Page 44 of In Rising Tides

It appeared they were waiting for their king to respond to this lunacy, or rather, they were waiting to see his feelings on the matter before they made up their own minds.

Lir’s deep, agitated voice rumbled through the council room. “That engagement has been in place since your birth, was it not?”

Lyra had expected a more violent outburst to her refusal, and instead, a coy game was playing out in front of her. She was not accustomed to this kind of maneuvering, except with her father.

But no matter how much he toyed with her, his reasoning, and therefore his goals, remained unchanged.

Here she was uncertain of the rules of engagement, or rather, the goals of each prince, and how they played to their advantage.

She was hesitant to answer Lir, so she glanced sidelong at Drystan for some kind of tell, and found his gaze fixed on her.

He was leaving the answer up to her?

Lyra sighed before answering truthfully.

“You are correct. But I fail to see what the timeline has to do with anything? I have never wanted to marry him, and I want to even less so now.”

“Now?” Hadrian pressed. “You mean now that he is king and has overthrown your father?”

“No—” Lyra spat, annoyed. “Now that I know it was him behind my kidnapping!”

The words slipped from her lips so carelessly that they didn’t land their blow immediately.

“Are you making a joke?” Lir asked, his eyes widening as his voice climbed. “Are you accusing the King of orchestrating your kidnapping?”

Hadrian shook his head, his dark hair waving as he did. “He would have had to make an agreement with the High King.” He floundered for the rest of the words. “That-that is absurd. He would never put you in the hands of those monsters.”

Lyra’s frustration grew as it pulsed through her veins with each beat of her heart.

It was going to be his word against hers, after all.

“Hedid.”

“To make a deal with elves would have destabilized our entire northern border,” Caspian said, tilting his head to the side as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“More than destabilize,” Rigel added. “It could have sparked war.”

They spoke over each other in a chaotic mess that it rivaled a hurricane.

Adamaris nodded. “There would be too much at stake.”

Prince Caspian moved to the center of the group and held up his hands, demanding silence.

When the volume in the room lowered and then cut off, he still stood there, hands on his narrow hips, facing Lyra and Drystan.

“What say you, King Drystan?” he asked with a ring of authority. “Do you deny her accusation?”

Drystan analyzed Lyra from the top of her head to the tips of her fins. It wasn’t a condescending look, but a calculating one, like how one might appear before moving a chess piece.

It made her uncomfortable.

He was plotting something, and she realized too late she had played her entire hand already.

Lyra had been wrong to assume he was more brawn than brain. Drystan was cunning in a way that frightened her, because it had been too easy to underestimate him.

He had usurped her father, made a deal with a High King, and somehow orchestrated the allegiance of wulvers.

She forced a swallow.