“Embraced? Under threat of her death?” I said sarcastically.

“Ask her yourself. She saw that it afforded her two advantages—greater freedoms and sweet revenge against her father. Certainly you of all people can understand that. Betrayal by one’s own kind is a wound that never heals. Use your logic, you smitten ass, and pull yourself together.”

I looked at him, my calm returned. “I’ll be asking her. You can be sure of that.”

He paused as if something had just occurred to him. “Devil’s hell, she’s not bearing your brat, is she? I hope you’re not that stupid.”

He assumed, as I had led him to believe, that Lia and I were sleeping together. But the Rahtan were expected to take precautions so as not to be saddled with those flabby domestic lives he so greatly scorned.

“No. There is no brat.” I spun and stormed out.

“Kaden,” he called as I reached the door, “don’t push me too far. Malich would make a fine Assassin too.”

*   *   *

She leaned over the basin splashing her face, her shoulders stiffening at the sound of my footsteps behind her.

“Did he force your hand?” I asked. “I know he did. I don’t even know why I’m asking.” She didn’t answer and dipped her hands in the water, washing up to her elbows. I grabbed her arm, spinning her around, and the basin tipped over. It split in two when it hit the floor. “Answer me!” I yelled.

She looked down at the broken halves and the water pooling at our feet. “I thought you already had the answer to your question and didn’t require mine.”

“Tell me, Lia.”

Her eyes glistened. “Kaden, I’m sorry. I’m not going to lie and say I don’t want this. I do. You know I don’t love the Komizar, but I’m not a foolish dreamy-eyed girl anymore either. The truth is, I’ve become resigned to the fact that I’m never getting out of here. I need to make a life for myself—the best one I can. Just as you asked me to. And if we’re going to be honest”—her voice wobbled, and she swallowed—“the Komizar has something to offer that you don’t. Power. There are people here, like Aster, the clans, and others, that I’m actually coming to care about. I want to help them. With a little power, I might. I remember you telling me that you didn’t have the choices I thought you did. I understand that now. So like you, I’m taking advantage of the choices I do have. Marriage to the Komizar offers benefits that you can’t give me.” Her eyes narrowed. “And as an added bonus, the news of the marriage will cut at least my father to the core, if not all of Morrighan. There’s some sweetness to that. Believe me when I tell you that my hand was not forced.”

“In just a week’s time, you decided all that?”

The glisten in her eyes receded as if on cue. “A week is a lifetime, Kaden. It can wipe a whole world of people from the face of the earth with the falling of a single star. It can transport a tavern maid living in a seaside village to a scorching desert with ruthless cutthroats as her companions. So in comparison, really, does my small decision to marry a man for his power require more than a week’s thought?”

I shook my head. “That’s not you, Lia.”

Her lip lifted in disgust as if she had suddenly grown weary of being sympathetic. “You’re hurt, Kaden. I’m sorry. Truly. But life is hard. Pull your Vendan head out of your ass and get used to it. Didn’t you spit out very similar words to me back in Reena’s carvachi? Well, I get it now. So should you.”

Her voice was cold, detached—and what she said was true. Everything sank inside me, falling like she had cut both my breath and muscle loose. I looked at her, even the words on my tongue lost somewhere in the tumble, and I turned away. I walked back out the door, down the hall, not seeing anything as I went, wondering how she’d become so … perfectly royal.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

RAFE

I leaned against the parapet watching Lia.

I was alone without benefit of guard, Ulrix, or Calantha. Though they let me know often that they were keeping a close watch on me, they were no longer constantly at my side. It seemed all the rules had been relaxed now that the marriage was announced and now that …

I rested my head against my arms.

My mother was dead.

It sickened me that her death gained me more credibility.

I should be home. Everyone in Dalbreck was probably searching and wondering—where is Prince Jaxon? Why isn’t he here? Why has he shirked his duties? Yes, my father would have Sven’s head and mine if we ever got back. That is, if my father was still alive.

Those are the toughest ones to kill.

My father was a tough bastard, just as the Komizar had said. But an old one. Tiring. And he loved my mother, loved her more than his kingdom or his own life. Losing her would weaken him, make him quick prey to scourges he had fought off in better times.

I should be there.

I was back to that again. I lifted my head and looked at Lia sitting on the far wall above the square below. My duty was in Dalbreck, but I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere but here with her.

“There were only small gatherings when I left.”

I turned. Kaden had come upon me silently. He was hidden in the shadow of a column, watching her too. His was the last company I wanted.

“The numbers have doubled every night,” I said.

“They love her.”

“They don’t even know her, just what the Komizar parades through the streets.”