Page 109 of A Reign of Embers

After I’ve dismissed the image in the mirror, Bastien pulls me close. “You were amazing.”

I let myself get lost in his kiss before I turn toward the door. “We still have so much more to prepare.”

Outside the office, I find Axius waiting alongside four of my guards. Kassun immediately waves toward the length of the hall. “You wouldn’t believe— Your Imperial Highness, there were Sabrellian omens flashing across the walls.”

“I saw one in the meeting room as well,” I say, my heart sinking. Were they all through the palace? What will the court be thinking?

And— “Where has Marc gone?”

Axius answers first. “I believe he went to investigate after the omens appeared. He said he’d return quickly.”

He’s barely finished speaking when Marc does indeed emerge from around a nearby bend in the hall.

The former emperor strides over to us, his posture rigid and his mouth unusually flat.

I brace for bad news, but at Axius’s raised eyebrow, he only says, “I found no source, but Sabrelle stopped her display quickly.”

Marc doesn’t sound relieved, though. And when his eyes meet mine, a darkness smolders in them that sets a peal of alarm coursing through my veins.

Chapter Forty

Marc

Ikeep my mouth shut and my expression impassive through Aurelia’s reassuring speech to the court, through her overseeing of the construction efforts on the palace grounds outside and her mingling with the nobles in the parlor, through dinner and other entertainments. All the while, memories of glowing red omens float in the back of my mind, alongside her soft but steady voice.

“I swear before you on my life and my daughter’s that Cotea and all the other conquered countries will get your freedom of rule if you help me push back this threat.”

Every time the words come back to me, I have to restrain my jaw from clenching. Part of me wants to grab her in front of everyone and shake more answers out of her.

Part of me wants to shrivel up like a shrub wilting in the winter chill.

I do neither, but my wife is nothing if not perceptive.The moment her maids have left her chambers at night, she turns to me with her arms folded over the bodice of her nightgown. “What is it?”

I meant to confront her. I should have expected that she’d initiate the confrontation first. It gets us to the same place anyway, doesn’t it?

I don’t see any point in beating around the bush. “You aren’t planning on preserving the empire. You’re going to break it apart.”

Her deep blue eyes only show the slightest flicker of emotion. I can’t tell if she’s even surprised that I know.

“You overheard my conversation with King Stanislas. How?”

Calm as ever. So little rattles this woman. This time, my stomach twists through my automatic pang of admiration.

I gaze back at her, equally unyielding. “There’s a hidden area behind the mirror room where people can be stationed to make a sudden appearance or simply follow discussions unseen. Axius would normally have been back there, but he took you at your word that you wanted the conversation to stay private. I assumed there was nothing you’d say that you wouldn’t mindmebeing privy to. After Sabrelle started conjuring her omens…”

I worried about Aurelia’s safety. I lied to my supposed colleagues and slipped away so I could protect her.

And got to hear her offering up the territories my ancestors conquered centuries ago in simple barter.

Aurelia’s mouth tightens. “I suppose you needed to find out eventually, but that isn’t how I’d have wanted it to happen. I probably should have told you sooner. I’m sorry I didn’t.”

No apology for the scheme itself, no explanation. Just acknowledging her plan as an unshakeable fact.

My hands do clench then, despite my best efforts. “Youkept it from me because you knew I’d disagree. My foster brothers—they all know, don’t they? They made the offer for you in person with their visits. And all the while you acted as if you were only doing what was best for Dariu.”

All the while she acted as if she’d come to trust me.

She gave me her body and perhaps her heart, but not everything. Some part of her still lies out of reach, and I didn’t even realize.

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