Page 107 of The Rebel's Prize

Nothing good, it seemed.

Elarus left Sophie's side to join Valentin. She studied the prince briefly, then touched his forehead. She jerked her hand back, hissing something in sanctii. A word Chloe knew from her childhood when Martius used to supervise the games she played with her sisters.

Broken.

In her head, Octarus roared something she wasn't sure was rage or satisfaction, and she only just managed to stop herself from clamping her hands to her ears. Lucien shot her a startled look, but she smiled shakily, trying to reassure him as Octarus appeared beside her as though he wanted to see for himself.

"Gone," Elarus said. "Too many memories gone."

Lucien scrubbed a hand over his chin, looking grim. "A confession of a kind, I suppose," he said. "Perhaps he thought he would be able to just erase the memories of his treachery."

Or he knew exactly what would happen and had chosen that versus facing his crimes. The thought sickened her. As did the knowledge of what this would do to his family. She breathed in, fighting for composure. "How did he know that we had Istvan's confession? Did someone warn him?"

"We can investigate, but we may never know," Lucien said. "Valentin, what do you think? Is he likely to recover?"

"I doubt it. He feels...empty to me. We see it sometimes after an apoplexy or a severe injury to the head. The brain can only take so much harm."

"Will he live?" Lucien asked.

"I don't know. Some of the patients I've seen with this kind of damage do linger for years. Under the care of the healers, of course. One thing is certain, though."

"What?" Chloe asked blankly.

"The emperor needs a new heir."

EPILOGUE

"Where are you taking me?" Chloe demanded, half laughing as Lucien hurried her through the back halls of the palace.

He grinned smugly. "Hush. We're trying to stay out of sight, remember?"

"If you wanted to stay out of sight, we should have stayed home," Chloe protested. "Or asked Octarus to hide us."

Home. Where they had a nice big bed that had been used for little but sleeping lately. But no, he'd been adamant that they needed to come to the palace. And that he would tell her why only once they got there.

"I don't think using a sanctii to sneak into the palace would be wise even for us," Lucien said, his smile fading.

"No," she agreed with a sigh.

The palace was still at a high level of alert. Nearly a month had passed since Istvan's confession and Alain's...well, destruction was the closest word. He lived, but nothing really remained of the man he had been. While she wasn’t overly sad about what the prince had done to himself, she hated the grief he’d caused his family. She hadn’t seen Aristides smile once since they brought him the news of his son.

The official word was that the prince had fallen from his horse and suffered an injury to the head that he was not expected to recover from. The royal family were in seclusion out of respect, and the emperor would name a new heir in due course.

Most likely Madeleine. She was the next oldest of Aristides’s children and had a sensible head on her shoulders. She would be the empire’s very first empress when she succeeded her father, hopefully many years from now.

"Stop thinking about Alain," Lucien ordered, though his eyes were briefly serious. "No work today, remember? The whole day is ours." He lifted her hand to kiss the back of it. "Let's not waste it."

The first day off they'd had in weeks, in fact. The prince's misuse of the memory charms meant he couldn't provide any information, though it seemed a clear admission of guilt. But, in the end, they hadn't needed Alain. Between Istvan's contributions and the names Elarus had extracted from Deandra when Aristides, his eyes black with fury and grief after learning about Alain, had asked her to, the list of the conspirators was substantial. There had been little time for anything but work as the Imperial forces swung into action across the empire and in Anglion, rounding up conspirators. Fortunately, Deandra hadn't taught her memory magic to others, nor had she been able to produce enough scriptii to protect all those involved. The Truth Seekers were able to extract confessions without issue in most of the cases. Where the memory charms had been used, the sanctii stepped in to assist.

Istvan had received a life sentence. Most of the others had not been shown any mercy. The executions had already begun, Deandra's being the first. Lucien had attended. So had Octarus. Chloe had stayed away. Henri had told her that Octarus had gone to the Raven Tower afterward, standing with Mai at the top of the turret for nearly an hour.

Apparently, he did it regularly. Henri was already making not-so-gentle suggestions that she needed to bond with Mai. She didn't disagree, but she just needed the time.

Soon, she hoped.

"Do I have to drag you into one of these rooms and rumple you a bit to get your attention?" Lucien said, interrupting her thoughts. Heated desire suddenly pulsed through the bond, and she blushed.

"No. Sorry. Free day. No wasting it."

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