Rowan gave a sharp nod of agreement—and Aedion supposed he should be flattered. Until Rowan said, “My cadre, as Aelin likes to call them, was a lethal unit because we stuck together and abided by the same code. Maeve might be a sadist, but she ensured that we all understood and followed it. Aelin would never force us into anything, and our code will be different—better—than Maeve’s. You and I are going to form the backbone of this court. We will shape and decide our own code.”
“What? Obedience and blind loyalty?” He didn’t feel like getting a lecture. Even if Rowan was right, and every word out of the prince’s mouth was one that Aedion had dreamed of hearing for a decade. He should have been the one to initiate this conversation. Gods above, he’d had this conversation with Ren weeks ago.
Rowan’s eyes glittered. “To protect and serve.”
“Aelin?” He could do that; he had already planned on doing that.
“Aelin. And each other. And Terrasen.” No room for argument, no hint of doubt.
A small part of Aedion understood why his cousin had offered the prince the blood oath.
“Who is that?” Lysandra said too innocently as Aelin escorted her up the stairs.
“Rowan,” Aelin said, kicking open the apartment door.
“He’s spectacularly built,” she mused. “I’ve never been with a Fae male. Or female, for that matter.”
Aelin shook her head to try to clear the image from her mind. “He’s—” She swallowed. Lysandra was grinning, and Aelin hissed, setting down the bags on the great room floor and shutting the door. “Stop that.”
“Hmm,” was all Lysandra said, dropping her boxes and bags beside Aelin’s. “Well, I have two things. One, Nesryn sent me a note this morning saying that you had a new, very muscled guest staying and to bring some clothes. So I brought clothes. Looking at our guest, I think Nesryn undersold him a good deal, so the clothes might be tight—not that I’m objecting to that one bit—but he can use them until you get others.”
“Thank you,” she said, and Lysandra waved a slender hand. She’d thank Faliq later.
“The other thing I brought you is news. Arobynn received a report last night that two prison wagons were spotted heading south to Morath—chock full of all those missing people.”
She wondered if Chaol knew, and if he had tried to stop it. “Does he know that former magic-wielders are being targeted?”
A nod. “He’s been tracking which people disappear and which get sent south in the prison wagons. He’s looking into all his clients’ lineages now, no matter how the families tried to conceal their histories after magic was banned, to see if he can use anything to his advantage. It’s something to consider when dealing with him … given your talents.”
Aelin chewed on her lip. “Thank you for telling me that, too.”
Fantastic. Arobynn, Lorcan, the king, the Valg, the key, Dorian … She had half a mind to stuff her face with every remaining morsel of food in the kitchen.
“Just prepare yourself.” Lysandra glanced at a small pocket watch. “I need to go. I have a lunch appointment.” No doubt why Evangeline wasn’t with her.
She was almost to the door when Aelin said, “How much longer—until you’re free of your debts?”
“I still have a great deal to pay off, so—a while.” Lysandra paced a few steps, and then caught herself. “Clarisse keeps adding money as Evangeline grows, claiming that someone so beautiful would have made her double, triple what she originally told me.”
“That’s despicable.”
“What can I do?” Lysandra held up her wrist, where the tattoo had been inked. “She’ll hunt me until the day I die, and I can’t run with Evangeline.”
“I could dig Clarisse a grave no one would ever discover,” Aelin said. And meant it.
Lysandra knew she meant it, too. “Not yet—not now.”
“You say the word, and it’s done.”
Lysandra’s smile was a thing of savage, dark beauty.
Standing before a crate in the cavernous warehouse, Chaol studied the map Aelin had just handed him. He focused on the blank spots—trying not to stare at the warrior-prince on guard by the door.
It was hard to avoid doing so when Rowan’s presence somehow sucked out all the air in the warehouse.
Then there was the matter of the delicately pointed ears peeking out from the short silver hair. Fae—he’d never seen one other than Aelin in those brief, petrifying moments. And Rowan … Conveniently, in all her storytelling, Aelin had forgotten to mention that the prince was so handsome.
A handsome Fae Prince, whom she’d spent months living and training with—while Chaol’s own life fell apart, while people died because of her actions—
Rowan was watching Chaol as if he might be dinner. Depending on his Fae form, that might not be too far wrong.
Every instinct was screaming at him to run, despite the fact that Rowan had been nothing but polite. Distant and intense, but polite. Still, Chaol didn’t need to see the prince in action to know that he would be dead before he could even draw his sword.
“You know, he won’t bite,” Aelin crooned.
Chaol leveled a stare at her. “Can you just explain what these maps are for?”
“Anything you, Ress, or Brullo can fill in regarding these gaps in the castle defenses would be appreciated,” she said. Not an answer. There was no sign of Aedion among the stacked crates, but the general was probably listening from somewhere nearby with his keen Fae hearing.
“For you to bring down the clock tower?” Chaol asked, folding up the map and tucking it into the inner pocket of his tunic.
“Maybe,” she said. He tried not to bristle. But there was something settled about her now—as if some invisible tension in her face had vanished. He tried not to look toward the door again.
“I haven’t heard from Ress or Brullo for a few days,” he said instead. “I’ll make contact soon.”
She nodded, pulling out a second map—this one of the labyrinthine network of the sewers—and weighted down the ends with whatever small blades she had on her. A good number of them, apparently.
“Arobynn learned that the missing prisoners were taken to Morath last night. Did you know?”
Another failure that fell on his shoulders—another disaster. “No.”
“They can’t have gotten far. You could gather a team and ambush the wagons.”
“I know I could.”
“Are you going to?”
He laid a hand on the map. “Did you bring me here to prove a point about my uselessness?”
She straightened. “I asked you to come because I thought it would be helpful for the both of us. We’re both—we’re both under a fair amount of pressure these days.”
Her turquoise-and-gold eyes were calm—unfazed.
Chaol said, “When do you make your move?”
“Soon.”
Again, not an answer. He said as evenly as he could, “Anything else I should know?”
“I’d start avoiding the sewers. It’s your death warrant if you don’t.”
“There are people trapped down there—we’ve found the nests, but no sign of the prisoners. I won’t abandon them.”
“That’s all well and good,” she said, and he clenched his teeth at the dismissal in her tone, “but there are worse things than Valg grunts patrolling the sewers, and I bet they won’t turn a blind eye to anyone in their territory. I would weigh the risks if I were you.” She dragged a hand through her hair. “So are you going to ambush the prison wagons?”
“Of course I am.” Even though the rebels’ numbers were down. So many of their people were either fleeing the city altogether or refusing to risk their necks in an increasingly futile battle.
Was that concern flickering in her eyes? But she said, “They use warded locks on the wagons. And the doors are reinforced with iron. Bring the right tools.”
He drew in a breath to snap at her about talking down to him, but—
She would know abo
ut the wagons; she’d spent weeks in one.
He couldn’t quite meet her stare as he straightened up to go.
“Tell Faliq that Prince Rowan says thank you for the clothes,” Aelin said.
What the hell was she talking about? Perhaps it was another jab.
So he made for the door, where Rowan stepped aside with a murmured farewell. Nesryn had told him she’d spent the evening with Aedion and Aelin, but he hadn’t realized they might be … friends. He hadn’t considered that Nesryn might wind up unable to resist the allure of Aelin Galathynius.
Though he supposed that Aelin was a queen. She did not falter. She did not do anything but plow ahead, burning bright.