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Inez sharpened her glare. “Is there a point to this conversation?”
Her tone only made Eliaz’s smile widen. “The Star Temple will be distraught to learn their property is gone, unrecoverable, but I don’t really care. What’s three lost star-maids? We have thousands more. What I really want to know is, did Rylec let them go? Did you beg him for their lives, or did he offer it without your input?”
Inez ducked her head, breaking eye contact. “Why does that matter?”
Archlord Eliaz climbed to his feet and circled the table. His hand settled on the back of her chair, but he didn’t touch her. “Rylec is with the empress right now.”
Inez flinched again. Calanthe had Rylec. Was she torturing him? He was a disgraced archlord, but still an archlord. Rylec and Calanthe had a long history. At one point, before Calanthe killed Rylec’s father, they were almost friends. That might be enough to keep him safe. Momentarily, at least. The empress would kill Rylec and Soriya without a second thought, but she would wait until Inez was there to watch. Calanthe loved nothing more than an audience.
Inez refused to watch any more people die today.
She twisted, ready to tell Eliaz to go fuck himself—
The archlord leaned closer. “Tell me what I want to know, and I might be inclined to help.”
Inez couldn’t stop herself. She looked at him. “Why?”
“It doesn’t matter why.” Those blue eyes remained on her. Steady. Confident. Conniving. “But as everyone who lives on Tertia knows, I despise liars. If you tell me, I will assist Rylec to the best of my abilities.”
That was true enough. In all her years watching Archlord Eliaz from Rylec’s side, she had never witnessed a lie. Neither had her star-husband.
Was the First Archlord the contact Rylec had mentioned?
Those blue eyes stayed on her, reading her every thought.
Inez swallowed. “He let them go. I threatened him a few times, but I don’t think that was why he did it.”
“Hmm.” Archlord Eliaz leaned back and examined one of his rings, leaving her to her own thoughts. “Thank you, Inez. You’ve been most helpful.”
As if that was some sort of cue, Kain stormed back into the room. Inez straightened in her seat as the guard charged her. Rylec had been right. They didn’t view her as a threat and hadn’t put magic cuffs on her. But Inez wasn’t helpless. She wouldn’t reveal her skills with Rylec’s magic now, but she also wouldn’t go anywhere with Eliaz’s guard without a fight.
The large Sollirian stopped at her side and poked her.
Inez stared. “What—?”
Eliaz waved lazily at her. “One to transport to the imperial guest chambers.”
Inez jerked to her feet, but it was too late. The world around her faded as a tingle vibrated through her skin from the point Kain poked. Before she could even process it, Inez stood in a different room, in a different outfit. Her plain Earthling clothes were gone, replaced by a solid purple gossamer gown. The interrogation chamber had turned into a high-ceilinged sitting room with gilded molding and crystal chandeliers. Plush couches formed three sides of a square in the room’s center, with a table occupying the fourth and final side. Beyond the table was a majestic, canopied bed.
Three figures sat around the table. Inez spotted Rylec first. He appeared mostly unharmed aside from some bruising and a few tears in his Earthling suit. No one had bothered to get him a newoutfit. A silver cuff lined his right wrist. But even with his magic repressed, an archlord was a force to be reckoned with. Her star-husband wouldn’t be sitting quietly without a reason.
A little girl with brown curls and white-gold horns sat beside him.
Pain lanced through her heart. Soriya. Inez knew in her soul. Her knees went weak, but she stayed strong and standing. Her little baby had grown into a beautiful child, smiling at the world around her. A pure happiness radiated from her. No one had ever harmed her or starved her or hit her. That was all Inez could have hoped for and more.
Soriya glanced at her. “Mama, we have another guest.”
Inez inhaled sharply. Mama. The words she had always wanted to hear. Inez opened her mouth, but no sound escaped.
Someone else answered for her. “This is an old friend of mine, baby dove.”
Inez’s stomach dropped. That voice. She’d remember that voice for the rest of her life. Inez followed her daughter’s gaze, her green eyes staring up in adoration at—
Empress Calanthe of Sollir smiled and raised haunting, kaleidoscope eyes to meet Inez’s own. “Hello Inez.”
Chapter 10
Inez barely noticed the cold stone floor as she dropped to her knees. Her gaze fixed on the empress. The petite beauty dressed in a gown of pale wisps, her white hair curled in perfect ringlets to her waist. Her horns were short, golden nubs instead of tall and crystalized like Rylec or Soriya’s. Everything about her screamed innocent and weak, a fairytale princess in want of rescue like in the stories from Inez’s childhood.
