Page 41 of Iris of the Crowned Flame

My heart leapt at his rush to defend me, even as it hurt him. He added, “I should have taken Egan out today.”

Father moved towards Spencer. “Trust me, son, I would have already killed him if we could defend that choice.”

I felt another flutter when Father referred to him as ‘son,’ followed by guilt over the knowledge that he would neveraccept Amyra like that. “We don’t have quite enough tying Egan to this group. Some members are sitting in the dungeons now, but we are letting others roam free, strategically. We need to have firm proof of a neighboring kingdom’s prince planning to kill the heir to our throne before we make such an accusation.”

The tension in the room settled down as we lost ourselves in thought, processing this. I realized that some of the excitement came from my magic stirring up the dust and soil in Juniper’s plants.

“Do they also know what the Priestesses suspect about me, Juniper?” I asked carefully. In trying to assess the threat that they posed to me, I needed to know if they also know the prophecy, but not everyone in this room did.

“With the amount of hatred we heard within Egan today, we fear they do.”

I nodded and sat with my thoughts. My gaze drifted down to where my hands rested in my lap. I started softly rubbing my thumb around the back of my other hand, a mindless gesture while I considered what steps to take.

‘Lyla?’ This wasn’t Emberly’s voice; this voice is much too deep and tender.

Without raising my head much, I looked at Spencer. ‘You learned too?’

Spencer nodded, almost imperceptibly. ‘I will protect you to the ends of the world until my dying breath. You are mine. We may not have taken any official oaths, but I will not let that stop me from treating you as my wife, my queen.’

Tears welled up, threatening to spill. Amyra reached into my lap for my hand. She must have thought that the tears were because of the threat on my life. I made eye contact with Spencer. ‘You are my king, my future husband. From here and now until the end.’

I inhaled deeply to gain control of my emotions. “OK. I need to cancel the Tournament. We can use Egan’s injury for justification. That should have caused a delay of at least amonth anyway, and by then it will be too cold for an outdoor spectator event. I can’t have Egan traipsing around my home, putting me and my loved ones in such danger. They already took my mother, and I will not allow them to take anyone else.”

Father and Juniper both shook their head.

“We can’t gather intel on him if we send him away. We need him here.” Juniper said. “Your Father and the Guard just had this discussion yesterday, while you were at the Temple. Egan won’t be leaving the capital.”

My stomach twisted, and for a moment, I forgot to breathe. My heart pounded so hard that I could hear it in my ears and my vision darkened a bit.

Father added, “We have more guards stationed around your chambers, in main hallways and along servant hallways as well. Ethan, you’re also under extra surveillance.”

As he said it, I heard the pebbles and rocks land along with my anxiety calming.

“Can Amyra and Ivy also have them when they’re not with me? And Spencer and Frederick need them, too. I know he only targeted Spencer today, but Frederick could also be in danger.” I refused to allow anyone to be hurt because of me.

Father nodded. “Already bumped it up after the event today. Spencer will find extra bodies at his doorway, and Frederick should have already encountered his. We also sent two to Egan’s room, with the order to follow him anywhere he goes. Instead of protecting him, they will gather information. They’re from the intel battalion. He was told it’s because of the Tournament bringing so many extra guests to the city, and that they’re not supposed to leave him alone.”

I nodded; it doesn’t hurt to have an extra set of eyes on that man. Or two, in this case.

“The second challenge tests diplomacy. Do you think we could rework it to get intel from Egan? If the games must go on, maybe we could change them to help us.”

“Clever woman,” Spencer smiled.

Father nodded. “Indeed. We can, and we will. Lyla, I’ll design it with my intel chief. He will have some good plans onhow to get him to reveal information he doesn’t realize he’s sharing.”

I nodded. I really wanted to cancel this tournament, but if we must go on, then I supposed it was time to use it to our advantage.

CHAPTER 27

Over the next couple of weeks, I met with Zoya to learn control of my powers. From time to time, Spencer and Emberly joined us for practice, which seemed to be the only way I could get time with Spencer. The extra guard duty made it impossible to find excuses to have dinner together without planning events that included Egan, but his new ability to speak into my mind helped to make the time apart not so hard.

I could find great control with my powers, and my neutral face became much harder to break as well. Spencer loved to test this by telling me some things he hopes to do to me one day while we are around others.

Fifteen days after the first event of the tournament, Father sent word that he wants to hold a meeting. He scheduled it for Juniper’s office again, since they hadn’t fixed the ‘ears’ in his office. We hadn’t met since the day of that event, so I was both eager to find out what he wanted, and nervous about it. I knew it was ridiculous to hope, but I wanted it to be that he had enough to lock Egan in a dungeon so we could end this tournament.

I also hoped that this meeting would let us get away with a private dinner with Spencer again. My memories keep goingback to that evening before the sparring event, and how much I wished we could have continued.

Amyra, Ivy, and I rushed to get to the meeting and ended up being the first to arrive. Juniper had invited Zoya and Emberly to be with us as well, and they arrived shortly after we did. While waiting for the others to come, Zoya and Emberly experimented with Amyra and Ivy to see if they might have magic as well. They had Amyra with a glass of water in front of her, trying to get a drop to lift. Ivy, with her gold eyes showing powers like Juniper, was trying to convince a piece of paper to move without touching or blowing at it. Mostly, the only thing they could do was giggle at the attempts.

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