Page 147 of Unrivaled
Between the two of them, they held court.The rebels interviewed the woman who’d be their future queen if Luca got what he wanted.
She never missed a step.
I left them to check where Thomas had tethered Storm, making sure nothing had been missed.I went over Bliksem, then Kadan’s horse, and Callum’s.
“They’re all very intense, aren’t they?”Isolde asked me, appearing at my elbow as I was starting to search for tasks.
“Yes.”
She lifted a brow, clearly waiting on more.
But I couldn’t tug Audrey hither and fro.That’s what she’d told me.
I’d outlined Luca’s plan to Audrey.I’d told her it was the men I’d come to the tourney with who’d sworn allegiance to him and the plot to crown him.
I’dtoldher.
Tell her again.Tell her until she listens.
“Well?”Isolde asked me.
The pressure in my chest was crushing.She already distrusted them all.She hated Luca.Nothing I could say or do with Isolde would change how she advised Audrey.
A footman belonging to one of the nobles I was less familiar with drifted past, and behind him was Luca, his eyes on me.
He’d been absent from her rooms in the evenings and put in only the briefest appearance two days ago, while she’d been busy securing the city’s future.
“You don’t trust him,” I said to Isolde, without looking toward Luca.
“Sure I do, if my blade’s at his neck.”
In the last of the privacy we had, I told her, quietly, “And that’s still too much.”
She made a thoughtful noise and peeled away, as if her errand was done.
She’d been gone mere moments before Luca fell in beside me, putting a hand on my shoulder.“Chay,” he said, as if we were good friends.“While there’s a moment, I was hoping we could talk.”
I led him into the shade, comfortable in the orchard.A flurry of conversation kicked up behind us, heated debate over something I doubted was truly emotive.
No one spoke about why we were really here.
She wouldn’t have utterly disregarded my words, surely.She’d put it together.I doubted she’d come to me with questions, not anymore.But mayhap Isolde?
I needed to speak to Isolde.Lay it all out.
“I’m going to be straight,” Luca told me, his voice low, his steps loud.“I don’t understand her, and I want to.You do.”
“Do I?”
“You do, and we both know it.”He shrugged.“What sort of knight doesn’t love his lady, Chay?You’re simply doing your job.”
I felt the hot twist of shame and fury in my guts, a shocking new combination that made me want to gag.
“She told me I let her down when she was a child, Chay.When she was young, and didn’t know the dance steps, I?—”
“Got her to stand on your feet,” I said, the edges of my vision grey.
This jester didn’t know anything about love, about Audrey, or about what was good foranyone.
