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My brows furrow, and when I open my mouth to make a case, I find myself incapable of formulating a word.
Those in charge, at least, likely know exactly why they’re sending the spies to locate our armies.
I didn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it. But what if I was wrong?
* * *
I lick my bottom lip nervously, hoping against all hopes that my instincts are working overtime after everything. They tell me to step away from Doplov. To run,now.
But this is my mentor. He taught me to use a knife and a sword for my protection. He showed me how to get into safes, copy correspondence, find hidden compartments in the hollow of a drawer. He also taught me how to suck cock until I was very, very good at it.“Men are always more compliant afterwards. And stupider.”
I’d laughed in agreement, not seeing that I also used to be compliant. And stupid. And now here I am, telling him he’s wrong.
What I see in his eyes makes me tremble. It’s not that he doesn’t believe me. He knows. Nothing I’m saying is news. He just doesn’t care.
“Your family,” I whisper. “You told me your family was destroyed by Nyxar.”
Doplov tilts his head. “And so it was.”
The office door swings open behind me. I look over my shoulder, my entire body still screamingrun, run, run, but before I can even think of giving in, a familiar figure fills the doorway.
I stare in complete shock, not quite understanding what I’m seeing.
She’s wearing a pretty cream dress with lace and ribbons that wouldn’t have been out of place at all in an Allean court, but there’s no mistaking the dark-haired beauty with sapphire eyes, exactly like her son’s.
Lucyan Lore shuts the door behind her and locks it. “Well, if this isn’t quaint. The night king’s whore, here.”
I gulp, facing facts I can’t link in my mind.
“I’d hoped to see you a few days ago.”
Come to me before morning if you’re tired of being a cum dumpster,she’d told me. I hadn’t even considered her offer. She gave off all the wrong signals, like a snake lying in wait.
“I suppose you enjoyed taking half the court’s cocks far too much to think for yourself.” A cruel smile spreads on her pretty face.
“Well, isn’t that fascinating,” Doplov chuckles, handing her the wine I’d declined. Then he focuses on me with an obvious leer.
“My son undressed her at a banquet and had the guests molest her. She quite liked it.” She sneers in distaste.
Doplov leans back against his desk, arching an eyebrow. “Now, that’s a surprise. And here I thought you were such a prude, Rhea.”
The king’s mother snorts. “She belongs in a brothel, but she may yet have her uses to us. My son will give himself up for her. He won’t be easy to kill without knowing what he did with his heart, but if we keep his head separated from his body, he shouldn’t be a concern.” She’s all matter-of-fact, enjoying her wine as she discusses beheading her flesh and blood.
I shake my head in disbelief. “How could you do that to your own son?”
Lucyan lifts her head. “You know nothing, girl. Thatsonof mine was born after his father strapped me down to my altar and raped me for days on end, just because he knew I could birth him a child.”
I don’t know what to say. I remember the sheer terror that the monster who raped me three years ago would also have impregnated me. I would have done just about anything to be rid of such a child. I went straight to a witch and chugged five different potions to ensure that wouldn’t happen.
“I tried spells, potions, roots, but from the very moment he was conceived, thatthingwas too powerful to expel. They don’t belong to this world, the old gods,” Lucyan states firmly. “They don’t see the rest of us as anything but toys they can push across the board.”
I can see why she’d believe that. I could have believed that days ago. Now I know better. Life isn’t black-and-white. People aren’t suddenly perfect because they’re called kind, or virtuous because they wear skirts long enough to cover their ankles, and the king of night isn’t a monster simply because his magic comes from the shadow rather than the light. There’s nothing ultimately wrong with winter or summer, though drought can scorch the land and the icy cold can freeze a heart. We’re all the same, and the only monsters are those who refuse to accept other people’s way.
“So, what’s your plan?” I ask, mostly stalling for time as I calculate my best option. We’re too high up for me to make for the window, but if I leave through the door, Doplov could call to a hundred different people in the keep to hold me. “Kill your son and take his throne?” That much is easy to guess. “You know what the Kind King is doing, right? He’s destroying entire villages, and armies to increase his power. There’s no telling what will be left of Nyxar by the time he’s done.”
I expect disbelief. Instead, Lucyan laughs. “She’s so adorable. Child, I taught him that little spell. There’s no point fighting a man with eternal blood without having our own tricks up our sleeve.”
She’s in on it. She’s fine with genocide to get her own way, consumed by rage and vengeance. Against her own son, for the crime of existing. There’s no reasoning with her. My gaze cuts to the man I thought I knew. Allea wants to take over Nyxar. I don’t fathom how these two can be allies unless Doplov lied about his intentions. He could have made her think he’d leave her to rule in the north. “What’s in it for you? You can’t seriously believe Nyxar killed your family. She’s just admitted to being responsible. She and the Kind King—”
