Page 192 of The War God’s Favorite

“You should go to sleep, too.”

“If we skip the Celebrations, we might as well rest early,” she nodded.

Kairen gently guided her to their room. For that night, another bedroom had been prepared for them to sleep inside Kareen’s apartments. Somehow, Cassandra didn’t feel safe going back to their bedroom after what had happened in her garden.

As she laid alongside her Prince, tired, it still took her a long while to fall asleep. Her thoughts kept going in circles over all of the events of that day; the unsolved questions she still had, and the threat of Phetra and Vrehan’s vengeance. Somehow, she felt like Phetra’s punishment had triggered something much more worrisome.

Cassandra finally fell asleep as the fireworks started outside. The thumps of her Prince’s heart against her back echoed with the Celebrations, finally soothing her to sleep.

Chapter15

“Your Highness! Your Highness!”

Cassandra frowned, waking up from all the ruckus. Next to her, Kairen was just sitting up too, with an annoyed expression. What was going on for them to be woken up so early? She could hear several servants outside, desperate to get their attention.

She had a bad feeling about this. What could it be? They wouldn’t have dared to wake up the Prince in the middle of the night if it wasn’t urgent. Kairen left the bed, grabbing his sword as a reflex, and Cassandra took her night robe to cover herself up too, following him to the door.

As they opened it, a handful of Imperial Servants bowed.

“Our apologies for waking the Third Prince and his Lady Concubine at such an hour! His Highness the Emperor is requesting your presence immediately!”

“Cassandra too?”

The servants exchanged glances, apparently unsure of what to answer.

“Uh… His Highness the Emperor only asked for you and Her Highness Princess Shareen to come at once, Your Highness.”

Shareen too? Kairen frowned and turned to her, as Cassandra was starting to really worry. What could have happened for them both to be called by the Emperor? Did it have to do with Vrehan, or Phetra? Had something big happened during the night?

Kairen clicked his tongue and turned to Cassandra.

“Go back to sleep,” he said. “I will be back soon.”

“No, it’s alright, I want to come with you.”

The Prince frowned, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“You need more sleep…”

“I won’t be getting any if I don’t know what’s going on. Instead of staying here and worrying, I would rather come along. Please.”

The War God frowned, but indeed, it would be unlikely that his concubine would peacefully go back to sleep after she had heard that. She was awake and looking very concerned already. Cassandra rarely fell back to sleep once she was up. He nodded.

“Fine.”

They both followed the Imperial Servants out. They had no more information about what was going on. Shareen met them right outside of her bedroom, in her nightgown as well, looking grumpy with her black hair all over the place.

“I can’t believe they dare to wake us up in the middle of the night,” she groaned.

Indeed, it was still a couple of hours before dawn, too early for anything else but an emergency of some sort. The siblings didn’t exchange another word and followed the Imperial Servants out.

It was a long walk to the Emperor’s chambers, but Cassandra was impressed by how busy the Palace already was. Everywhere they walked, Imperial Servants were busy working, silently cleaning rooms and preparing for the day. Everything had to look perfect before the members of the Imperial Family got up.

Once they finally arrived, the Imperial Chamber was still in the dark, only lit by many candlelights. A few people were present. The Emperor, in a gold robe, with dark circles under his eyes, was walking in circles in front of his dragon. The man looked older than usual without his usual fancy outfits and jewelry. By his side, two older men in military suits were standing, along with a man in a minister’s official blue outfit, and some Imperial Servants.

“Ah, Kairen, Shareen! Finally!” exclaimed the Emperor upon seeing the trio.

“What is it, Father?” asked Kairen, while his sister yawned loudly next to him.

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