Byn cleared his throat after a second to break the silence—and tension.

Slinging an arm over my shoulders, he said, “Let’s work on getting home.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

One Week Later

I turned to the next page in my current read, an old book of war records, breathing in the smell of leather and ink on paper surrounding me.

The royal library was quiet today—Laurence and I were some of the only ones inside, tucked away in our usual small pocket of the main room.

Today had been the first day since the battle that we were actually able to do some research of our own—and the first day I had felt up to doing so. Quinn, who normally wouldn’t bother with books, had requested the library workers to bring her multiple manuscripts lately. She had specifically been looking into the ink the Southern royals use for marriage tattoos, to better understand the vague feelings she had been having lately.

Chester had been busy as ever, with The Haven’s infirmary just now beginning to thin out some. He was not our only trokav in the castle, but he was the best we’d got, so he was often needed. Whether it be a newer trokav asking questions or a patient needing immediate help or simply making his rounds, he had his hands full.

Rayven had been doing his best to entertain the royal siblings from the Ocrein Isles, Byn sometimes joining him when he has a spare moment.

Apparently, Rayven’s parents were quite close with the Prince and Princess’ parents back when Rayven was young, before he relocated to the South. I didn’t know the entire story, but since Rayven was the only one besides Byn they were familiar with, he had bitten the arrow and had been keeping them occupied.

Teagan, as our usual point of contact for the North, had been trying to get in contact with my brother, but had so far failed. It seemed Dimitri didn’t want to be reached right now. So, in her spare time, she had been with Margo, trying to comfort the little one. Margo blamed herself for Ezra’s...death. We decided not to tell her about Quinn’s revelation, just in case we were only getting her hopes up to crush them again. She’d taken it really hard, but she was resilient. To get her mind off of it, Teagan has been training with her, trying to coax any zirilium Margo has out of her.

Byn and I have had back-to-back meetings almost each and every day with various groups—the nobles, the advisors, Quinn and her captains, the Islander royals and the points of contact for their army.

The day after we returned to Cairnyl, we made an announcement to all of Cairnyl that King Horace Heartshire of the North was dead, and the battle had been won—but not the war. It had been an awful feeling, hearing my new people cheer for the death of my father.

Byn had kept the details vague, but rumors spread anyways. Fortunately, I’d been so busy, I hadn’t had the time to listen to all of the gossip.

When I’d had time outside of meetings, I’d been showing Aurora around The Haven, and some of Cairnyl. One evening we took to the skies, and I gave her a tour from the sky, pointing outdifferent landmarks and shops that Byn had once pointed out to me.

I made sure she knew she had a place here with me, but she still seemed like a shell of the female I used to consider as close as a sister.

“Hey, where’d you just go to?” Laurence asked quietly, a habit he held despite the library being mostly empty.

I sighed. “We’ve been so busy the past couple weeks, I’ve hardly had any time to process anything. I mean, can’t we all just catch a break to catch our breath? Even for a moment?” I asked, frustrated.

“A crown is a heavy burden,” he responded simply, as if that fixed my problems.

“Tell me about it,” I mumbled.

Leaning forward against the table and resting my chin in my hand, I forced myself to actually process the words and numbers in the records book before me.

Slowly, my eyes widened with each statistic I read.

“Laurence,” I said after a few moments.

“Hmm?”

“Am I reading this correctly?” I asked, sliding the book across the table over to him and pointing to a section of what I just read.

His eyes scanned the page, then did so again for a second and third time. His head snapped up and our eyes locked, his mouth hanging open slightly.

“Does this mean what I think it does?” I asked, keeping my voice quiet as I began to pick at my finger’s cuticles.

Slowly, he nodded. “I think so. But how—”

“Aviva?” Teagan’s voice called out through the library. Laurence’s library habits obviously hadn’t rubbed off on her just yet.

She sounded slightly panicked, so I quickly closed the book I had just slid to Laurence and scooped it up into my arms before heading out to the main portion of the library.