Chapter 33
Sander
I make it down to the ground floor and behind a furnace in a utility room before I stop to catch my breath, my thoughts completely consumed by that kiss.
Astrid kissed me.
Me.
I’m glad you’re here, she said. I’m sorry I didn’t see you before. And then she kissed me.
There are important, urgent things I need to do, but this feeling in my chest, like a hole I didn’t know existed inside me has been filled, is making it ridiculously hard to concentrate. I’m not sure how I found the strength to leave that room.
Forcing aside my desperate wish to turn back time and live forever in that moment behind the desk, I unlock my phone and hit the call button.
It may be almost four in the morning, but the head of the Palace Guard answers within a couple of rings. “What trouble have you gotten into now?” Gregor was Freya’s personal bodyguard for nearly thirty years and has known me my entire life, and I expected nothing less than his irritated question.
Considering I’m moments away from trying to persuade a man of conviction that he’s wrong so I can save a whole city, maybe even a whole country, from unnecessary hardship, I shouldn’t be grinning right now. “What makes you think I’m the one in trouble?”
“Because Hex is on his way to California, and you’ve been parading about as him for over a week. Skies know why.”
Of course he knows. “I had a good reason.”
“Explain your reason, and I’ll tell you if it’s good or not.”
I quickly fill him in on the investigation and our current predicament.
Halfway through my explanation, he’s on the move, hopefully to send the Palace Guard into action.
By the time I finish giving him details from this morning, I know he’ll have the guards ready to flood the streets as an emergency response if necessary.
Candora doesn’t have a formal military, but the Palace Guard are some of the best soldiers I’ve ever seen.
“Do you need backup?” Gregor asks.
Yes, but our numbers are few as it is. “I’ll be alright. Your priority is the people in the city.”
“Be careful,” he warns me, then hangs up.
One problem down. Thousands to go.
My next call won’t be as smooth, and it rings long enough that I wonder if he’ll even answer. But he picks up at the last second, his voice groggy. “Prince Aleksander?”
“Up and at ’em, Grim. You have a country to save.”
“It’s far too early for riddles, Sander.”
Even a year later, I haven’t decided if I like Markham Grimstad, Candora’s first Prime Minister.
He nearly took the throne from Freya when he ran against her in last year’s election, which should be unforgivable, but he also took a bullet for her when the anti-royalist fanatics tried to assassinate her.
Grimstad is annoyingly decent, but he disagrees with Freya’s opinions often enough that brotherly duties require I make his life harder than it needs to be.
This morning, however, I get right to the point. “Anti-royalists are enacting a city-wide strike at dawn unless I can convince their leader to shut it all down, so I’m going to need you to be ready to handle the fallout while my sister’s abroad. Think you can do that?”
Though he sounds more alert now, there’s still plenty of confusion in his tone as he says, “What kind of fallout?”
There’s a noise outside the utility room, like a door slamming, and I freeze, holding my breath while I wait to see if someone’s found me.
The corridor is silent, but I drop my volume anyway.
“The kind where, if people get hurt, and they likely will, Lady Vardane is going to use her husband’s position to call for emergency powers to be given permanently to the House of Lords.
You’re a persuasive bloke; don’t let that happen. ”
“Where do you fit in all of this?”
I chuckle as another door slams, this one closer than the last. I’m running out of time. “That’s the real question, but I’m afraid I don’t have an answer. If I can’t stop this at the head, it’ll be on you to protect the people.”
“I’ll do my best, but I’m not sure what influence I have over members of Lords. They barely voted me in as Minister.”
“Be your charming self and act like you care about the upper class. You’ve got Mathis Fennor on your side, so if you can avoid insulting him, I’m sure he’ll pick up your slack.”
“Then I’ll do my best to keep the country from falling apart,” Grimstand grumbles.
“Thank you. I’m counting on you.”
“You’re really not going to tell me how you’re involved in this?”
“Places to be, things to do. Do your job, Grim, and I’ll do mine.”
“Always lovely to talk to you, Sander, though I have to be honest… I’d expect this sort of thing from your brother, not from you.”
“Seems to be a common theme,” I mutter. “Oh, and call Freya for me and tell her what’s happening, yeah?” I hang up. I need to get to Rowen, and I have a feeling that won’t be as easy as it was the first time.
Without bothering to check the corridor first, I shove the door open and make a break for it. Less than ten meters down the hall, Blackmere steps into my path with a hard expression, and I skid to a stop with a curse to avoid barreling into him, tempting though that is.
“You have a plan?” he asks and lifts an eyebrow.
He may have helped us with the signal jammer, but that doesn’t mean I can trust him. “Maybe.”
He rolls his eyes. “Will it work?”
“It has to.”
Glancing in the direction of the building’s front doors, he seems to debate with himself for a moment. Then he sighs, his expression resigned as he jerks his head toward the conference room. “Rowen is this way. He trusts me for now, but I can’t say he’ll do the same with you.”
I don’t have time to wonder if this is a trap. “Why are you helping us?” I ask, keeping my words low as I follow him down the corridor.
“I picked a side.”
It was difficult to think he would support the anti-royalists when Helena had a better offer for a man of his station, but it’s even harder to fathom he would go against them both.
As if sensing my thoughts, Blackmere glances back and chuckles as he adds, “Mine. We can’t all be heroes, so I’m choosing the side that gets me what I want.”
I’m starting to think Alaric Blackmere isn’t as awful as he pretends to be.
Picking up my pace, I walk the last few steps beside him as I say, “Yes, choosing to protect the average Candoran is abominably selfish.” I clap him on the back, returning his glower with a smirk. “At Fennor’s, when you got me drunk…”
“Far too easily,” he says with a roll of his eyes, then frowns, like he’s only now realizing that he’s been dealing with me instead of Hex longer than just tonight.
“Why did you do it?”
“Because I wanted to know where your loyalties lay.”
I try to think back on the things I said that night, but it’s all a little fuzzy. “And?”
He sighs. “First with Storme, then with Candora.” Slowing as we approach the conference room, he looks back at me with narrowed eyes. “I like you, Sander. But don’t expect me to ever like your brother.”
I grin. “That’s his problem.” Then I stride into the conference room with the confidence of a prince, taking in the man pacing in front of the dark windows. “Rowen! You and I need to talk.”
Rowen’s frantic steps jerk to a halt, some of the color draining from his face as he stares at me.
“What has she done now?” he asks weakly.
Something tells me Rowen has unequivocally realized that Helena is not even remotely on his side with all this.
“If you’re here to arrest me or whatever else she thinks she can do to me, it doesn’t matter. Everything is already in motion.”
“Hear the prince out,” Blackmere suggests, taking up his casual post by the door like this is all a regular Tuesday morning. “I think he’ll surprise you.”
“As if I need another surprise,” Rowen grumbles. He folds his arms, his jaw tight as he takes me in. “Whatever you have to say, Prince Aleksander, I’d prefer you make it quick. I’m a little busy trying to ensure my people don’t end up worse off than before.”
“That’s exactly why I’m here.” Dropping all pretense of importance, I approach him slowly, my hands up in a show of peace. “With what Helena Vardane is planning, your movement is more dangerous than ever.”
Rowen scoffs. “We’re not out to cause harm, Your Highness.”
“Sander.” I tip my head down in deference. “Please. I may have been born to royalty, but that doesn’t make me any better than you.”
He considers that for a few seconds, then nods. “Sander, then. I know what you might think of us, after what happened to your sister last year, but we’re a non-violent organization. Nothing that’s happening today is intended to—”
“Who’s going to suffer because they can’t catch a bus to the pharmacy for their medication?
” I ask, keeping my words calm. “How many kids won’t be able to go to school?
Will anyone go hungry because they can’t purchase groceries?
Will a protest unintentionally block an ambulance on its way to a hospital, preventing someone from getting lifesaving care?
” I shake my head. “Your plan isn’t a bad one, but you can’t account for all eventualities, which is what Helena is counting on.
She’s going to weaponize any negative outcomes of your plan, no matter how accidental, and turn them against you.
Like it or not, even if things go exactly how you want them to today, the nobility still have significant power.
Enough to override Freya under the right circumstances.
And believe me when I say that Freya is your best chance at real change. ”
As he processes my words, Rowen sinks into a chair. A weariness settles onto his shoulders, but he doesn’t look defeated yet. “That’s why Helena claimed we had the same goal,” he says, almost to himself. “Removing the queen as the highest governing power would benefit everyone.”
“Removing Freya,” I specify. “And likely replacing her with a regent until Parliament can remove the election laws so the people no longer have a choice in who sits on the throne.”