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“I hope you both understand that I don’t have to entertain this. You are not welcome here, Lysias. You were exiled. I can have you tossed right back out or in a cell or even killed.”
“You can do all those things, certainly. But can you look at this woman here and tell me you do not see the resemblance? The evidence of your own blood in her veins?”
The king did not look at her. She realized it was purposeful. Hewouldnot look at her. He focused on Lysias and tossed some more threats around, while Lysias had an answer for everything. Their voices felt like thunder rumbles, distant and incomprehensible, so she got up without fully thinking the movement through.
They argued and she went to stand at the window to get away from the anger in the room—no matter how calm they tried to sound. She looked out at the blue of the sea, the white of the sand, the people walking down there, small and disconnected from the storm raging inside here.
Why did it all feel so familiar?
She reached out, touched the wall next to the window. Her fingers traced the wallpaper design, and she studied the art panel next to the window. This did not appear to be a depiction of battle but of a coronation.
She studied it—not just the art but the frame of the panel around it. She knew it wasn’t familiar, as she’d never been here. But she’d seen something like it...somewhere. It must have been in her early spying days. Some of those jobs ran together on the heady mix of fear and the thrill of success.
That had to be it.
She reached out, felt around the little framed edge, found the button...and pressed. A door popped open with a loudsnick.
She stood there looking at the dark interior behind the door for she didn’t know how long. She didn’t know what was happening to her, what strange sensations were coursing through her. So she turned to Lysias, her protector. Her anchor.
He stood now, next to the king, and both men stared at her as if she’d sprouted wings and flown. She felt a bit detached, as if shehadflown away. It didn’t fully make sense, even to her. But she supposed she was used to such things. Finding hideaways and secrets in rich men’s houses. That must have been how she’d discovered this little secret passageway.
“How did you know about that?” the king demanded, and he was angry, clearly, but he’d also gone a little pale. So that she almost felt sorry for him.
“She remembered, obviously,” Lysias replied for her, but he was also looking at her in a strange way. After a moment, he seemed to find himself and crossed to her. “You are overwhelmed,” he said, and he sounded so kind and worried about her that she suddenlywasoverwhelmed.
“She remembers certain things, but others come back only in snatches,” Lysias said to Diamandis, curling his arm around her waist in what felt like a protective gesture. “She needs some rest. Some quiet. I will take her back to—”
“You will take her upstairs. My staff has readied a room for her.”
“Where she goes, I go. She is my fiancée, and I will not leave her alone to be tormented by the likes of you.”
“If she really is my sister, an impossibility of course, I’d be saving her from the likes ofyou.”
“Please,” Al said, irritated with the both of them. “All this bitter fighting will get you nowhere. You both believe you are right and above reproach, and you’ll never convince the other differently. So instead of bothering with all this male posturing, let us get to the heart of the matter.”
Lysias smiled, but it was as fake as this little act. Still, he lifted her hand and brushed a kiss over the top of it, and no matter how off-kilter she felt, that was still a jolt of lust.
“Of course,asteri mou.” He turned that sharp gaze to Diamandis. “Your Majesty, I did not expect you to believe me as a matter of course, but let us pursue civility.” Lysias even smiled at his enemy. “We will get to the truth.Aftershe has gotten some rest.”
A muscle in Diamandis’s jaw twitched, but he nodded. “We will indeed. Allow my staff to escort you to your rooms.”
It was the king’s turn to smile.
Lysias was not surprised exactly when it came to Alexandra’s behavior in the king’s study, though he didn’t know how she’d figured out how to open the secret door. But she was the kind of woman who strode in and solved problems.
It was just so strange. This place. The cascade of emotions.Her.He had not prepared for this level of...upheaval.
This did not mean he was unequal to it, simply that he needed to center himself. Revenge required calculation and planning, and he was getting lost in pettiness that didn’t matter. Not to his true goal.
But the hits kept coming. In the form of the cruel king. Because he recognized this back hallway. The more casual decor. No murals or gilded art. This was softer than the austere royal areas of the palace.
Because this was where the servants lived. Wherehehad lived. And when the guard, as if they really were prisoners, stopped in front of a door, Lysias’s entire body went cold. The guard opened it and Alexandra stepped inside, but Lysias...
He should step inside. Freeze it out. Ignore this attempt at pain and suffering. He would prove to Diamandis that he could not be hurt. Hewould.
When he didn’t follow, Alexandra looked back at him. Confusion and then concern clouding her features. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
He should lie to her. Laugh it off. Something. But he could only find the means to tell her the truth. “These were my parents’ quarters.”
