Caelan Talos
For a long time, Caelan couldn’t speak. He didn’t know what to say.
The past hour had been spent sitting in a room with all the people he’d brought with him to Ilon along with Vitor and his crew. Adrian had relayed what they’d learned from his friend Diogo as well as from their visit to the shrine and the encounter with Safa.
Vitor and Davi added what they’d learned about the kidnappings and the clear link to the Ilon government.
Now all he could do was sit there.
He’d counted on the centuries-long alliance with Ilon. This was supposed to be the cakewalk. The easy trip. The one quick and painless thing he faced in this entire debacle.
They’d betrayed Erya.
They’d betrayed Damardor.
And they’d even betrayed New Rosanthe.
“It doesn’t matter,” Caelan finally announced when he could draw an even breath.
Of course, his words managed to knock the air out of the room.
“Are you shitting me?” Drayce shouted. He jumped to his feet from where he’d been sitting on the love seat, next to Caelan. He towered over Cael, his entire body trembling. “They’ve fucked us over. They’re supposed to be our friends, and they fucked us!”
“Is Erya just going to let that stand? You’re going to let them walk all over us?” Adrian added, leaning forward from where he was seated on the couch opposite him.
Rayne shifted in the chair on his right, but Caelan reached out and placed a hand over his, stopping him.
“We weren’t allied with Zastrad when we entered the country, and I still bonded with the God of Time. We weren’t allied with the dragons of the Isle of Stone, but I still met with the Goddess of Fire and won her gift.” He paused and shook his head. “I don’t need the approval of the Ilon government to meet with the God of Wisdom and bond with him. Right now, when we are faced with the risk of utter destruction at the hands of the Goddess of the Hunt, countries and governments don’t matter.”
“I’m not going to pretend to understand any of this god stuff. It’s just insane. But what about after you’ve defeated the goddess and this Safa? What about Ilon then?” The question came from the man who turned out to be Eno’s brother.
Caelan lifted his eyes to Davi. He wasn’t sure what Davi saw, but he took a step backward, his face paling a little in the early-morning light. Maybe it was the new crackle of energy in the air. Or maybe the others could also hear the laughter that echoed through his head from all the gods.
“The leaders of Ilon should drop to their knees and pray I don’t survive the battle. Because if I do, I will make them pay for the decades of pain and anguish they have caused my people,” Caelan swore. Besides, he would have defeated a goddess at that point. Breaking another country’s government couldn’t possibly be all that difficult.
Vitor rose from the seat he’d claimed opposite Rayne and bowed deeply to him. “I promise that by the time you complete your business with the Goddess of the Hunt, I will have all the proof you need of the involvement of Ilon’s government in the kidnapping of our children.”
Caelan nodded and released Rayne’s hand, placing his own in his lap. “Regardless of what you find or don’t find, I want you and all your people out of the country by the time I am in Stormbreak.”
Vitor bowed his head. “It will be done, Your Majesty.”
He then turned his head toward his advisor. “We’ll discuss this further and map out extensive plans. I want this done carefully. I want the information that we find spread throughout Thia. What we’ve learned won’t be lost with us.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Rayne agreed with the tiniest smile.
Yes, they were both learning. Caelan was pissed beyond belief and wanted to march straight to Parliament Plaza and destroy every building he saw. But that was the old, impulsive Caelan. The one who made the mistake of talking from his broken heart. He would think this through and discuss it with his trusted advisor. They would do what was best for Erya. No more mistakes.
“Now that we’ve got the whole ‘not grinding Ilon into the dirt’ thing settled, can we talk about the other big thing?” Drayce demanded, his glare directed straight at Caelan. “When the hell did you learn to stop time?”
“I didn’t,” Caelan replied, his tone clipped and sharp. This was not something he wanted to discuss. Ever.
“But—” Drayce began again.
“I didn’t. I can’t. What happened in the Shrine District was a one-time thing. Consider it an unexpected gift from Nyx. It won’t—can’t be repeated.”
“But if Nyx—”
“Drop it. I will not discuss the Dead God,” Caelan cut him off a second time. Only, he used the tone he reserved for when he was the King of Erya. Not simply Caelan. He didn’t like pulling rank on his friends, but talking about Nyx was dangerous territory. It led to things like confessing his own problems with time, and they couldn’t know about that yet.