doing or what stupid weapons may or may not be buried under the Academy.”
