Page 85 of A Reign of Embers

My fingernails dig into his chest. My head falls back. And just as Marc’s control breaks with another groan, I hit a new peak.

A spurt of heat fills me as my whole body sings with the heights of bliss. Quaking with the sensation, I sag into Marc’s arms.

He clutches me tight against him, the two of us still entwined as closely as any people can be. Alongside theheady rush and the affection filling me, a thread of relief ripples through my chest.

We have come an awfully long way, much farther than I could have imagined a year ago. I couldn’t be more grateful for that.

But how much farther do we need to go before this fragile peace we’ve founded is truly safe?

Chapter Thirty-One

Lorenzo

Mother reads the letter again, a small smile playing with her lips. I’d be happier thatsheseems happy if her mood hadn’t shifted the moment I made my presence known to her at the palace, before she even knew why I’d come.

I expected concern and questions about whether I’d really thought this quest through. Insinuations that Aurelia has manipulated my emotions. Instead, the queen simply seems pleased to have me here.

When has sheeverbeen really pleased with me since the sacrifice I made that took my voice with it?

“Well,” she says now, setting the letter on the small table. “That’s certainly something worth keeping in our back pocket.”

She doesn’t think it’s worth acting on right away? Did she understand what Aurelia’s asking? I’d have thought she’d havebeen the most prepared out of all the royal families after the vague but emphatic message I sent earlier.

I scratch my pencil across one of the papers from the stack next to me. The brazier that fills the high tower room with its thin heat crackles, waiting to consume my words once my mother has read them.

If Rione is going to offer our aid, it needs to be soon. It’s unlikely to be long before war breaks out.

Mother considers the note and flicks her fingers to consign it to the flames. “We needn’t worry ourselves with that. There are much more straightforward ways of gaining our freedom that don’t rely on an empress’s promise.”

My stomach twists as if it’s been snagged in seaweed. I scrawl out more hasty words on a fresh paper.What are you talking about? She’ll follow through—she’s given you the means to guarantee it. Tribune Valerisse isn’t going to offer any promises at all.

“Oh, I’m not interested in hearing from the tribune either.” Mother sits back in her chair, her gaze sliding away from me across the white-washed walls, and I wonder abruptly why it’s just her and me in this meeting.

When she first ushered me up the tower stairs, I assumed she wanted to hear the message I’d come to deliver right away, that there wasn’t time to gather my father or sister from whatever was occupying them. But I’m getting the impression that Aurelia’s letter hasn’t made all that much difference after all.

Mother’s had something in mind since before I arrived. My appearance may have propelled her onward faster, but on a route she was already following.

Is it a route she doesn’t think her husband or her heir would fully approve of?

I press my pencil more firmly against the next paper.What are you planning?

What could possibly be a better option for our people than the freedom Aurelia is offering? We’re in a far better position than the other conquered countries—we might send a host of soldiers only to find the battle is won before they reach it and risk their lives. Our distance, across the sea strait from the rest of the continent, has always afforded us a little extra security from trouble on the mainland.

Mother sets her elbows on the table and rests her chin on her folded hands. A trace of the sadness I’m more familiar with crosses her dark face. “You don’t need to worry about that. I’m just glad she sent you back to us, whatever her reasons. Now I have no reason to hesitate—the empire can’t use you to punish us.”

The strands of tension squeeze tighter around my gut. Is this what actual drowning feels like?

She’s always trying to protect me, as if I’m not caught in the middle of this whirlwind of politics whether either of us likes it or not. As if I haven’t been handling myself through it for the sixteen years since I was wrenched from my home—years that recently included the overturning of not one but two emperors.

I know the situation in Dariu far better than anyone here, I write.If you’re going to take action against them, you should let me weigh in.

The queen’s gaze softens even more. “Oh, Lorenzo. I think you’ve given enough for our family already. We’ll set you up in your old rooms, make sure you have every comfort I’d imagine they denied you in that wretched palace.”

She tosses my last paper into the brazier for me and stands. It’s a dismissal—she thinks the important part of this conversation is over.

She thinks I’m never going back to Dariu.

I stare up at her, my hands balling, and a jolt of certainty crackles right through the center of me.

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