Finally I saw the brothers emerge and stop at the top of the steps. Their expressions were grim, their eyes hollow. There was no sign of the king, but then the Chancellor appeared on their heels. Gwyneth and I both tugged on our hoods to be sure we were thoroughly covered. The Chancellor’s face wasn’t stricken, but severe. He told everyone there was more bad news he had to share—news that would make their grief twice as hard to bear.
“We have news of Princess Arabella.” A hush fell, and sobs were choked back as everyone waited to hear what had become of her. “When she shirked her duty as First Daughter, she put us all in peril, and we see the fruit of that treachery with the death of Prince Walther and thirty-two of our finest soldiers. Now word comes that her betrayal runs even deeper. She is creating a new alliance with the enemy. It was part of her plan all along. She has forsaken us and announced her plans to marry the barbarian ruler to become the Queen of Venda.”
There was a collective sucking in of breaths. Disbelief. No, it wasn’t possible. But I looked at Bryn and Regan. Standing like statues, they made no attempt to defend their sister or discredit the Chancellor.
“It is declared,” he continued, “that from this moment forward, she is the most reviled enemy of the Kingdom of Morrighan. Her name will be stricken from all records, and if the gods should deliver her into our hands, she will be executed on sight for her crimes against the chosen Remnant.”
I couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t possible.
Regan made eye contact with me at last, but his gaze was empty. He made no effort to show he didn’t believe it. Bryn’s head drooped, and he turned and walked back into the citadelle. Regan followed.
They were grieving for Walther. That had to be it. Surely, in their hearts, they knew it was a lie. She’d been abducted. I told them myself. I know what I saw and heard.
We walked back to our inn in shocked silence.
“She wouldn’t do it,” I finally said. “Lia would never join forces with the enemy against Morrighan. Never.”
“I know,” Berdi said.
My abdomen cramped, and I bent over, clutching myself. Berdi and Gwyneth were immediately at my sides, holding me in case I fell. “The baby’s just stretching,” I said and took a deep, calming breath.
“Let’s get you back to the inn,” Gwyneth said. “We’ll sort this out about Lia. There has to be some explanation.”
The cramp eased, and I straightened. I still had two months to go. Don’t come early, child. I’m not ready.
“Do you need to rest?” Berdi asked. “We can stop in this tavern and get you a bite to eat.”
I looked at the nearby tavern. It was tempting, but I only wanted to get back to—
I froze.
“What’s wrong?” Gwyneth asked.
Something caught my eye. I shook off their assistance and walked closer to the tavern, trying to get a better view through the window.
I blinked, trying to refocus again and again.
He’s dead.
Lia had told me. I heard her words as clearly as if she were saying them to me now. She had stared at her feet, and her words had run together in a quick, nervous string. His patrol was ambushed. The captain of the guard buried him in a distant field. His last words were of you—tell Pauline I love her. He’s dead, Pauline. He’s dead. He isn’t coming back.
But her eyes had darted away from mine time and again.
Lia had lied to me.
Because there he was, plain as day. Mikael was sitting in the tavern, an ale on one knee and a girl on the other.
The world spun, and I reached out to a lantern post to steady myself. I wasn’t sure what hit me harder, that Mikael was alive and well or that Lia, whom I had trusted like a sister, had deceived me so completely.
Berdi was at my side gripping my arm. “Do you want to go in?” she asked.
Gwyneth was there too, but she was looking through the window where I still stared. “No,” she said quickly. “She doesn’t want to go in. Not right now.”
And Gwyneth was right. I knew where to find him when I was ready, but I wasn’t ready now.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
The guards were escorting me down the corridor to Sanctum Hall when we heard footsteps coming our way. Hurried footsteps. Kaden rounded the corner into our hallway and stopped.
“Wait for her at the stairs,” he said, dismissing the guards. “I need to speak to the princess.”
They did as they were ordered, and he pulled me into a narrow dark passage. His eyes grazed over my cheek.
“It was only a clumsy fall, Kaden. Don’t make more of it than it is.”
He reached up, gently running his thumb beneath my cheekbone. His jaw clenched. “How long are we going to go on like this, Lia? When are you going to be honest with me?”
I saw the earnestness in his eyes, and I was surprised that my chest ached with wanting to tell him everything, but Rafe and I were too close to freedom now for the luxury of honesty. I still didn’t know what Kaden might do. His devotion to me was obvious, but his loyalty to Venda and the Komizar was proven.
“I’m not hiding anything from you.”
“What about the emissary? Who is he?”
It was more of an accusation than a question. I lifted my lip in revulsion. “A liar and a manipulator. That’s all I know of him. I promise.”
“You give me your word.”
I nodded.
He was appeased. I saw it in his eyes and by the relieved breath rising in his chest. He believed for now that I wasn’t conspiring with the emissary. But his confidence in me was fleeting. He moved on to other suspicions.
“I know you don’t love the Komizar.”
“I already admitted that to you. Are we going to go through this again?”
“If you think marrying him will bring you power, you’re wrong. He won’t share it with you.”
“We’ll see.”
“Dammit, Lia! You’re spinning a lie. I know you are. You told me you would, and I believe you. What are you up to?”
I remained silent.
He sighed. “Don’t do it. It won’t go well. Trust me. You are going to be staying here.”
I tried to show no response, but the way he said it made my blood stop cold in my chest. There was no anger in his tone or taunting. Just fact.
He stepped away, raking his fingers through his hair, then leaned back against the opposite wall. His eyes burned with need. “I heard your name,” he explained. “It floated on the wind, whispering to me before I ever got to Terravin. And then that day on the tavern porch when you bandaged my shoulder, I saw us, Lia. Together. Here.”
My mouth went dry. He didn’t need to say more. With those few words, it added up—our time across the Cam Lanteux when he seemed to sense things before they happened, my mother’s own words racing back to me when I had asked her about sons having the gift. It’s happened, but not to be expected.
Kaden had the gift. At least some small degree of it.
“Have you always known you had it?”
“It’s part of the reason why my father gave me away. I used it against his wife in anger. I’ve denied the gift ever since, but there are times—” He shook his head. “Like when I was coming for you. I knew it was the gift, even if I didn’t want to admit it. And then I saw us. Here.”
My heart jumped when I thought of my own dreams of Rafe leaving me behind. They seemed to confirm what Kaden thought he saw.
We had to be wrong. It wasn’t what I felt in my heart.