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“Besides,” she said, and I didn’t miss the hurt filtering into her voice. “I wasn’t going to let you leave me without a word. Not again. So, even if I had to escape the palace and abandon my home, I was going to do it.”
She really was my little sister, wasn’t she? I had hurt her deeply when I first escaped myself, and it was definitely going to take several years to make up for it. But when the world settled down, and if we emerged from the fray victorious, I could really put work toward mending that.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “Our uncle and father ambushed us out of nowhere and we had no choice.”
“I know, I know, and I don’t blame you. But I also knew what I needed to do. I couldn’t just stand by all those people who pretend I don’t exist or look down their noses at me. I needed to be with you. I needed to do something.”
By this time, Halle had much more slowly crossed over to us, an amused expression on her face. I was incredibly grateful to her for everything she’d done for my sister. Once I was on the throne, I absolutely was going to reward her with a position at court, or really anything she wanted.
“Your sister was quite insistent on not remaining in our situation within the palace. The whole atmosphere after you left has become untenable.”
I grimaced at that. “How bad is it?”
“Fairly bad. He’s locked down most of the place and is adamantly trying to make sure that no one could believe anything other than you were greedy for power and staged a failed coup,” my sister answered with a long, long sigh. “But, hey, is it true that the fae diplomat helped you escape?”
She tried to play it cool, she really did, but even after so many years apart, I knew my little sister too well. It turned out Ayla was right, because of course she was. It seemed my sister was interested in none other than Aodin Louth.
It was funny… not that long ago, I’d have been wary and unhappy with the idea. But if my baby sister had to be attracted to anyone, Aodin was an amazing choice.
“He did indeed. In fact, he was instrumental in us surviving at all. He smuggled us out of the city, kept us somewhere safe while we waited to meet up with transport in Lambert, and then he sheltered us here.”
Seraphina nodded, clearly trying to keep her expression neutral, but she was about as successful with hiding her positive reaction as she was with hiding her interest in Aodin. “Wow, that’s wonderful.”
“It is. We owe him our lives.”
“At first I thought it was just idle rumors and anti-fae sentiment. But once I heard about what happened at Lambert… well, I did hope it was true. There’s been so much shake up at the court, it’s hard to keep track of who’s been replaced, imprisoned, or left of their own volition.”
“Hmm. Did you come to Blath to see me, or to see him, then?”
At that, her eyes went wide, and her tanned cheeks flushed vibrantly red. Aww, even as much as she’d grown, she was still so damn adorable. “Wait, you’re telling me he’s here?”
“Hah, yes, he is,” I chuckled.
Naturally, she replied by joshing my arm and pouting, but unable to deny her interest now that she’d reacted so openly.
“Once this hubbub has died down, I’d be happy to re-introduce you to him on your home turf.”
“Would you?” she blurted before covering her mouth. “I mean… sure, that would be nice.”
My baby sister was saved from having to simmer in that frankly hilarious reaction by another Arbiter approaching me. I couldn’t remember his name, but I knew I’d met him before.
“I hate to interrupt, sir, but I was sent to inform you of an unfortunate development we discovered.”
There went the surprisingly pleasant mood. It took, what, three minutes for that to happen? But such were the ways of war, and we had been warring for an awfully long time.
“What is it?” Dread began to trickle in rapidly, but I forced myself to remain calm. I’d had an unfortunate amount of practice with that in the past day or so.
“Aodin informed us that you wanted to be updated with any significant military information.”
“Yes, that is correct.” Had Fort Canid fallen? Were all of our troops stationed along the border losing even more funding and access while being expected to put their lives on the line over and over again?
“Three of the guards we’ve spoken to told us that the Shrouded Shriek has emerged from hiding and been making far more appearances in rapid succession.”
“Is that so?” I said quietly, like it didn’t make my stomach drop. While I wanted the Shriek to be out and open more so I could find him and kill him, I also knew we weren’t remotely ready for such a thing. As far as I knew, Ayla had only just produced her theory about cursing her curse less than a week earlier. She needed way more time to prepare.
“But there doesn’t appear to be any pattern to his movements. Normally, his attacks are concentrated to weaken a specific area so that Vekas’ forces can come invade, but that isn’t the case here.”
“Has anything else changed?”
