Page 116 of A Rising Hope

“Yes, while a handful of battalions reach the city underground through the tunnels.”

I loathed the idea. But a part of me knew that Zora’s father was a well-known strategist because of his natural talent, one his daughter also possessed.

“I know him, Gideon.” Zora’s voice was filled with determination. She stared at me with the conviction of a thousand armies. “If you want to win this war, this is your only way. This is our best shot.”

“Last time they discovered a tunnel, it flooded with underground rivers and the poor souls drowned before it crumbled. Even if you’d find the entrance to one, chances are you would never find the exit. We would need the best smuggler to ever exist, even with Truth Tellers, and the city locked down, it could take us a very long time,” I reasoned.

“So if we find a smuggler to lead us through the tunnels, we could potentially finish the war before winter?” Finnleah proposed.

“Winter? Fuck that,” Priya hissed. “You need the best smuggler. We know of one.” Her eyes darted to Finnleah with a suggestive look. And to my surprise, my wife’s face beamed at the realization.

“Florian,” Finnleah uttered.

“Florian.” Priya smirked at her.

“The drug lord’skid?” I raised my brows, turning to my wife, reeling from my sudden feeling of jealousy at the way my wife smiled at the mention of his name.

“Thedrug lord’sheir,” Priya corrected. “Casteols have been using the secret network of tunnels for generations now. If anyone knows the maps to them, it’s going to be him.”

Orest, as if reading my mind, already voiced the question at hand.

“Without me being near enough to compel him, why would Florian Casteol consider helping Destroyers?”

Priya’s too haughty of a face really,trulyirked me, as she said.

“He wouldn’t be helpingDestroyers. He would be helpingher.” She gestured with her chin at Finnleah.

“And why would he be so open to helpingher?” I kept my voice calm, walking a dangerously narrow line.

“Ah, I thought you knew.” She theatrically gasped before declaring, “Freckles and him were a thing.”

All stares in the room shifted from Priya to my wife.

“We weren’t athing. We are just good friends.” Finnleah scoffed, dismissing my narrowed gaze.

“That’s not what guests at the Death Ball would say about Florian Casteol and his foreign princess.” Priya pretended to pick her nails, looking bored.

It was Zora this time who cut through prickly tension.

“Casteol would be our best shot, Gideon.”

“Oh, I agree. He would be thebest, wouldn’t he, Freckles?” Priya sneered across the room with her poor jabs.

The tunnels were a terrible idea.

Relying on Casteol was perhaps even worse.

But reason had long exited the room.

And now a part of me no longer cared for the tunnels nor the war. No, now I wanted to meet the man that made my wife beam with such a dazzling smile at the mention of his name.

“We arrange two meetings. One with the smuggler and one with general Thynirite,” I finally decided, eager to get this meeting ended. “Zora, Orest, arrange the negotiations request. And I presume”—I turned to my wife—“you’d be willing to send a letter to your so-calledfriend?” I raised my brow in question and the corner of her mouth twisted in a cruel smile, seeing a flicker of jealousy on my face.

“You can count on it.” She winked, clearly enjoying torturing me.

68

ZORA

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