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“We were held in the cells for a few days while they wondered if we’d be of any use in catching you,” Jiron said. “We soon disabused them of that absurd notion.”
Ren stilled. It hadn’t been that ludicrous an idea: he might act cold and callous at times, but there was nothing he wouldn’t do for those he loved.
“Then they made the mistake of only sending seven men to escort the three of us to our execution,” the guard continued, pausing with his own food halfway to his mouth. “Thosemen made the mistake of unshackling Elías to have their fun with him first.” He shook his head, eyes glinting with a rare malice. “El didn’t need our help taking them apart, but Luis and I were only too happy to assist.”
“Fucking hell,” I said, recoiling in disgust. “Ren, we’re culling your entire contingent of palace guards when you make king. Is there even one of them who could be called a decent person?”
“Some,” Jiron answered, surprising me by answering on his prince’s behalf. “But Comandante Moreno’s influence was wide, and bitter. Many men whose ideals were opposed to his didn’t last long under his command.”
“And under your command?” I asked sweetly, and he struggled to hide his exasperation at the reminder that I wanted him to take up the vacant role.
Ren laughed. “Told you he wasn’t going to give up on that. So.” He leaned over and captured my wrist, sucking my fingers clean of grease. “Luis. Elías?”
“Keeping the false king from learning your whereabouts, my prince,” the guard told him. “Each of those Blessed with the Scent in Quareh’s employ will have recently found themselves ill, incapacitated, power-drained, or otherwise inexplicably unable to assist Welzes and Navar in running you down. All except one.”
“And that one is…”
“Luis’ cousin. And she isquiteconvinced that you’re somewhere on the south coast, Your Highness.”
Ren hummed, evidently pleased. “And you claim not to have a strategic mind, Jiron?”
“It was Elías’ idea. As was me coming after you once we heard the rumours of you travelling east, not that he could have stopped me from doing so.” The guard’s eyes flashed with steely determination. “May I ask where you’re headed?”
“We have no fucking clue-”
“You said you were willing to do anything to save Quareh,” I said, rounding on the prince at my side. “Is that still true?”
His response was immediate. “Yes.”
“Even if it means begging an enemy for aid?”
His gaze caught mine, steady and unflinching. “Yes. What are you thinking, Mathias?”
“Quareh is hunting you. Valeri will turn you in, as would undoubtedly my mother.” I paused, hoping he’d put emotion aside in favour of logic. “That leaves Mazekhstam.”
“Mazekhstam,” Ren repeated, an eyebrow quirking in something like amusement. “Where its regent and I have hated each other since birth, she wants nothing more than to see my country in ashes, and…I swear there’s another thing I’m forgetting,mi sol?Remind me because I can’t quite remember: is it something about…her only brother and us trying to kill him? No, that can’t be it. Even you and your contrary ass wouldn’t be suggesting that we ask such a person to help us.”
“To be fair, Kolya tried to kill us firs-”
“Ah, what the fuck,” he said cheerfully, interrupting me for no reason other than he was an annoying prick. “Either we form an alliance that unites the continent, or Panarina kills me on sight. Either way, I get to deny Navar and Welzes the pleasure of ending me themselves.”
“Crossing the Quareh-Mazekhstam border won’t be easy,” warned Jiron, not bothering to protest. He would follow Ren wherever he went, even if it was to hell itself. “And we won’t go unnoticed.”
I acknowledged his words with a nod. “We know there’s a few skirmishes we’ll have to avoid.”
“No longer just skirmishes, little one,” Jiron said gently. “There was a large-scale assault two days ago, and it’s devolved into open warfare since then. There’s already been hundreds of casualties on both sides.”
“War,” I said hollowly. “Fuck, after all this time, we’re actually atwar?”
Ren’s eyes flashed, an unusually grim expression gracing his face. It made him look older, hardening his features and stealing away a piece of the carefree man I loved.
I let my hand fall to his knee, knowing it offered pitiful comfort in the wake of horrifying news. But it brought a smile back to his lips as he looked at me.
“Mazekhstam,” he said slowly, although his next words made me wonder if I’d made a terrible mistake. “I’ll bleed for her if I must, but Astrid Panarinawillhelp Quareh. Whatever it takes.”
*
Chapter Ten
