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No, I wasn’t exaggerating.
“Yes, we can get you appliances. What else do you need?”
Luckily, the short list was pretty much the same for all of them. Mostly things for winter. That hadn’t been the focus, but now winter was coming fast and… Blankets and sweaters that were hand-washed the old way did not stand up well. That was the moral of the story.
Everyone was in agreement that one day of raiding fully for them was worth three days helping us with other things if they could get several days of what they needed most and the stores of the area. Plus, all the gifts I was giving would more than cover the extra help. They wanted to go right away and talk with their princesses, and I was thrilled with that deal.
Yeah, I totally agreed.
Sebastian, Winston, and Ceawlin—who was still taking the role for Matilda replacing Jacob—stayed though which meant something else was up.
“I’m just here because I got word from Olivia even if it doesn’t directly involve us,” Ceawlin said with a shrug.
I nodded, guessing what this was even about as I focused on Winston.
“Princess Kaitlin killed two of her coven for repeatedly going to the food market and reporting their corrupted kills for meat,” Winston told me gently.
I closed my eyes and swallowed loudly. She had found people there and sent guards to get them. She’d started shit with Hanna, but Hanna had pushed back that we weren’t asking which coven they were from or getting involved like that when people were starving.
Kaitlin had threatened to punish people, but the coven was pushing back. A smarter woman would have stood down.
The idiot had doubled down instead.
“It’s true,” Malachai of all people said. He nodded when I did a double take. “And five more are scheduled to die. She’s planning on calling your bluff that you won’t allow such actions to show her coven that you will fail them by sentencing the other five. She thinks that will get them back in line.”
“How do you know this and we don’t when we’re listening?” Kristof bit out.
“Tone it back, my love,” I said when Malachai started shaking. He looked like me when the anger of ancients froze me in place and I needed to flee. I was pretty sure Malachai wasn’t even a hundred, so he had to feel it as well. I waited until he did and nodded to Malachai to answer.
“My brother is one of her nobles. We haven’t been in contact because Katilin and Bahati hated each other.”
“That’s true,” Ceawlin confirmed, a few others echoing him.
“I took a chance that I might be able to catch him and was helping at the trading post Princess Hanna set up with your help. When I wasn’t doing my role here. I promise. The time difference is—”
“I’m not mad,” I promised, smiling when he calmed down. “I get it. I would never have stopped you from trying to get in touch with your brother unless it was to slip notes spying on us.”
“No, I also wanted any information he had since I know Kaitlin is a threat to you,” he admitted.
“You should have told us,” Kristof muttered.
“I was going to, but it just happened and he’s—it’s bad,” Malachai defended.
“What did he tell you?” I pushed before someone else lectured him. Right or not, it was done, and Kristof could talk to the younger noble later. I was glad when Kristof nodded that he understood where my head was.
“That Kaitlin is tightening her grip at the pushback. She’s not the same person as before the apocalypse. She had a great setup and the coven was super wealthy, so she wasn’t ready for any of it to be hard, and she’s making all the wrong decisions because of it. Digging in her heels.”
That sounded a lot like Olivia but with more evil than stupid. Evil was killing your own coven members who broke your rules for food.
Olivia was just stupid and inflated. I think she finally realized that as well now.
I nodded along as he gave more specifics and examples that we didn’t know about. That coven was really in a bad spot and had no hope of something better if she kept trying to have them be so reclusive or plotting takeovers instead of seeing reality.
Malachai let out a slow breath and met my gaze. “My brother asked if there’s any chance you’d take over the coven. That he could promise most of her nobles wouldn’t get involved or defend her.”
That always terrified me. Even if she was the worst person in the world, those nobles swore to protect her.
And they weren’t going to.
