“That’s a good thing, remember,” I said in a low voice, but she shrugged off my words.
“I just wish I could have been in the thick of the excitement, like you were.”
I sighed. “It wasn’t at all exciting for most of the summer. Everyone seemed determined to shut me out.”
“But then something happened to make them realize they’re all fools?” Bryony asked.
I laughed. “Something like that. I’ll tell you all about it this evening.” We crossed the entranceway and started up the main stairs. “I suppose I’m in the same suite as usual?”
Bryony nodded. “And I’m only two floors above you this year.” She puffed out her chest in a dramatic pose. “Now that we’re important fourth years, we’ve all moved down in the world.”
I laughed again. “I missed you, Bree!”
“Not as much as I missed you,” Bryony assured me fervently. “I even missed this place—astonishingly. Why, I even missed those arrogant faces.” She pointed down the corridor to where both princes waited outside the door to my suite.
Suddenly I couldn’t hear her words anymore. All of my attention focused on one face alone. How could he look more vivid and breath-taking than I had remembered? His face had already been enough to haunt my dreams.
“I heard you were here.” Darius’s eyes were only for me, the warmth in them setting me on fire.
“I meant to arrive earlier,” I said. “But I was…delayed.”
“And yes, that’s just as intriguing as it sounds,” Bryony said, opening my door for me. “So if we all hurry her inside, we might manage to pry an explanation out of her before the evening meal instead of having to wait until after.”
Jareth followed her inside my suite with a chuckle, but Darius lingered, holding the door open courteously. As I walked through, he spoke in a low voice, just for my ears.
“It was a long summer. I missed you.”
I flushed, unable to help myself. “I missed you, too.”
I gave him a long examination, trying to ignore the way my heart pounded faster at the sight of him, still as good-looking as ever, despite the shadows around his eyes. “You look tired. Have they all been running you ragged?”
He shrugged. “I can rest when Kallorway is safe from this maniac.”
I shook my head. “If you don’t look after yourself, who’s going to protect the kingdom?”
He smiled down at me as he shut the door behind us. “Did I already say that I missed you, Verene?”
I smiled back. “You might have mentioned it.”
Now that we were safely in the suite, I stepped toward him, my arms reaching for an embrace, but he stepped away, the shadows around his eyes deepening.
“I haven’t heard anything from your parents. Have they changed their minds and sent their blessing?”
For one wild moment, I wanted to tell him they had, but I couldn’t bring myself to speak the untruth. I shook my head, and the light went out of his eyes.
“I was hoping they might have reconsidered with so much time,” he said softly.
“I still have hope they will.” I bit my lip, watching him carefully. “And I’ll admit I also had hope you might have changed your mind and be willing to put aside this plan of yours. Our happiness shouldn’t be reliant on them.”
He straightened, the unyielding prince I had first met visible again. “I gave them my word, and I won’t go back on that. I won’t steal you away like a thief, Verene. You deserve better than that.”
I sighed. “I just wish you would trust yourself, Darius. I trust you completely—I know you won’t betray me. You don’t need my parents to reassure you of that.”
His voice dropped even lower, a haunted look filling his eyes. “I wish I had your confidence in me. But I’ve made too many mistakes.”
“That’s quite enough sighing over one another,” Bryony interrupted briskly from the other side of the room. “Jareth and I are waiting over here with less than patience, may I remind you.”
For a moment I couldn’t move, still held in Darius’s intense gaze, unable to pull my mind back to the world around us. But then he turned to the others, his face closing off, and I shook myself.
Bryony and Jareth stood shoulder to shoulder, giving me such identical looks of curiosity and reproach that I had to laugh.
“Fine. But I’ll make it as quick as I can.”
I outlined everything that had happened from my aunt’s attack through to her soiree the night before I left.
A quick indrawn breath from Darius at my first mention of the attack made me pause. It was hard to interact with him like this—pretending everything was normal between us. I wanted to point out to him that there was danger for me everywhere, not just in Kallorway. But Bryony and Jareth’s presence stopped me, and I continued with the story.
The shadows were back around Darius’s eyes by the time I finished.
“And yet I’ve heard no word of this from Queen Lucienne.” He sighed. “I only wish our months of preparation had opened more effective avenues of communication.”
I shrugged awkwardly. “I’m sure she assumed I would tell you.”
Darius turned and strode up and down my sitting room. “I’ll need to check my own people as well, of course. But stuck here at the Academy, I can hardly call a soiree to gather them all together.”
My eyes wandered over to where Jareth was watching his brother with concern.
“Actually, about that,” I said. “I’ve been thinking. Jareth, you went on a delegation to the Sekali Empire just before we all started at the Academy, didn’t you? Did you go any further than the capital?”
All three of them fixed their eyes on me.
“Actually, we did.” Jareth sounded a little sick. “We received a tour of several of the regions. But I thought you were confident Tyron no longer had any hold on me?”
“I am.” I paused. “But it’s not Tyron I’m concerned about now. The way Captain Matthis talked…it reminded me of you. You couldn’t explain why you had two competing and contradictory opinions alongside each other in your mind, just as he couldn’t explain his own actions. But there was something else as well. Something separate.”
“What do you mean?” Jareth asked, his eyes intent on me.
“Even when you broke through the false thoughts, and Tyron was no longer renewing his control over you, you couldn’t tell us who you were working for. You remembered which attacks you had been involved with, but you couldn’t name Tyron himself. It was like you’d forgotten his identity entirely.”
“You think Conall got hold of Jareth on that trip?” Darius asked.
I shrugged. “It’s at least possible. He may have laid the groundwork for his son’s efforts.”
Jareth stepped forward, his face angry, although I knew the emotion wasn’t directed at me. “Well, have a look and see! Don’t waste any more time.”
“Connect,” I said, with strength, not having to keep my voice down for once.
For some reason I had expected Jareth’s ability to feel like a less powerful version of Darius’s, but it didn’t. He had far less order and control despite his natural strength. In comparison to Matthis, in particular, his energy felt like a giant mess, and it took me a moment to find the hidden hole, snarling the energy around it.