Anabel leaves us to stand next to Julian, while Farley watches us approach. She looks between me and Cal as we move closer to the center of the room. Her brow furrows and I brace myself for a scowl, if not a snarl. Instead she blinks, her expression thoughtful. Almost accepting.
“Calore,” she says, dipping her head to the king.
He grins at her deliberate use of such an informal greeting. “General Farley,” he replies, all propriety. “I’m glad you agreed to join us.”
She adjusts her stiff collar, forcing it to lie flat. “The Scarlet Guard is a valuable part of this coalition, and Command should be represented when we negotiate for Maven’s surrender.”
While Cal nods his head in gentle agreement, I sigh to myself. “I wouldn’t be so sure of any deal,” I warn her, voice low. I’m getting sick of repeating myself.
Farley only scoffs. “Of course, nothing in this life is that easy. But a woman can dream, can’t she?”
I glance over her shoulder, at her various officers hanging back. None of their faces are familiar. “How’s Kilorn?” I ask, frowning as shame claws up my spine. I wring my hands together, trying to hide their twitching. At my side, Cal flinches, one hand hanging free. I wish I could take it, but we both refrain from such a naked display of affection.
She looks on me with pity. “Fully healed yesterday, but he’s taking some time,” she says. I try to picture him whole and healthy, not dancing at the brink of death as he was before I left. It doesn’t work. “We’ve commandeered the barracks at the Security Center, and he’s there with the rest of the wounded.”
“Good,” I push out, unable to say anything more. Farley doesn’t prod. Still, I feel the embarrassment of my choices as sharply as a knife wound. Kilorn almost died. Cal almost died. And you ran to Cal.
Next to me, the true king looks away, his own face flushed with implication. Even though we both decided not to make choices, we know that choices were made all the same.
“And Cameron?” I add, if only to stem the bleeding of such thoughts.
Farley scratches her chin. “Organizing in New Town. She’s a valuable asset there, as is her father. The tech towns have their own underground networks, and word is going out to the rest. Maven’s Silvers might be preparing for more attacks, but so are they.”
That swells me with pride, as well as trepidation. Certainly Maven will retaliate for what we did in New Town and try to prevent the same from happening again. But if the Red slums rise up, if the tech towns go dark, his war effort will all but grind to a halt. No more resources. No more fuel. We can effectively starve him into surrender.
“I notice we’re waiting for Princess Evangeline again,” Davidson says as he joins us. His own contingent of advisers hangs back, giving us space.
I tip my head back and sigh. “The only constant in this world.”
The premier crosses his arms. If he’s nervous, he certainly doesn’t show it. “A peacock needs time to groom its feathers, even steel ones.”
“We lost a lot of magnetrons yesterday,” Cal says, his voice low and stern. Almost reprimanding. “House Samos paid a high price for Harbor Bay.”
Farley stiffens, setting her jaw. “I doubt they’ll let us forget it. Or fail to make us repay their sacrifice.”
“That’s a bridge to be crossed,” Cal replies.
Despite our history, I feel the strange need to . . . defend Evangeline. “If it has to be crossed,” I say. “But we can discuss that later,” I add, nodding to the far archway, where Evangeline has just appeared with Ptolemus at her side.
The pair of them wear matching clothes of pearly white and bright silver. He has a jacket, tightly fitted and buttoned up to his throat, pants, and black boots similar to Cal’s, and a gray sash fastened across his chest from shoulder to hip. The pattern on it is strange, but as he approaches, I realize that the black diamond shapes dotting the sash aren’t a pattern at all, but knives fixed directly into the fabric. Weapons, should he need them.
His sister is equally outfitted, the folds of her long gown slashed to show fine white leather leggings beneath. Should this meeting end in blood, she won’t find herself restricted by a skirt. I wish I’d thought of that. Her hair is tightly braided back, the silver strands studded with starry glints of pearl metal. Razor-edged. Good for cutting flesh. Her arms are bare, no sleeves to impede her movement or catch on the jewelry on her hands. A ring winks on every finger, white stones and black, and fine strands of chain wrap around each wrist. Garrotes for strangling or slicing. Even her earrings look deadly, long and tapering to a wicked point.
I find myself glad Evangeline took so much time. She’s wearing an arsenal.
“Shall I have the clocks adjusted in your rooms, Your Highnesses?” Anabel crows from where she stands next to Julian.
Evangeline answers with a smile as sharp as her knives. “Our clocks are exactly on time, Your Majesty.” Her skirt billows around her legs as she passes the old queen, making for us. I shudder as she turns that smile on me. “Good morning, Mare. You seem well rested,” she says. Then she runs her eyes over Cal, teeth still bared. “And you don’t.”
“Thank you,” I say stiffly, through gritted teeth. I quickly regret any kind feeling I ever had toward her.
She revels in my sharp reply, and in the flush spotting Cal’s cheeks. Behind her, Ptolemus crosses his arms behind his back, puffing out his chest. Displaying the daggers proudly. Farley notes each one, her eyes wide and angry.
“A pity this meeting could not be held in the evening,” Ptolemus murmurs. His voice is deeper than Cal’s and infinitely less kind. He’s brave to speak here, especially to Farley and me.
I wonder if she sees Shade, as I do, speared by a blow from Ptolemus Samos. Even standing in his presence feels like a betrayal.
Farley has more restraint than me. While I can only keep my mouth firmly shut, she tosses her head with a sneer. “So your sister could have more time to paint her face?” she snaps, gesturing to the intricate makeup sculpting Evangeline.
The Samos princess shifts, if only a little, putting herself between her brother and us. Protective to the last. I almost expect her to shoo him off and out of our reach.
“So my father could attend,” she explains with a proud toss of her head. “King Volo will be here by sunset.”
Cal narrows his eyes. He sees the threat as clearly as I do. “With reinforcements?”
“More Samos-sworn to die for you? Hardly,” Evangeline sneers. “He’s come to oversee the final push against Maven.”
Oversee. Her storm-gray eyes darken, if only for a moment, shadowed by meaning. It isn’t hard to puzzle out the spaces between her words, what she means against what she says.
He’s coming to clean up our mess.
I shiver. The Samos children are formidable, violent, and dangerous, but they are tools at the end of it all. Weapons wielded by an even more powerful man.
“Good, saves me the time of summoning him here,” Cal says, resting a hand on the hilt of his bejeweled sword. He grins easily, as if the prospect of Volo Samos were his own idea. “I’m sure you’ll give him a happy welcome, Evangeline.”
The look she throws at him could poison rivers.