Chapter 30 Callan
CHAPTER 30
CALLAN
C allan sat in his private sitting room, a glass of liquor dangling from his ?ngertips. It had been a long day of council meetings.
He’d sat in that stuffy meeting room for hours, listening to his father’s Lords debate everything from the docks to the cost of crops to the increasing “problem” of the beggars on the streets. He’d refrained from doing much speaking, still trying to get caught up on everything that had transpired while he’d been off “vacationing for the last few months” as his father liked to say. There was also the fact that every time he attempted to contribute, the look his father gave him told him to keep his mouth shut. So he’d sat and listened to the Lords prattle on, making notes on things he’d someday change when he was the one sitting at the head of that table.
But he was also watching the Lords, marking their mannerisms, their facial expressions. Noting the little tells of when they disagreed but didn’t say so, or when they were pleased with a decision. The things Tava had been teaching him to pay attention to.
He watched how Lord Cardington shuf?ed his papers, trying to hide his excitement, when there was talk of taking land from farmers in the north so that the kingdom could provide more food for the underprivileged. The Lord would directly pro?t from such an operation, seeing as one of his businesses transported the majority of the food to and from the capital. Of course, the annexation of the land would be for the better of all of Windonelle, and surely the current owners would easily ?nd other employment and ways to provide for their families. Or so the Lord had said in a bid to con vince the others. Nothing had been of?cially decided and decreed, but the Lord seemed con?dent enough.
He watched Duke Travers clench his jaw almost imperceptibly when the king dismissed his concerns of tension with Toreall as soon as Lord Tyndell said there was nothing to worry about. Everyone else moved on to the next topic, but Callan saw the glare the duke sent Lord Tyndell, the man’s brown eyes seeming to darken with malice.
And he watched Lord Friswith hide the smirk that said he saw the duke’s glare, too.
Tava had been utterly brilliant at the engagement ball. While Callan had made small talk with the various nobility, Tava had maintained her shy demeanor, ever the timid and docile Lady. She greeted everyone he introduced her to, danced with a few of them here and there, but he never let her out of his sight. And when he would be on the dance ?oor with her, she would tell him of things she’d overheard and what to watch for with certain Lords, particularly his father’s Inner Circle.
Ever the little fox in the chicken coop.
Which is how she had heard her father speaking in a low voice with Lord Friswith of a rising threat to the west and things they needed to do to begin preparing for that threat. She heard him whisper of how he planned to bring it to the king’s attention at an upcoming council meeting and was asking for the Lord’s support in the matter. Since there was nothing but water to the west of Windonelle, he was obviously referencing Avonleya, and, in turn, Scarlett and the Fae. A servant had stepped in to offer Callan and Tava wine at that moment, and by the time they’d moved on, her father and Lord Friswith had moved out of earshot.
A quick knock on the door pulled Callan from his thoughts as a voice called from the other side, “Callan? It’s me.”
Tava?
He glanced at the clock above the ?replace. It was nearly midnight.
What was she doing here?
Before he could answer, the door was pushed open, and Finn came in, throwing him an exasperated look as Tava followed.
“You should have waited for him to answer,” she was chastising Finn.
“I told you, his night guard said he was in here. It’s ?ne,” Finn sighed.
Tava huffed, letting the door snick shut behind her.
“What are you two doing here at this hour?” Callan asked, glancing back and forth between them.
“We need to talk about this guard thing, Callan,” Tava said, removing the cloak she was wearing and tossing it over a chair.
“Oh?” Callan asked, arching a brow and glancing at Finn.
Finn rolled his eyes, moving to the liquor cart and pouring himself a ?nger of whiskey.
“Yes,” Tava was saying, her hands coming to her hips. She had on black pants and a black tunic, and her hair was braided down her back. The boots she was wearing came nearly to her knees, and Callan found himself trying to recall if he had ever seen her in anything other than a dress.
“He is everywhere. All the time. If Drake isn’t there, then Finn is,” Tava groused.
Callan cocked his head to the side as he watched the Lady begin to pace. He’d de?nitely never seen her this riled, and he wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it.
“He is your personal guard, Tava,” Callan said slowly. “It is expected of him to be there all the time. That is his job.”
“Then make it not his job,” she snapped.
Callan glanced at Finn again, and he sighed. “She has tried to sneak from the manor the last three nights and is frustrated she is not as stealthy as she thinks she is.”
Callan’s brows shot up. “Why are you leaving the manor at this hour of the night?”
“I have things to tend to,” she said with a wave of her hand.
“Such as?” Callan pressed.
“Just … things, Callan. Things I cannot have a royal guard following me around for.”
“Before I address that incredibly vague statement, I would like to clarify that you are trying to sneak out of the manor and evade your personal guard to go somewhere alone in the middle of the night?” Callan asked, setting his empty liquor glass on the table beside him.
“No! I mean …” She paused, biting her bottom lip for a moment before saying, “I know how this sounds …”
“Do you?” Callan asked. “Because it sounds like you are sneaking off to do scandalous things, Lady Tyndell.”
Her cheeks went bright red as she tried to sputter a response, and Callan hid the teasing smile tilting the corner of his lips behind his thumb, as he watched her grow more and more ?ustered.
Until the thought occurred to him that maybe she did have someone else. He was just a ruse after all, so it wouldn’t be inconceivable for her to have someone else. But if she did, he clearly wasn’t of nobility.
“Tava,” Callan said, pushing to his feet. “Do you … Are you trying to go see someone?”
Somehow her cheeks reddened even more as her hand came up to cover her face. “No, Callan,” she said, clear frustration in her voice. “I am trying to go see someone, but not in that way. I do not have some secret lover.”
The relief that ?ooded through him took him by surprise, but he said, “If you did, I would understand, but I would also need to know. We cannot have any more people knowing about this—”
“I am not having some scandalous affair, Callan,” Tava cut in.
“It would not really be an affair so to speak,” Callan mused.
“Stop,” Tava said, holding up her hand. “I have some tonics and elixirs I deliver to some of the poorer districts, along with food and clothing. I have not been able to do so for several days now, due to our circumstances and now him,” she said with a jerk of her chin towards Finn.
“Hold on a minute. Are you saying you go to the slums by yourself at night to deliver these things?” Callan demanded.
“I have been doing so for nearly two years, Callan,” she replied.
“By yourself ?” he repeated.
“Not right away, no,” she answered. “Scarlett would go, and she started taking me with her—”
“So she took you out to the slums with her?” he demanded, rage instantly seeping into his tone.
“I asked to go with her, Callan,” Tava shot back. “And when she became so wrapped up in the Black Syndicate orphans and everything with you and Sorin … I couldn’t let those people go forgotten again, so I started making sure the tonics the High Healer got to me were delivered to those who needed them. I started making sure that orphans outside of the Black Syndicate were getting food and clothing, too. As much as I can anyway. Because they matter just as much as the children Scarlett is trying to save.”
Her face was red for an entirely different reason now. Now it was tinted with fury, and Callan didn’t know what to say in response as she continued.
“But I am not her. Clearly. I cannot even get out of my godsdamn home the ways she took me so many times. I do not know that I am making much of a difference, but the little difference I was making is now being diminished because I cannot get there with Finn blocking my way.” Silence rang loudly in the room, and Callan ran his hand along his jaw, unsure of where to start with all of this. For one, he was positive he had never heard such language from her lips. He glanced at Finn, who was sipping his liquor and looking back and forth between them with interest.
“You have anything to say to this?” Callan asked him.
“Nope,” Finn answered, settling back into the sofa where he’d taken a seat. “This is your fake ?ancé. I will let you deal with it.”
“There is nothing to deal with,” Tava cut in, her tone already calmer. “I just need you to stay here while I go deliver these things.”
“Does Drake know you do this?” Callan asked, watching her carefully.
Her lips pursed, and her eyes darted to the ?re that was slowly dying out in the hearth. “No. He has other things to worry about.”
“Tava, the slums are nearly as dangerous as the Black Syndicate,” Callan ventured.
She scoffed at him. “They are not, Callan. They are not even close to the same. The Black Syndicate is full of crime lords, mercenaries, and drug peddlers. The slums are full of people who are forgotten because they are sick or poor or alone, with no one to care of their existence.”
“Even if that is the case, it is dangerous now,” Callan said, trying a different tactic. “People know we are betrothed. Some will see you as a ticket to a ransom reward for your return.” She opened her mouth to argue, but before she could, he continued, “And I do not speak of the poor in the slums. I speak of those wanting to move up in society and willing to hire out the aforementioned mercenaries and thieves to make that happen.”
Tava sucked on a tooth as she contemplated his words, before she sighed heavily and sank into the chair her cloak was draped over. And for the ?rst time, she let it show how much this whole arrangement was wearing on her. Scarcely a week had passed, but the life he lived was already taking its toll, was already draining light from her.
“Finn, can you give us a few minutes, please?”
“Of course,” Finn said, dropping his now empty glass back on the liquor cart. “I’ll be back in an hour.”
Callan nodded and waited until the door had closed behind him before turning back to Tava. Her chin was propped in her hand as she watched the small ?re, her other hand running her spirit amulet back and forth on its ivory chain.
“Tava, do you need out of this arrangement?” he asked, getting straight to the point.
Her eyes widened slightly as her gaze landed on to his. “No, Callan. I am sorry if I made you think that.”
“Please do not apologize to me. My life, the things expected of me, the dangers I deal with, and that you now deal with by merely being associated with me, are not trivial things, Tava. They would be a weight on anyone’s shoulders, especially when you have not grown up being expected to carry them,” Callan replied.
“I was raised in this society just as you were,” she argued.
“Yes, but being raised noble and being raised royal are still two very different things, Tava. More than that, if a lady’s family is hoping to marry her into a royal status, her upbringing is also different from what you experienced.”
“I understand that,” she sighed again. “But no, I do not need an out. I was unprepared for this whole personal guard thing interfering with my dealings in the slums, but I will ?gure something out.”
“I am not asking you not to go there, Tava, but let Finn come with you. Or Drake. Or me.”
“You cannot come. Neither can Finn. Even Drake would be a stretch,” she replied, her eyes going back to the ?re.
“Why?”
“Because you are the crown. Finn is a royal guard, and Drake is nobility and a Commander,” she replied, as if the reasoning were obvious.
“You are nobility,” he pointed out dryly.
“Yes, but for a long time, I accompanied Scarlett on trips. They came to know and trust me because of her.”
“So because she does not take me there, they will not trust me?” he retorted bitterly.
Tava glanced at him, looking him up and down quickly, before pushing to her feet and reaching for her cloak. “No, they will not trust you because you are the crown.”
“They do not trust the king?”
Some kind of hollow laugh passed her lips. “No, Callan, they do not trust the crown. They do not trust the ruler who seems to have forgotten them, who does not care if they have food, shelter, clothing. They do not trust the people who sneer at them when they ask for help to feed their children who have not had full bellies in months.”
Callan stepped back at the viciousness of her words. She had her cloak back on now and was heading for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“There are a few families in particular there who need these tonics. They are sick and have not had them for several days. I need to get them there somehow,” Tava answered, reaching for the door handle, but Callan was already there, holding the door shut.
“Let me come with you.”
“I just told you why you cannot, Callan.”
“I cannot let you go there by yourself, Tava. Not any more.”
“So what do you propose I do?”
“I can cover myself, keep my face hidden. They do not need to know I am the Crown Prince. Finn can do the same.”
“That will never work,” Tava said, shaking her head. “It is your only option, Tava.”
She held his stare for a long moment before ?nally accepting that he would not relent on this. “Fine,” she sighed, waving a hand at him to get his cloak.
He never took his eyes off of her, fearing she would slip out the door without him if he did.
He’d experienced that enough in his life.
Within minutes they had tracked down Finn, and Callan ?lled him in on the plan. The castle halls were quiet during the late hour, and the few guards they did pass didn’t question anything. When they were outside in the brisk winter air, Callan turned to make his way to the stables, but Tava grabbed his arm, shaking her head.
“We walk. They will immediately know you are nobility if you arrive on horseback or in a carriage.”
He nodded his understanding, his hands shoved deep into his cloak. “How do you get the tonics?” he asked quietly.
“The High Healer used to deliver them with Scarlett’s tonic. When that was no longer needed, Cassius would get them to me. Now she leaves them in a prearranged location, and I pick them up during the day under the guise of errands.”
It took them nearly an hour to get to the slums on foot, most of the hour spent in silence. Each district they went through became progressively more run down. The air became more stale. The puddles he was stepping in were de?nitely not melted snow, and the faces leering out of doorways had him wondering how Tava thought it was in any way safe to travel these streets at night alone.
She ?nally turned and began walking towards a small shack. He couldn’t call it a house. It was hardly standing. There were a few boards over windows, but not enough to keep the elements out. The roof was sagging in on one side, and the front steps had long since rotted away. The door Tava was reaching for wasn’t even properly latched shut. It likely couldn’t close properly anymore, he supposed.
“Maybe we should let Finn go ?rst,” Callan whispered, grabbing Tava’s other arm and pulling her to a halt.
“She is an old woman that can hardly stand. I assure you we are safe,” Tava replied quietly before shrugging out of his grip and pushing through the door.
“Tava? Is that you?”
The voice was crackled with age, raspy and somewhat slurred. “It is, Helen,” Tava replied, her voice impossibly gentle.
Callan tracked her in the dark as she moved to a small table and pulled a match from her pocket, lighting a candle and illuminating the room. An old woman was indeed huddled in a corner, thread-bare blankets wrapped around her frail body. Her thin, white hair was poking out the sides of a hat, and her shivering was visible even in the shadows.
“Who are they?” Helen rasped, eyeing him and Finn as if she could see their faces beneath their hoods.
“They are friends,” Tava said, kneeling before the old woman. “I don’t trust ‘em,” the old woman spat.
“You did not trust me at ?rst either, remember?” Helen grunted in response.
“Have you been able to get up and move around?”
“Been three days,” Helen said. “Chloe brought me food and water.”
“I am sorry I was not able to get here sooner,” Tava said, her voice carrying a hint of guilt that Callan felt in his own soul. He had been the one keeping her from coming.
Tava pulled two vials from her cloak pocket, uncorking one and bringing it to the woman’s lips. She drank the entire thing down, shifting a little when it was gone.
“I have another. You can take it in the morning. It should keep you comfortable until I can get you more,” Tava said, tucking the other vial into Helen’s gnarled hand before readjusting the blankets over her. “I will try to bring more blankets, too.”
“I’m ?ne. There are others who need the blankets more than I do,” Helen said, tucking her hand back under the scraps of fabric.
“I can only assume you have already given away too many of your own, Helen. I will bring you another as soon as I can,” Tava replied. “Do you need anything else before I go?”
“Blow the light out, child,” Helen said, leaning her head back against the wall, her eyes falling shut. “I won’t get over there anytime soon.”
“Of course, Helen,” Tava said, pushing to her feet.
“Ivan fell off the wagon again,” Helen called out. “Last I heard, he was in that alley by the Burchards’ hovel.”
Tava sighed heavily. “Thank you, Helen. I will get him.”
“Stay safe, Child.”
Tava blew the candle out before pushing past Callan and Finn and stepping back out into the winter chill.
Finn was pulling the door shut as much as he could behind them, as Tava pulled her hood back up, shoving her hands into her cloak.
“She will …” Callan swallowed thickly as he felt Tava’s gaze settle on him beneath her hood. “She cannot be warm enough,” he tried again. “What is her tonic for?”
“She has a condition that causes her joints to stiffen and become painful, sometimes making mobility nearly impossible,” Tava replied tightly. “The tonic offers enough relief from the pain that she can at least move around, which helps ease the discomfort even more.” She paused for a moment before adding, “Although with this cold, I doubt even the tonics will be enough to ease that right now.”
She led the way back to the street, passing more of the same types of shacks these people called their homes. Callan had never been this deep in the slums. He had certainly never come here as a child. The slums were full of lazy men and women who would rather fall into a liquor bottle than make an honest living. Fathers who abandoned their families, and mothers who regretted having children. That’s what he’d been told, taught to believe, and while he hadn’t entirely believed such things as he got older, he could admit there was still some sort of stigma attached to the place and its people. His parents would lose their minds if they knew he was in the slums of Baylorin with only Finn as a guard.
They would likely faint if they knew his betrothed was kneeling before them.
A few minutes later, Tava turned down an alleyway. There were a handful of barrels alight and several people gathered around them, trying to soak in the warmth. Most of them didn’t even acknowledge their presence as they passed. A few looked at them, and, although they could not see him beneath his hood, Callan could see them, illuminated by the ?ames. Gaunt faces, weathered by age and the elements. Hopeless eyes. Defeated souls.
Tava strode purposefully along until they were nearly at the end of the alley where a man was sitting against the brick wall. His eyes were half- closed, and Callan was fairly certain that was vomit down the front of the coat he was wearing. He had a scraggly beard, and the shoes he was wearing had holes in the toes.
Tava pushed her hood back, going to kneel once more, and Callan couldn’t keep himself from grabbing her elbow to stop her. She looked back at him over her shoulder as she said, “You insisted on coming with me, and I compromised on that front. But I will not allow you to keep me from helping these people.”
Callan opened and closed his mouth, having nothing really to say to that as she jerked her elbow from his grip.
“We’re here if anything happens,” Finn murmured from his other side, his eyes keenly watching the alley and the people in it.
“Ivan,” Tava said quietly, shaking the man’s shoulders. “Ivan, can you hear me?”
“Is that you, angel?” the man slurred.
“The angel is not here tonight,” she answered softly. “Just her helper.” “Nah,” the man slurred again. “You were always the angel. She was just the shadows you traveled in.”
Tava laughed softly. “If you say so, Ivan. Let’s get you up and over to Mary Ellen’s.”
“Gah,” he grumbled. “She ain’t gonna let me back in that place.”
“Of course she will,” Tava said, looping his arm around her slender shoulders, and before he realized he was moving, Callan was coming to the man’s other side.
“This ain’t no angel,” Ivan slurred as Callan looped his other arm around his own shoulders.
“Maybe it is,” Tava argued. “He is helping you, is he not?”
“Fuck, angel. The shadows helped me, too, but that didn’t make her no angel.” A hiccup escaped him as they got Ivan on his feet.
“Let me take him. You lead the way,” Finn said, coming to relieve Tava.
Tava let him and began leading them back down the alley. There were whispers as they passed by this time, and a few even started following them. Tava didn’t seem concerned, but Callan sure as hell was. These people may not know the Crown Prince was among them, but he was certain at least a few of them had to know that Tava was now engaged to him. News had to reach even this corner of the slums, didn’t it?
It took ten minutes to get to their next destination. This building seemed to be in better repair than any of the others they had passed. It was two stories and had a wrap-around porch, although a number of the boards were rotted, and Tava stepped carefully as she made her way to the door.
“Hey, angel,” Ivan slurred again while they waited for someone to answer the bell she had rung, when she pulled a string near the door.
“Yes, Ivan?” she asked pleasantly.
“Didn’t I hear you was getting married?”
Tava’s spine stiffened, and she pulled her cloak tighter around herself. “I do not know. Did you hear that?”
“Pretty sure. Is it true?”
Tava cleared her throat. “Yes, Ivan. I will soon be married.”
Ivan whistled low under his breath. “That’s one lucky son of a bitch. You take such good care o’ me. I can jus’ imagine how good you take of ‘em.”
“That is enough, Ivan,” Tava said ?rmly as the door opened.
A formidable looking woman stood there in a long, cotton nightgown. Her face was illuminated by a candle, and Callan could just make out the streaks of grey in her light brown hair. Her brown eyes skipped from Tava to Ivan and back again before she sighed and stepped to the side.
“I was wondering when I would see him again,” the woman said, as Tava stepped past her and motioned for Callan and Finn to enter.
“How are you, Mary Ellen?” Tava asked when the woman shut the door behind her.
“I’d be better if I was still sleeping,” she grumbled.
“I am sure that is the case. Helen told me he has found his way into the alcohol again,” Tava replied.
“It ain’t my fault,” Ivan said, while he was lowered to a sagging sofa against a wall. “I jus’ miss my Alice so much. She was the only thing that could keep my demons away.”
“I know, Ivan,” Tava said quietly. “Do you need anything else before we go?” she asked, turning to Mary Ellen.
“No, dear. I got him from here,” the woman answered. “Go get some rest. You look exhausted.” Tava’s cheeks flushed slightly at the words, as Mary Ellen added, “You can’t do the work the two of you were doing together by yourself, dear. Even though you are certainly attempting it.”
“I will be ?ne, Mary Ellen. If I cannot return with food and blankets myself, I will make sure that some ?nds its way here,” Tava answered. She turned to leave before pausing and looking back over her shoulder. “How is William?”
Mary Ellen’s face went taut. “He did not make it.”
“When?” Tava asked quietly.
“Two days ago.”
Tava nodded once, then went to the door without another word. They made their way back to the street in silence, Callan and Finn ?anking her.
“I have one more stop to make. To drop off a tonic,” Tava said.
“All right,” Callan agreed. They walked in silence a few more minutes before Callan asked, “Who was Alice?”
“Ivan’s daughter,” Tava answered curtly.
“She … died?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Ivan was arrested in the markets. They said he was trying to steal. He swears he wasn’t. Either way, he was held in the stocks for a week. No one knew where he’d hidden Alice while he’d gone out to try to ?nd her food. By the time they found her, she had died from dehydration,” Tava answered. “She was four.”
Callan nearly tripped over his feet, but before he could say anything more, a ?gure rushed out in front of them.
“You!” the man cried, reaching for Tava’s hand. “You are the one they talk about. You help them!”
The man’s eyes were frantic, and he seemed half-crazed, but Finn had already stepped in front of Tava, blocking the man’s access to her. Callan was pulling her into his side.
“Relax. He just needs help,” Tava said quietly, nudging Finn to the side.
“It’s you, right? The one he calls the angel?”
“Are you speaking of Ivan?” Tava asked.
“Yeah, that’s him. He said you can help my son,” the man cried. “These the shadows?”
“No. She is not here, but I can try to help. What do you need?”
“Can you come see him?”
Tava shook her head. “I’m sorry. I am not a healer, but if you tell me what is wrong, I can see if they can help and bring—”
“No, you need to come see him. He’s only a lil’ boy. Please!”
“All right,” Tava said, taking a step towards the man.
The man tensed as Finn and Callan began to follow. “Ivan said not to trust anyone else. Only the angel.”
“It is all right. They are with me,” Tava said soothingly.
The man shook his head. “No. Just you.”
Tava glanced over her shoulder at him, and Callan shook his head. There was no way they were going to let her go off by herself with this man.
Tava bit her lip, turning back to the man. “I am sorry, but if they cannot come, I cannot help.”
“He said you would help,” the man said, a hint of rage bleeding into his plea.
“And I want to help,” Tava replied. “If you can just tell me what is wrong with him.”
“I need you to come see,” he insisted.
“If the shadow was with her, would she be allowed to come?” Finn asked from where he still stood between the man and Tava.
“I only trust the angel,” the man ground out.
“Just let me go see—” Tava started.
“No,” Finn said, before Callan could say it himself.
“You said you would help me, not hinder me,” Tava said harshly.
“I am helping,” Finn replied, his voice low. “Something is off here, Lady Tava. Not one other person has insisted on it only being you.”
“They do not trust outsiders,” she argued.
“You need to come with me,” the man said, his anger growing. “My kid needs you.”
“She is not going with you alone. If he needs help that badly, you will let us accompany her,” Finn said calmly.
“She said only her,” the man insisted.
“She? Who is she?” Finn asked, his hand dropping casually to his side, within reach of his weapons.
Tava had caught the slip though as well, her entire body stiffening as she pressed into Callan’s side.
“I mean Ivan,” the man said, stumbling over his words. “He said only her.”
“Who sent you to retrieve her?” Callan demanded.
The man’s face morphed into ire, his lip curling up into a sneer. “It don’t matter. It will be reported back that the prince’s whore was seen here with other men.”
Finn had the man’s coat ?sted in his hand in the next heartbeat, a dagger at his throat. “I will not ask again: who sent you to retrieve her?”
“Fuck, man!” the man cried, as Finn dragged him down a side street and pressed him up against a wall.
“Who?” Finn demanded, throwing his elbow up and knocking the man’s head back against the bricks.
A startled cry escaped Tava, her hand clamping over her mouth.
“A woman,” the man bit out. “She gave Ivan liquor and me coin. Said when she came here, to get her to the laundry place and she’d take care of things from there.”
“What did she look like?” Finn asked, his dagger pressing into the man’s throat and a bead of blood welling.
“She wore a hood like you fuckers!” the man spat. “I don’t know. I need the money. I got mouths to feed. She said she’d come with me if I told her I needed help. That my kid needed help.”
“Let him go,” Tava said, her voice hardly a whisper.
“Tava,” Callan started.
“Let him go,” she said again, louder this time.
“He tried to—”
“I know what he tried to do,” Tava interrupted. “But he didn’t succeed. Release him. He was only trying to feed his family.”
Callan could feel Finn’s eyes on him, waiting for his orders, and he jerked his chin. Finn stepped away, placing himself between them and the man.
“Get the fuck out of here,” Finn snarled. “And report back to whomever you are working, for that if anyone attempts to abduct her again, they will answer to the Crown.”
“The fucking crown,” the man snarled, spitting at their feet. “Like any one of us here gives a fuck about the Crown. They won’t do anything unless it will add to their fucking coffers.” He started off down the alley, heading back for the main street, but he paused as he neared them. “You can bet we don’t need your help any more either, angel ,” he drawled, pointing his ?nger at Tava. “You can just go be with your prince and stay the fuck outta here.”
Callan’s grip on her tightened as the man disappeared around the corner.
“Are you all right?” he asked, looking down at her and trying to see her face beneath the hood.
“Can we go please?” she whispered.
Callan nodded, keeping her close as Finn led them down the street and out of the slums. She was trembling beside him, and he knew it wasn’t from the cold. There were no passing carriages at this time of night, so they were forced to walk the hour back to the castle.
“Do you want me to take Lady Tava home?” Finn asked when they reached the castle gates.
He glanced down at her, her arms crossed over her chest and still shaking.
“No. Send a note to the Tyndells letting them know she is here. Tell them we had an early breakfast together or something, and that you escorted her,” Callan answered.
“Done,” Finn replied, as they made their way to a side entrance that would lead directly to the wing Callan’s private chambers were in.
When they reached the landing of his ?oor, Finn bid them goodnight and headed for his own chambers down the hall, and Callan let Tava into his rooms. He pulled her cloak from around her, getting her settled on the sofa before attempting to get the ?re going in the grate. It came back to life a little, enough to give off a small amount of heat. He poured them each a ?nger of whiskey before he grabbed a blanket, wrapping it around her shoulders and handing her a glass. Then he took a seat on the other end of the sofa.
“Tava, are you all right?” he asked gently.
“I should really go home,” she said softly. “My father and Drake will be worried.”
“I already have messages en route to them.”
“My father will not be pleased to hear I spent the night with you.”
“You stayed in another room because we wanted to have a quiet breakfast together this morning. He can talk to me if he has any questions,” Callan replied simply. “Finn and the night guard are our witnesses if needed.”
Tava nodded, silence falling around them again for several minutes before she said, “You knew this was a possibility.”
“You said yourself a few nights ago that I have personal guards because there is always danger,” he said. “It comes with the royal title. We also have some prominent enemies right now.”
Tava nodded once. “I should have seen it coming. It was stupid not to. I just didn’t think I would matter that much in the great scheme of things.”
Callan cocked his head. “You did not think that becoming royalty would matter in the great scheme of things?”
“I mean, I knew it would, but I have never been that important,” she replied with a sigh, sipping on the liquor. “I have always been in the background, more of an afterthought.”
“You are anything but an afterthought, Tava,” Callan argued.
She glanced at him and gave him a small, knowing smile. “You rarely spoke to me before everything with Scarlett, Callan. Even when you dined in my home, I was formally greeted and then I sat quietly at the table. I am not complaining or seeking pity. I prefer to be in the background. You hear more there. However, I did not anticipate it affecting the people I was trying to help.”
“You are more worried about those who tried to aid in your abduction, than you are about the people who are actually trying to kidnap you?” Callan asked, a brow arching.
“I have people who care enough about me that my disappearance would be felt. My father. Drake. A few others. They would look for me, ?ght for me,” Tava answered. “Those people … Most of them do not have that. If one of them disappeared, few would notice and even less would care.”
“So incredibly sel?ess,” Callan murmured, watching the light of the ?ame ?icker over her features.
“I am not sel?ess, Callan,” Tava replied, pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders. “I simply care about the ones the kings and queens of this world forgot about. That is not being sel?ess. That is being a decent human being.”
They both got lost in their own thoughts after that, sipping on their drinks and letting their nerves settle. He’d never realized that Scarlett’s aid had gone beyond the Black Syndicate, although it shouldn’t surprise him. At that point in time, her priorities were those who could not help themselves.
Now her priorities appeared to be her new subjects and how they would be affected by the Maraan Lords. They hadn’t heard much from the Fae, and he was ?ne with that. They could stay in their Courts, and he would help his own people.
“She never told me,” he said into the quiet. “She never told me of anything other than the orphans in the Black Syndicate.”
“Why would she?” Tava asked. She’d removed her boots, tucking her feet beneath her.
“She was seeking my help.”
“And how long did it take for them to come to you?” Tava asked. “How many avenues did they try before they took the one that led to you?”
When Callan had nothing to say to that, she said, “You were their last resort, Callan. She was one of them, not one of you. She was one of the forgotten.”
“She was raised by an Assassin Lord,” Callan argued defensively.
Tava scoffed. “Yes, what a lovely childhood. Being given over to a master and taught to take life. What child wouldn’t want to grow up in such conditions?”
“You are incredibly candid when we are alone,” Callan muttered.
“And you are incredibly na?ve to think she would have told you anything of her world when the Crown has proven time and again that they do not care,” Tava shot back.
“She could have tried,” he argued. “I told her that I wanted to take care of the people within our own borders while my father and his council seeks more land. I told her this was where my focus lies.”
“And yet you have done nothing to prove such a thing,” Tava replied. “You say she could have tried? So could you, Callan. Before tonight, had you ever been to the slums? Before tonight, had you ever cared for someone who could not take care of themselves? Before tonight, had you ever seen them as actual people? Tried to understand their world? The struggles they face? Why they face them? Do you even care now?”
There was so much passion and ?erceness in her voice that Callan sat up straighter at it, marveled at it.
“How were you raised in this world and yet somehow not succumb to the fallacies of nobility?” he asked, leaning towards her.
“You see things when you are in the background, Callan. You see all the things the rest of the world tries to ignore,” she answered softly.
“Can you show them to me?”
Her eyes ?nally met his at the question, and as she studied him, he felt as if she were studying his soul, trying to decide if he was worthy of such a thing.
She sighed. “Not any more. Not after tonight. I am no longer welcome in their world. More than that, I fear they will be used again to try to get to me and that is not fair to them.”
“So we eliminate the threat,” Callan said.
“We do not even know who the threat is.”
“Little fox, I think we both know who was behind what happened tonight.”
“Stop calling me that,” she said on a breath of laughter.
“It ?ts you so well, though,” he replied with a grin.
“You really think it was Veda?”
“I’d bet my crown on it.”
“How incredibly elitist of you,” she mocked.
“We will deal with this threat, Lady Tava,” Callan said. “Then you can bring me into your world, and show me the ones you keep company with in the background.”
“Deal, your Highness,” she replied, holding her nearly empty glass out to him.
He knocked his own against it in agreement, and found himself wondering how anyone could think of Lady Tava Tyndell as an afterthought.