Chapter 29
CHAPTER 29
A fter two days of practicing dream stalking with Talan, I sit with Nivene at a breakfast table on the Barenton Tower balcony. As Aisling serves us breakfast, Nivene and I chat about palace gossip, the picture of two empty-headed sisters catching up, nothing but idle chatter on our minds.
“Did you hear about Baroness Gerwilda?” Nivene says, steam rising from her tea to caress her face. “They caught her having another affair with a man far below her station. A common soldier this time. No rank at all. Shocking.”
“Not another affair!” My eyes widen in mock surprise. Let Aisling think we’re as shallow as possible. “How does her husband stand the shame of it all?”
“I think that’s the problem. Gerwilda’s husband is drunk all the time. He doesn’t stand…nor does any part of him.”
We giggle as if this is the funniest thing we have ever heard.
Aisling pours us more tea. Rain lashes over the kingdom, but a sloped roof shields our table . The city stretches beyond the palace walls, blurred and softened by the mist, and the air feels clearer out here, freer. Safer.
While we wait for Aisling to leave us alone, my thoughts drift back to Talan’s dreams from yesterday. Again and again, he dreamed of being locked in that cell, like part of his mind was still stuck, his soul trapped beneath stone.
But there had been another dream, too—of him fucking me hard against a sycamore tree. A vision I couldn’t stop calling into my thoughts. I saw myself through his eyes, beautiful, delicate, dangerously desirable. Lips he couldn’t forget. I watch the rain slam down over the kingdom, and my mind rolls it over again: my legs wrapped around his waist, his mouth on my nipples…
Nivene snaps her fingers in front of my face. “Hello?”
I blink. “Yes. What?”
“I said, what Gerwilda wants is a man who will let her step on him.”
My jaw drops in feigned horror. “She never!”
Aisling sets out buttered oatcakes and wild strawberries for us. When she finally leaves, Nivene and I are silent for a few seconds, and then she goes to the door and peeks to see if we’re alone. Reassured, she returns to the table and her tea. “Okay,” she says. “We’re on. It’s finally happening. The assassination is moving forward.”
A lump rises in my throat. The nerves are getting to me, but isn’t this what I’ve been planning all along? And this will bring me freedom. To return to Avalon Tower. To end this life of relentless risk, where death waits around every corner.
Talan’s and Auberon’s deaths would end the war. The Fey would crumble into chaos, and Avalon Tower would buy peace with their blood.
Why feel guilty? They’re killers. They’d murder me without a second thought if they knew the truth.
“Okay.” Sharp coils of dread twist between my ribs. “When?”
She leans forward, lowering her voice. “I don’t know, exactly. Sometime this week.”
I frown. “Aren’t you the one organizing it?”
She hesitates, then shakes her head. “No. Avalon Tower is staying tight-lipped about the plans. They’re worried about leaks, especially after someone in the resistance got Meriadec killed. I don’t know who the assassins are, and they don’t know who I am. Avalon Tower gave me sealed instructions that I handed directly to Brados unopened. I only know the passwords we were supposed to exchange.”
“You didn’t read the orders?”
“No.” She furtively looks around. “According to new intel, I’m under suspicion by Auberon on the King’s Watch. I’m sure you are, too. The king has people trailing us. It’s too dangerous for us to know the entire plan in case…” She trails off and sips her tea. “You should start carrying hemlock on you. Nia, the second this is done, we need to get out of here. Understood?”
“Understood.” Neither of us could be captured alive. I clear my throat. “Nivene, I’m starting to suspect that some of the stories about Talan and his campaigns of torture…they might not be what they seemed. I think he’s taken the blame for things his father has done.”
She arches an eyebrow. “Okay. But he’s still trying to slaughter our army and invade the UK.”
“Right. It’s just that…he’s more complicated than I thought.”
Silence falls between us again, broken only by the sound of the rain. I drink my tea.
After another moment, I ask, “What else can you tell me? Do you have any details at all about the timing?”
She shrugs. “All I know is what Avalon Tower told me. It’s going to happen soon. We need you to ensure the prince is in his room every night. And the assassins will need you to unlatch and open the bedroom window so they can get in. Visit his room tonight, open the window.”
“That won’t be a problem. We’ve been practicing magic in the tower next to his room.” I warm my palms on the teacup. “But won’t it looks suspicious? Opening a window?”
“I thought he trusted you.”
I swallow. “He does.”
She leans back in her chair and takes a big bite out of an oatcake. “So, make it convincing. Let’s get this done, and we can leave.”
“What about Auberon? How will they get into his quarters without me opening the window?”
“No idea. They simply said that it’s being handled.”
My mind churns. “I don’t like this, Nivene. I understand the reasoning, but I don’t like that we weren’t involved in the planning.”
She purses her lips. “I’m not enamored with it, either. But remember that Raphael, Sir Kay, and Amon are all working on this with some of the Tower’s most experienced agents. They’ve been planning this operation extremely carefully. Have faith in them. It’ll be fine, they’ll get it done. We don’t need to know the details. Trust Avalon Tower.”
“As long as they get it done,” I echo hollowly.
Get it done. Kill the king. Kill the prince. Leave the kingdom.