CAS QUICKLY TURNED his head at the sound of footsteps approaching his door. He’d been alone most of the morning, and his first thought—or hope—was that it was Mary. He shifted against his pillows, running a hand through his hair.
The door opened to reveal Galo, and Cas tried to convince himself he wasn’t disappointed.
“Your Highness,” Galo said as he stepped into the room.
“Are we being formal this morning?”
“Seems appropriate, considering I let you get stabbed last night.” There was an edge to Galo’s voice, and he wouldn’t quite meet Cas’s eyes.
“Almost every member of the guard was in that room. I’m not sure we can hold you personally responsible,” he said lightly, but Galo didn’t crack a smile. “Did my father yell?”
“And your mother. And Jovita. They fired the guards at the door, the ones who let the man slip in.”
Cas leaned back with a sigh, pain rippling through his shoulder. “Do they know who he was?”
“I haven’t heard. The king is with him now.” Galo rubbed a hand over the scruff on his jaw. “I need to apologize for—”
“No, you don’t,” Cas interrupted. “I don’t want guards hovering at my side all hours of the day. You can’t protect me all the time.”
“That is actually our job. Protecting you all the time. Though it appears Mary is more than willing to pick up the slack.”
“Yes, she is,” Cas murmured, the image of her fist connecting with that man’s face flashing through his brain. Years of battling the Ruined had made her an excellent fighter.
“But I do need to apologize on behalf of your entire guard,” Galo said. “We wouldn’t blame you if you replaced all of us.”
“You know I’m not going to do that,” Cas said.
“It wouldn’t be the worst idea.” Jovita appeared in the doorway. She jerked her head, indicating that Galo should leave, and the guard quickly exited the room.
She stepped inside, closing the door behind her. “How’s the shoulder?”
“Fine. It’s not that bad of an injury, but the doctor insisted I stay in bed today.”
“I’m glad it wasn’t serious.”
Cas snorted. “Sure you are.”
Jovita gave him an annoyed look, but a smile tugged at her mouth as she plopped down in the chair near the window. “I would be very sad if anything happened to you, Cas.”
“I’m sure. You’d be devastated all the way to the throne.”
Jovita sat sideways in the chair, her long, dark braid dangling off the armrest as she tilted her head back. “You’ve caught me. It was me who hired that man to try to kill you at your wedding. I’m horribly jealous of you.”
“I knew it. Though I always thought you’d go with poison.”
“Much more theatrical this way.” She turned her head, grinning at him. “I’ve come with official news, though,” she said, swinging her legs around and sitting straight in the chair. “The man who stabbed you talked. He was a hunter.”
Cas’s eyebrows lifted. “A hunter? Of the Ruined?”
“Yes.”
“What did he want with me?”
“A small group of hunters have organized against the king. They’ve been demanding changes to the hunter policies for a while. Mainly that we make it a voluntary position.”
“Would people actually volunteer to hunt down and kill Ruined?”
“Not many, which is why the position is used as a punishment instead of prison.” She rubbed a few fingers across her chin. “What criminals want is irrelevant. We need hunters. The king had heard rumblings about them organizing, but clearly we need to start taking them more seriously. He hasn’t given up any others yet, but he must have had help. We’ll find them. In the meantime, we still have plenty of hunters making multiple Ruined kills every day.”
They were being hunted down and murdered, so yes, they defended themselves often. Mary’s words ran through his brain for the hundredth time since she’d said them. He’d never heard anyone even come close to defending the Ruined. No one used the word murdered. They were eliminated or killed or disposed of. Mary’s word hung in the air, taunting him.
“Do you ever wonder whether it was the right decision, to kill all the Ruined?” he asked slowly.
Jovita’s eyebrows shot almost to her hairline. “No.”
“Are they really all bad? Every single one of them?”
“Yes, every single one of them,” Jovita said, a hint of exasperation in her tone. She’d only been an adviser to the king for a year, but she always acted like she knew more than Cas. “The Ruined ruled over us for centuries without an ounce of compassion. We’re returning the favor.”
“True,” Cas said quietly. He hadn’t been alive to see the days when the Ruined enslaved humans and killed them for sport, and neither had his father. His grandfather had driven them out of Lera, but the Ruined had lost their hold on humans years before, after their powers weakened. Punishment from the ancestors for misuse of them, his grandfather used to tell him.
The ancestors had nothing to do with the Ruined losing their power, Cas’s father had said with a roll of his eyes. He was never the type of man to believe in things he couldn’t see. The Ruined will rise again. Unless we stop them.
The Ruined will rise again used to send a chill down Cas’s spine. Now he felt nothing but the weight of those lost lives. For all the Ruined’s power, they couldn’t rise from the dead.
Jovita stood. “The warriors from Olso arrive in two days. Will you be well enough to attend the dinner?”
“I’m sure I will be. I’m not going to miss the warriors’ first visit to Lera in two generations.”
“Good. Try not to get stabbed at that event too. We don’t want the warriors thinking we need someone from Vallos to save our prince.” She said Vallos as if it were distasteful, but a smile crept onto her face.
“The horror. Almost as embarrassing as getting beaten by their princess in the Union Battle.”
She glared at him, and he laughed as he sank down farther into his pillows.
“I wasn’t planning to poison you before, but now I definitely am,” she said as she threw open the door. “Watch your back, Prince Casimir.”
He grinned at her. “I have Mary to do that for me.”
“Why is it always sunny?” Aren looked up at the sky in disgust, shielding his face with his hand. “Even their weather is mocking me.”
Em followed his gaze to the clear blue sky. The air was fresh and cool, the birds soaring in the direction of the ocean. The castle gardens bloomed with red, yellow, and pink flowers, and various citrus fruits hung from trees. It really was disgustingly beautiful in Lera.
“The ancestors blessed them,” she said with a mock-serious expression.
Aren rolled his eyes. “If I have to hear that one more time, I’m going to kill someone. Don’t be surprised if you see one of their heads just suddenly separate from their body.”
She glanced over her shoulder, at the empty path behind them. “Say that a little louder. I don’t think they heard you on the other side of the gardens.”
“Sorry.” He lowered his voice. “My mother used to tell me the ancestors had blessed me. I don’t like hearing it out of their mouths.”
“I know,” Em said softly.
“Maybe the ancestors didn’t bless anyone. Maybe they never even existed,” Aren said, his voice wobbling. His mother had been the castle priest, and his words weighed heavy on Em’s heart. He never would have dreamed of saying those words a year ago.
She reached over and squeezed his hand briefly. He squeezed it back.
The castle wall came into view as they reached the edge of the gardens. A wide swath of grass stretched between the wall and the gardens, making sure that anyone who jumped it would be in plain view of the guards.
“There’s one guard in that tower,” Em said without looking back at it. The tower was on the east side of the castle, stretching higher than the rest of the building. A perfect spot to watch the entire wall.
“Maybe two,” Aren said. “And did you see that watch post when we came in? From where it’s positioned, the guard would also have an excellent view of the entire castle grounds.”
“I couldn’t see anything in that stupid carriage.”
“It’s in the trees, not far from the main castle gate.”
“Find out how those shifts are assigned. I want to know if it’s always the same few people, or if they rotate.”
“Got it.”
She touched the wall. Stone. It was very tall, but there was a tree near the wall ahead that could easily be climbed, though it would be quite a jump to the other side.
“Guards posted on the other side of the wall?” she whispered.
“Yes. Not a popular position. Very boring, apparently. And you have to stand the whole time.”
“Find out how many and where.”
“Already on it.”
“A Ruined could take this wall down, right?” she asked. “At least a piece of it?”
“Damian could take down a large chunk of it at full strength.”
“Good.”
They continued walking, Em making a note of how long it took to walk the entire perimeter. If a hasty escape was necessary, the wall would pose a significant problem.
“How was the prince last night? You saw him, didn’t you?” Aren asked.
“Fine. It’s just a shoulder injury.” She blew out a breath of air. “He wants to talk to me about the Ruined.”
“What? How did that come up?”
“It’s my fault. I can’t keep my mouth shut. I may have said they were murdering us.”
“Mary would have hated the Ruined, Em. They murdered her parents.”
“So? No one here ever met her. They don’t know that for sure.”
“Was he mad? Was it like, ‘We’ll discuss this later, peasant. Now leave me to my murdering’?” He lowered his voice in an impression of Cas and grinned.
“No. It was more like he was intrigued. Like he was willing to talk about it,” she said, and Aren gave her a baffled look. “I know! I never considered the possibility that I could actually talk sense into him.”
“It’s not a possibility,” Aren said. “Even if Cas is willing to listen to you and the king died tomorrow, it wouldn’t change anything. The king’s advisers support the Ruined policies. Besides, he’s what . . . seventeen?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s been able to take the throne for two years. He was in those meetings when they decided. If he had something to say, he would have done it already.”
“True. Sympathy doesn’t mean much if you don’t take action.” She shuddered as the image of a shirtless Cas ran through her head. She didn’t like him in her head.
“Have you heard anything about Olivia yet?” Aren asked.
“No. I’m waiting for a natural way to slide it into conversation. I don’t want them getting suspicious. So far all anyone will talk to me about is dresses and the wedding. They haven’t even bothered to tell me the Olso warriors are coming. I’ve been practicing my surprised face.” She lifted her eyebrows, parting her lips dramatically. “How is that?”
“Terrible. Don’t do that.”
“Maybe Cas will remember to tell me today, since they’re supposed to arrive very soon. He’d barely spoken to me before yesterday, so I guess there wasn’t much opportunity.” She scrunched up her face. “Now I think he likes me.”
“That was the point, wasn’t it?”
“I guess.”
He rubbed his hand across the back of his neck. “We never talked about . . . uh . . . the sex part.”
“And we will continue to not talk about it.”
“Are you going to ask him to wait? I don’t think that’s unreasonable. You just met, after all.”
“Aren, we’re not talking about it.”
“Right. Sorry.” He slid his hands in his pockets, taking a few steps away from her. “I have to get back. I told them I was just checking in with you, so they’ll expect me back soon.” He grinned. “Plus, we shouldn’t be seen together too often. People will think we’re having sex.”
Em wrinkled her nose, trying to keep a smile off her face. “Gross.”
“The feeling is mutual.”