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“And Justice? They didn’t hold you for long?” Malvina asked, the voice for them all.
“Clearly.” The reply came from Bendrik, the youngest on the council. His father had been a trusted advisor to Umair. Bendrik always wore a flat cap, and even now, it sat on his head, its peak shadowing his narrowed eyes. When his father’s heart had given up, Bendrik had adopted his father’s seat and his station and apparently proven his worth. I knew him as the man who leered at Razak and rubbed his own cock beneath the table when he thought nobody was watching.
Razak had told me once, during one of his more talkative nights, how he’d had Bendrik whipped, and Bendrik hadlikedit. I wasn’t entirely sure if Razak and Bendrik had some kind of relationship outside of the council, and hadn’t cared, until now. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need to know the answer.
These people knew a whole lot more than me. They likely knewwhyRazak was securing the crowns, but I couldn’t ask them without giving my ruse away. I had to tread carefully in my questioning.
Getting one of these council members alone to wring some answers out of them could be an option—Bendrik perhaps, he seemed the most obvious target—but Pain’s crown had to remain my focus, and keeping Arin safe.
I had to get back to him.
“I’m tired from traveling. Tomorrow, I’ll be more like my usual self, I’m sure.” I pushed from the chair and strode for the door, done with these fools. Tomorrow, I’d visit the vault, collect the crown, and be gone. Nobody called out, nobody stopped me. I’d done enough to convince them I was Razak, but it wouldn’t last. Malvina would be the one to uproot my lies.
Just a few days.
I hurried into the stairwell, climbed to Razak’s floor, and swept along the corridor. The door was unlocked. I dove in, eager to see Arin, to know he was all right.
He wasn’t on the large purple-and-black draped bed, not in the bathroom either, after I checked. One door remained. The door that was always locked, the door with the key on the outside. A key that sat in the lock now, waiting for Razak to turn it.
I knew its sound so well—clunk, click—knew it meant pain was coming for me.
I flicked the lock, hearing it a thousand times in my memory, but this time, I had the key in my hand, and inside the room, Arin lay out cold on the bed, chest rising and falling. His princely clothes hung askew, scuffed, and his golden hair had tangled about him, but otherwise he appeared fine. In a strange, dreamlike flash, I saw myself in his place, bound at the wrist, stripped naked, sprawled and waiting. Sometimes Razak came straight for me, sometimes he went to the window, sometimes he smoked his pipe, and sometimes nothing happened. He just stood, and stared, the anticipation more agonizing than the deed itself.
But I wasn’t on that bed, and Razak wasn’t here.
I huffed out a shuddering sigh.
They’d cuffed Arin to the bed post, as was expected. I hated that cuff, hated that he was here, that he saw all this: the real Zayan behind all my acts.
I grabbed a chair from the nearby desk, placed it at the foot of the bed, and sat, watching him sleep. After a while, I dozed, and between one blink and the next, Arin sat up, eyeing me sharply.
I dipped my chin and stared back.
He blinked. “Lark?”
“No.”
“What?”
“Razak. Not Lark. We don’t mention that name, we can’t.”
“Are you all right?”
My laugh fell silently from my lips. “No, not in the least.”
He tried to shift, but the cuff snapped at him. He tugged at it. “Is this necessary?
“If we’re disturbed, you cannot be found wandering about as a free man.”
Slumping, he huffed and winced, then fingered his cheek with his free hand. I’d struck himhard. Harder than I’d meant to. He noticed me watching and held my gaze. “It’s just a bruise. Don’t blame yourself.”
“What were you thinking?”
“In the foyer? It wasn’t working. We needed to do more, to make them see us, see Razak and Arin.Nicewasn’t cutting it.”
“Nice? I threw you to the ground outside.” I’d grabbed him, handled him roughly, thrown him around as though he were nothing, as though he were… Zayan. By the gods. I slumped over and pressed my hands to my face while my stomach knotted.
“You know I’m right,” he said. “It needed more. We had to convince them.”
