Page 121 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

“It will. They can still go behind your back, still find a way to bend your commands in an unwatched moment.”

“Then the leash must be kept shorter,” Caryan counters casually.

“You can’t control them all, Caryan. It’s safer to kill them.” Riven hates the words, hates their truth. But he loves Caryan more.

“They are powerful. We need their magic.”

“This is madness, Caryan.”

“It’s power. Power I wield,” Caryan snaps back at him.

“Someone from our own rows betrayed you, and you still haven’t found out who,” Riven says back, voicing the truth, knowing the danger.

Caryan turns on him, his snarl sending the lights guttering. “Do not lecture me on things I already know. Tell me rather whether Khalix has suddenly decided to turn against me? Whether the Nefarians there finally lost their minds to challenge me.”

Riven shakes his head. “No. They haven’t, or I would know about it. I have plenty of spies there. This attack had nothing to do with them. Those Nefarians that broke into the Fortress must have been renegades, who long broke bonds with Khalix.”Riven lets a moment pass before he adds, “It might be the rebellion-group Shiera led. If that’s the case, more will be coming.”

“Therearemore coming, I can feel them. But where did they hide all those years?” Caryan’s eyes flicker with coldness, but beneath it he looks drained. Riven can see it on him, the way he’s paled even further, the way dark shadows rim his eyes—clear signs of the toll it takes on him to drink the blood of so many individuals and look into their memories. Even Caryan could only drink from so many a day without overusing his abilities. Without burning out.

“We never found any at the border, nor around the Emerald Forest. Avandal would never allow them in. So my only guess would be the Black Forest. That they searched for holes and flew back over the sea before we could sense them. I should have seen it coming,” Riven adds quietly.

“Even you couldn’t have known,” Caryan says, turning away.

“I should. That’s what I’m here for.”

“No one could have guessed that they’d survive the Black Forest for years,” Caryan retorts. “But it doesn’t matter. I’m going to find the traitor and make him pay. Make an example to everyone. Make everyone else see what exactly happens if anyone deems it wise to go against my command. And then I’m going to find those Nefarians and scatter their ashes on the wind. I should have tracked them down and extinguished them from the very beginning.”

“And… what if you don’t find them in time? They’re going to try again,” Riven states gravely.

Caryan’s eyes slide back to him, cold as death. “Let them. This is why I need you to watch her tonight. And the days and nights after. Watch her every step until I found out who wants her and how many they are.”

“I will.”

Caryan fully turns away from him. Riven, dismissed, strides back toward the door when a mumble makes him pause with his hand on the door handle.

“She said that I’m like Lyrian.”

Riven swivels on his heel to find Caryan still with his back turned, seemingly lost in thought. Only after a while does his king turn his head, realizing Riven is still here.

They look at each other over the silence, a strange echo of emotion flickering over Caryan’s face. Riven reins in his surprise before it can show on his own. He’s never known Caryan to question himself, not his decisions, nor his cruelty. Riven knows it is not some sort of mercy for Melody’s young age, nor for her humanity, because that has never stopped the angel before. Caryan is ruthless when it comes to the pursuit of his objectives.

Merciless.

This is new.

Until now, Riven believed that Caryan didn’t care how she felt. That all that mattered to him was to keep her here, locked up, serving him if need be.

He says quietly, carefully, “I can understand why it must feel that way to her.”

Caryan says nothing. He just stands there and watches Riven, his eyes gleaming in the dark like gems at the bottom of a very deep lake. Just as untouchable, as unreachable as the stars above. Farther away than ever. But still, he seems to wait for Riven to say more.

So Riven does. “It might help to give her a little more freedom, despite everything.”

“Freedom? She already broke through my wards and tried to run away.”

“She’s young,” Riven amends.

“She is reckless. She almost got killed.” Caryan spits the words out as if they are something unpalatable.

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