Page 108 of Thorn Season
Keil blinked. Shifted. Then his face became guarded in a way I’d never seen it. “From what I heard,” he said slowly, “they saved your lives.”
“Was that before or after they tried to interrogate us?”
He assessed me with a gaze void of his characteristic charm. “What were you doing in those tunnels?”
“Vereen ismyprovince. I could’ve been hosting a tea party in those tunnels and you still wouldn’t have the right to ask me that. So, unless you plan on kidnapping me again,I’masking the questions. How long have you been plotting a secret alliance with Carmen?”
Keil went rigid, and I knew I’d struck truth.
The realization had emerged only after the night’s chaos. The meeting between Carmen and Dashiel at Backplace; the deliberate kiss she’d planted, as if she’d known someone would be watching.Keil had been in the city that night—but not because he’d stolen her Bolting Box. He hadn’t needed to.
He’d been the one to deliver it.
He’d likely left it in Carmen’s lounge before catching me in the bedchamber. When Carmen had deposited the box in her vanity drawer, he’d played along, offering enough information that I wouldn’t suspect him.
But that meeting had made us wary of each other; while I’d believed he was after the compass, he’d believed I was after their secret—to use against them, perhaps, as another piece of leverage. Crossing paths again near Backplace had solidified our respective theories. I’d never considered thathe’dentered the time and location into that Bolting Box. Thathe’dbeen a part of Carmen’s secret meeting.
And there could only be one reason for the secrecy.
Why play a king’s bride when I could play king?Carmen had said. Because she wanted Erik’s crown. And she would use Ansoran support to get it.
Keil had never been searching for the compass at all.
“I understand why she would need you,” I said. “But what does Ansora get out of it?”
Keil’s jaw ticked for three long breaths.
“Fine.” I turned. “I’ll ask her myself.”
“Wait.”
I faced him, eyebrows raised.
“If this gets out,” he said quietly, “Wielders could get hurt.”
“YourWielders?” I scoffed. “After last night, I think I can reconcile myself to that event.”
I swiveled again, only to crash into Keil’s specter.
My own specter blazed to life with a force that shook me. And inthat white-hot second, I knew I was the stronger Wielder between us. I knew I could tear Keil’s specter apart if I wanted to—could splinter it out like a eurium blade, until he felt the pain deep in his bones.
I forced myself to rebalance, to bury the strength.
“Not just them,” Keil said, oblivious to my internal battle. He stepped closer and lowered his voice. “My sister journeyed here before me as an envoy of a different kind. With the Huntings rising so rapidly, she and Carmen were working to find vulnerable Wielders and offer them safe passage out of Daradon. That’s when the Hunters found her. That’s why theykepther. They realized she was reaching out to other Wielders, but they didn’t know why.”
I straightened, taking it all in.
So we keep them for weeks?Lye had said last night.Until it’s done?
He’d been referring to the date on the shipping documents I’d found in Carmen’s chambers. Not a means for her own escape... but for the escape of Wielders.
This was why the empress had sanctioned Keil’s rescue mission but hadn’t let him travel to Daradon without diplomatic immunity. Because if the Hunters had discovered Carmen’s plans with Ansora—if they’d managed to torture the information from Keil’s sister—it would have been enough to start a war.
“Carmen was helping to locate these Wielders?” I asked.
“Yes. And in return for aiding our people, my empress will support her claim to the throne if and when she chooses to make it.”
“The Wielders—how did Carmen find them?”
