Lilith Astor swept into the tower long enough to destroy and conquer, then she disappeared just as suddenly. Three days before I’m scheduled to move into the House of Cancer, I find Landon alone in his home office.
“Where’s Elise?” I ask.
“She’s exhausted from all the wedding planning.” The tap-tap-tap of fingers on his keyboard signals his distraction. “She went to lie down for a while.”
I step in and shut the door behind me. “I wanted to talk to you alone.”
My serious tone grabs his attention. He looks up from the laptop and removes his reading glasses. I never realized until now that he wears a pair. My brother, the studious ambassador.
“What’s on your mind?”
“It’s about Lilith.”
Leaning back, he runs a hand through his dark hair. The length has grown longer in the last month. “Why don’t you take a seat?” He gestures to a chair tucked against the wall.
I pull it to the front of his desk and settle in for what I expect will be an uncomfortable conversation. “Why didn’t you tell me you have a twin sister?”
“Technically, you and I both have a sister.”
I give him a pointed look. “A sister I knew nothing about until Liam told me who she was.”
Landon winces. “I should have told you, but things are complicated with Lilith. She’s…difficult to handle.”
I got a firsthand taste of her difficult nature, but I don’t tell him that.
“Is she coming back?”
He shrugs. “It’s hard to know what Lilith will do.”
I gather courage for my next question. “What’s the deal with her and Sebastian?”
Slowly he nods, understanding coming to light. “You want to know if they’re still involved.”
“Yes.”
Because as much as I hate it, Lilith Astor is an intolerable wall standing between any real union with Sebastian, and though marriage to a man in this tower isn’t something I’d chose for myself, I want it to be real.
I want it to be reciprocated.
“It’s an obsolete question, Novalee. He’s going to marry you.”
“Not by choice.”
Landon frowns. “Is that what he told you?”
“Not in so many words. But I’m not as gullible as you might believe. He wants Lilith.”
“Sebastian doesn’t know what he wants.” He shakes his head. “And you’ve got the wrong idea about him and Lilith.”
“That may be so, but I think it’s only fair you change this marriage scheme of yours.” Not that I pretend to know how he plans to make it happen. “I want Liam to be an option.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Give me a logical reason why.”
“I don’t trust him.”
“He’s always been kind, and he looks out for my best interests.”
“Or he’s looking out for his own.”
I narrow my eyes. “Whatever you’re holding back…” I wave a hand around his workspace. “Now’s the time, Landon. I’m leaving in three days.”
A lengthy beat passes as he studies me. “Perhaps you’re right.”
My shoulders relax as I watch him stride to the wall opposite the tall mullion windows. He slips his hand underneath a shelf on a bookcase filled with volumes of what appear to be reference books. Three seconds later, a landscape portrait of the ocean slides to the left, revealing a safe. After the security panel scans his fingerprints, the gears shift and the door opens.
My eyes are wide by the time he returns to the desk. With an air of significance, he sets an envelope on the surface between us.
“What’s that?” I stare at the letter-sized envelope, trepidation stiffening my muscles.
“It’s a letter your father sent mine.” He slides it to me. “Dated the week before your parents’ plane went down.”
I push it away. “Just tell me what’s inside.”
“Very well.” With a sigh, he settles back into his seat. “King Van Buren asked my father to ensure the safety of you and your nation…should something happen to him and his wife.”
I blink rapidly as Landon’s words filter through my brain in disjointed confusion.
Ensure the safety of you…should something happen…dated the week before…
“You’re telling me—?” My voice cracks, unable to put the implication into thought, let alone words.
“We don’t believe the plane crash was an accident. Someone conspired to have your parents assassinated.”
“Rowan?” I choke out as hot devastation bleeds from my eyes.
“We believe so.”
My mind flashes back to when I was under the thumb of a harsh, uncaring uncle who only saw me as a means to an end. A man who might have killed my parents. “Why did your father leave me there with him? For six years, Landon.”
“He did it to protect you.”
“Protect me?” I scoff. “Well, he failed.”
“No, he didn’t, Novalee. My father used the auction to make you valuable to Rowan, all while preserving the secret of your paternity, and that meant you were safe.”
“Safe from what?”
“The same fate as your parents.”
I hold my stomach, about to be sick. “He wants the throne.”
“Yes. We think he’ll attempt to have you assassinated after the auction.”
“But whoever I marry will be the king consort. He’d have to get rid of us both.”
Landon clenches his jaw. “Not if the man you marry is working with Rowan.”
I gape at him as it dawns on me. “All he’d have to do is abdicate, and my uncle would become king.” Rising on shaky legs, I pace in front of Landon’s desk as my world once again rumbles under my feet. “But what makes you think Rowan’s working with someone in the Brotherhood?”
He taps the letter on his desk. “The king discovered the plot. That’s why he contacted my father for help.”
I place a hand over my galloping heartbeat. “You know who it is, don’t you?”
He nods, mouth a grim line as an apology lights his emerald eyes. “Rowan was in contact with Chancellor Castle in the weeks leading up to the crash.”
“Liam’s father?” My voice is high-pitched, disbelieving. Instantly, my heart denies it. “No! That can’t be right.”
“It’s true, my queen.”
Landon’s certainty quakes underneath me, and that’s when the ground fissures. I fold into the chair before my feet slip through the cracks.
Because Liam Castle isn’t the safe haven I thought he was.