Page 165 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

“It’s true then? He’s attacked?”

Maksym cast me a rueful smile that rolled into a wince as he gripped his side tighter. “I’m afraid so. Not entirely unexpected, though we didn’t think it would happen so soon. Gallan, will you get the letter while I get Enora out of here?”

“What do you mean it’s not unexpected?” I stared at Maksym as he set his other hand on my back and steered me deeper into the room. “And what happened to you?”

Maksym did not yield to my efforts to stop him.

“We received a piece of intimidation material a little while back. Over, well…” He sighed as we dodged a trio of sprites squabbling between each other. “You. Your safe return to your people. And I refused to do any such thing, because I know there is nothing safe about returning you to that pitiful creature.”

My blood ran ice cold, and I swayed a little into Maksym.

“Careful,” he grunted.

“S-sorry, I…”

Oh, goddess.

This was what was in it for my brother all along.

He hadn’t just wanted to get rid of me to make his new life easier—he wanted to get rid of me in a way that meant he could declare war. Claim that my traveling party had been killed by the very kingdom we were en route to in the name of an alliance-driven betrothal.

But word must have gotten out somehow that I hadn’t died in that fire. That I was not only alive, but I was being kept within Grimmoria’s walls.

He could spin that in such unfathomable ways.

The tightness in my chest did not ease as Maksym guided me along. Halfway across the room, streaks of blood led to two bodies slumped against the wall, sitting in thickening pools. One was in tattered plain clothes and evidently Umbrite. The other? An Odessan soldier.

Their gray and green uniform had once been my second skin.

Maksym tried to move me past them with as much urgency as he could clearly muster, but I pulled him to a stop. The shifter man who cut me a dirty look as he sidestepped us could go fuck himself.

I locked eyes with Maksym, holding his amber gaze.

“What. Happened?” I bit out. “Do not lie to me.”

“Jasper and I dealt with a little…surprise this morning. We’d come here to talk, and…” He half shrugged. “We didn’t exactly get that far.”

My eyes flared. “Where is he?”

In all my panic, I hadn’t even realized Jasper’s face wasn’t among those packed into the war room.

“More hale than I am, and at the gate, don’t worry.” Maksym gave me a weak tug, and I acquiesced. “We don’t know if their forces turned some Steppers from the Wastes or what they are playing at, but some of our own are working against us. I locked our wards against all entry as soon as I could manage, but they launched an assault at the gate anchor stone shortly after. Our weakest point, unfortunately.”

My mind simply could not process the information that Maksym was rolling out to me like it was casual conversation.

An assault, after an ambush, and there was only a light shade of concern in his voice.

As if Odessa’s military forces banging on his kingdom’s door was an inconvenience more than anything.

“Why are they attacking the stone?” It was the first question that surfaced from the vicious spinning of my mind. “Why not just siege the Keep if they had a way in?”

He hesitated but finally released his side to pull me closer. “Because my ancestors were arrogant men. They had the most powerful ward stone erected just beyond our gates. The only one in the entire network not protected by a wall or city. Some monument to say, look at us and our power.”

I realized then that Maksym was transferring some of his weight to me, and that set off a brand new wave of fear.

I wrapped my arm around his waist gently as I asked a question I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer to. “And what happens if the stone falls?”

“Slight catastrophe.” Maksym winced as we met Gallan near the far wall of the buzzing war room. “Grimmoria’s wards would fail, and my heart likely wouldn’t handle the blowback of stored energy. Two birds, one…stone.”