Throwing himself into the chair closest to Eno, he leaned down, trying to get the man to lift his eyes. “Look at me, Eno,” he commanded in the hardest voice he could muster. Even then, it still took several seconds for Eno to lift his heartbroken amber gaze. “You knew my mother. She researched every person in my life. Do you honestly believe she didn’t know you were born in New Rosanthe?”
It took another few seconds for Eno to whisper, “No.”
“Do you believe she would allow her heir to be protected by a man who wasn’t absolutely loyal to her and Erya?”
“No.”
“Queen Amara believed in you, trusted you above all others. Don’t you dare throw that away now that she’s dead. She gave you a gift of trust that too few have ever received,” Caelan finished, his voice growing rough. Had she even trusted him the way she’d trusted Eno with his life?
Eno dropped to his knees, his shoulders hunched and head hung so low his forehead nearly touched the carpet. “I swear to you, my king, I will give my very last breath, the last beat of my heart, to protecting you and Erya. Everything that I am will always belong to Erya.”
Caelan reached out and gently laid his hand on the top of Eno’s shaking head. “I know, Eno. I have always trusted you. I pray that Erya and your king are forever worthy of what you’ve promised us.”
He glanced over at Rayne to find his advisor frowning. The man had remained painfully silent for far too long. As much as Eno valued Caelan’s words of support, he also needed to hear the same from Rayne. Caelan was too often the voice of impulsive passion, but Rayne was always cold, hard logic. And right now, that logic should be repeating the same damn words Caelan had said.
But Rayne was too quiet, and Caelan wanted to shake the shit out of him.
Caelan moved his hand to Eno’s biceps and helped him to his feet. When the visibly shaken bodyguard was seated on the couch again, Caelan tried to relax, but his mind kept trying to figure out what was occupying Rayne. Nothing good, undoubtedly.
“My brother…” Eno whispered.
“We’ll find him as soon as we can,” Caelan promised, which earned an even darker glare from Rayne. At least that was something he understood. They were in the middle of a war, a dangerous race with the Empire to protect the godstones. Searching for Eno’s brother right now was not the best use of their resources.
Eno at least had more common sense than Caelan. He shook his head. “No. The Empire.”
“At the very least, we can handle Croft, which will remove him from immediate danger,” Rayne finally offered.
“I had no idea he existed. I don’t remember him at all…”
“You were young. You were both incredibly young,” Caelan murmured.
Eno grunted and scrubbed a hand across his face. When he lowered it again, he sat up straighter and looked Caelan in the eye. “Thanks for sending General Morgan in our direction. She was what truly turned the tide at Green Gate. We likely would have died without her support.”
Caelan sighed and dropped back against the cushion of the chair. “I didn’t exactly order her there. I don’t want to make life more difficult for her in this mess. I just said that I had people who were working to feed Stormbreak. She took it from there.”
“But she did reveal that Chancellor Croft had ordered the Royal Guard to stay out of the city,” Rayne added.
“What?” Eno gasped, swinging around to face Rayne.
Rayne nodded and quickly updated Eno on all the nonsense she’d been spouting since they arrived. At the very least it put the fire into his bodyguard and possibly removed some of his own self-doubt when it came to his past.
“She’s lost her fucking mind,” Eno muttered at the end of it, and Caelan couldn’t agree more.
“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t incredibly dangerous to Caelan and all of Erya,” Rayne argued.
Eno nodded. “True. What do we do about her?”
“I honestly don’t know.” Caelan dropped his head back and closed his eyes. He and Rayne had been arguing about it for days now and had gotten nowhere close to an answer. There was no quick fix to dealing with Croft that didn’t create a bigger mess. And there was no escaping that their priority had to be taking control of the Godstone. He didn’t want Croft tearing his kingdom apart, but what was the point of fighting her to hold things together if the Empire was going to destroy them all anyway?
“I told Morgan and Tomas that your next move was going to be for the Godstone,” Eno said, drawing Caelan’s gaze to him.
“Well, second move,” Rayne corrected. “The first would be getting out of here in one piece.”