Page 134 of A Dance of Shadows

Who’s been spewing that garbage in his ear?

I shake my head. “That’s not the only way people can fight. Aurelia has her own plans. We’ve made some progress.”

“What has your ‘progress’ actually changed? He’s only getting worse. I tried not to doubt—I tried to ignore what I could see, to drown it out—but it’s too much. Even the gods know that Aurelia isn’t strong enough.”

I stare at him, apprehension crawling down my spine. “Have you been getting dreams you think are from Sabrelle again?”

Neven snorts. “Dreams… You believe Aurelia’s visions are god-sent, but not anyone else’s? The strongest ruler wins. Wehave to see who that is. And if it’s Marclinus, then we’re better off supporting him and crushing anyone who doesn’t instead of getting ourselves crushed along with them. But I’m not done challenging him yet.”

Raul grabs the front of his shirt. “You’d better be.”

“Hey!” I step in, placing my hands on both of their chests to nudge them apart. “Weshouldn’t be fighting.”

I turn toward Neven. “We’ve talked about this. Aureliacan’tmake a real claim on the throne until she’s the mother to an imperial heir—one that’s born and healthy. If she tries to push the issue now and topples Marclinus, she’ll have so many other parties to contend with who’ll want to force their case too.”

A momentary uncertainty flickers across Neven’s face. Then it hardens again. “Does she even know how she’s going to get rid of him once her baby is born?”

I can’t see how telling him that we’re expecting the emperor to essentially kill himself is going to result in anything other than disbelieving laughter… and the risk that he’ll ruin the whole plan by using the knowledge for his own ends. Nothing about what he’s saying sounds reasonable, no matter how fervently he’s declaring it.

He’s trying to be tough, but underneath all the bravado there’s still a scared little kid who’s seen too many of the horrors the empire can deal out.

Can I really tell him we’ll protect him?

A ghost of my father’s voice rises in the back of my head, chiding me for shying away from taking risks, for being too thoughtless in the ones I do. Frowning down his nose at me with all his years of disappointment.

WhathaveI actually accomplished?

But as I stand there, meeting Neven’s accusing gaze, the resolve deep in the center of me turns to steel.

We wouldn’t be having this argument at all if we hadn’t made progress. A year ago, we were keeping our heads down, grumbling to each other and glaring at Marclinus behind his back but never daring to step more than a few inches out of line.

We’ve come so fucking far. Every day, the court mutters more about their emperor’s erratic whims. Every day, they look toward Aurelia with more hope. Every kingdom’s rulers have given some sign of recognizing her worth.

She’s gotten one half of the emperor eating out of her hand, and that’s all we need to overcome both when the time is right.

If Neven’s head has gotten too clouded to recognize the victories we’ve won behind the scenes, we’ll just have to make him see.

The determination seeps into my words. “She does. We’re ready. You just wait and watch. The empire wasn’t built in a day, and it won’t be won in a day either, but we will win it. In some ways, we already have.”

The “heir” in Aurelia’s belly that’s my child, not her husband’s. The promises he’s making to her to murder his psychotic twin. All the awed and grateful looks that’ve been aimed Aurelia’s way as we’ve traveled through both Dariu and the rest of the continent.

The throne is going to be ours for the taking. We’re so close now. We can’t lose sight of that just because our youngest ally has gotten overly impatient with the godlen of war murmuring in his ear.

Neven gapes at me for a second before he manages to shut his mouth. He makes a scoffing sound, but I hear less rancor in it than there was before.

“I’ll watch, but I’m not forgetting my own place,” he says. “Now will you leave me alone?”

Lorenzo’s brow knits with concern, but I don’t think we can push the prince of Goric any farther right now. I can only hopewe’ve convinced him not to take any action more drastic than he already has.

And we have other concerns to see to if I’m going to carry out my promise.

I motion for the other two to follow me. Raul makes a disgruntled sound, but he stalks after me and Lorenzo into the hall and over to my own room.

“That fucking kid,” he growls, but I know he’s more worried than angry.

I touch his arm. “We’ll sort him out. But right now we need to sort out Marclinus first.”

Lorenzo’s eyebrows shoot up. He makes a brief gesture that amounts toWhat the fuck are you talking about?

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