Barrett pushed off the bed. “That’s why I came to find you. No one else has been sleeping either. We’re ready when you are.”
Dramatically, I extended a hand toward the door. “Lead the way, Prince.”
The Engrossian ValleyPalace felt more like it was locked in the morose days of winter than the throes of spring.
“We’ve been keeping it closed up,” Barrett explained when he noted my lingering stare on the heavily locked door and tightly drawn velvet curtains in the main entrance.
“Because of the heretics?” I asked as we turned down a corridor.
“They haven’t breeched the walls, but it’s a precaution my advisors insisted on.” Byhis advisors,I was certain he meant his doting partner. Dax had earned his title as Engrossian General and was protective enough over his prince to prove it.
“The staff?” I asked.
“Haven’t seen their families in weeks. Some of them are parents—a few with their partner trapped here, as well. We’ve assured every child is being cared for, but…”
I cast one last glance to the tall metal door, its iron lock appearing delicate in the fogged beam of light filtering through the lone circular window above, its panes drawing sharp lines in the shadow below.
“But it’s not how you want your people to live,” I finished.
Barrett nodded, his throat bobbing over a swallow that spoke of torment and fear.
“That’s what I’m here to help with,” I said, clapping a hand to his shoulder as we rounded the corner. Even though I didn’t want to be in Banix, if I could at least provide aid in some way, I would feel more useful than I did sitting on my ass in Xenovia.
“We appreciate it,” Barrett said sincerely.
I didn’t pause to ask what exactly I was walking into—didn’t care since it wouldn’t change a single step—but when I followed Barrett into the meeting chamber, I hadn’t expected a prisoner to be chained beside the fire.
My brows shot up. “Nassik,” I greeted, my voice knife sharp.
“Vincienzo,” he retorted. He waved his arm—the wrist ending in a stump from when Barrett had severed his hand during the battle against Ritalia. “We’re welcoming enemies in now?”
“He’s less of an enemy than you are, Nassik,” Barrett drawled as he fell into a chair at the head seat, Rebel plopping beside him. Two strangers sat at the table, along with Dax and Celissia.
“Tolek,” the prince’s consort welcomed with a nod, holding out his hand. Celissia flitted out of her chair to give me a hug. I hadn’t seen either of them when I arrived yesterday.
“Good to see you both,” I said, wrapping one arm around her. “Is the ruse still in play, then?” I whispered to Celissia, who hadbeen staging her role as Barrett’s queen-to-be to buy him time to win over his people.
My eyes drifted toward Nassik, his head tipped back against the wall and eyes closed. All it took was one seed of doubt to plant an uprising, and roots crawled through the soil.
“Not among the council,” Celissia said, nodding to the two Engrossians I didn’t know at the table. A squat man with round cheeks and gray hair, and an icy-blonde woman whose eyes seemed to hold a thousand secrets. “My uncle, Elvek, and Pelvira—the two withstanding council members of Prince Barrett’s.”
“And yourself, Celissia, dear,” the prince added as I shook hands with each of his advisors.
She waved him off, drifting back to her seat at the table. “Bare insists I take a place at his table and that I may select my title. But in this room, everyone knows the truth of where we stand.”
“We haven’t fed the lie to our people anymore, but we’re choosing how to reveal the delicate matter,” Elvek said. Nerves wavered through his voice as he cast his niece a glance. She squeezed his shoulder in silent response.
“I think it would be prudent to tell them soon,” Barrett said. “Be forthright about it, and position it as what it was: a political strategy, but now love has won out.”
Dax leaned against the table beside his prince and crossed his arms, axes glinting at his back. “He has a point. The heretics are already causing a stir. For some, the thought of love will win them to our side. For others, it will fuel their fire.”
“Love is the most infallible driving source,” I added. It was that very unrequited emotion that carved out my heart for twenty years before I came clean about my feelings for Ophelia. It made every decision for me where she was involved. To hide the truth because she was hurting, to chase after her every timeshe stormed off, to jump in front of a damn ax aimed for her neck. “It will be difficult, though.”
Barrett sat back in his chair, one corner of his lips lifting. “I’ve never been one to take the easy way out.”
I canted my head. I supposed he hadn’t. Not when he fled to Damenal and not when he insisted on being present in a war camp where hatred was rife for him.
And me? Well, I’d always loved a challenge. I matched Barrett’s smirk.
