Page 73 of Antiletum
Really, I should have seen it coming.
“Fuck.” I rake my hands through my hair and replace my shirt, still slung over my shoulder.
I traipse through The Citadel, barefoot, fastening my pants along the way, until I reach theAlter’s quarters. No mind is paid on how I may be interrupting Mallin and Selise this late at night. The flat of my fist bangs on the door.
Shockingly, Mallin answers nearly immediately.
Just behind him, the emerald trimmings of theAlter’s apartments are clear, a row of leaded arched windows overlooking one of many rolling lawns. It will never stop being strange, Mallin and Selise occupying the apartments I spent most of the last decade in myself. Wearingthe same dark green and screech owl symbol my closest friend does now. Even the panels between the domed webbing of the ceiling match the typicalAltergreen.
He scowls and I answer it with a smirk to mask the anticipation bubbling in my stomach. “I know being courteous isn’t exactly your strong suit, Val, but have you any clue what time it is?”
I hold up the letter, letting the ink stamp of Parliament’s sigil inside stare him in the face.
“Ah, fuck,” he hisses, opening the door wide. He turns away from me, calling to Selise. “We have midnight company, love.”
“Tell them to go away!”
“I don’t think you’re supposed to tell your most esteemed Lord togo away,” Mallin jests, turning back to me with a grin and a wink.
Selise rounds a corner, still dressed impeccably from the evening. “Oh,” she says, clipped, when she sees me. “You’re here.”
“Yes, I know. Everyone is livid with me,” I say lazily.
It’s a front. The way I act so indifferent about the people I hold dear being upset with me. All for the same reason. An incredibly valid one, unfortunately. Beneath my bored exterior, I’m deeply bothered by the fire Selise glares at me with. The way Blair refuses to speak to me outside of anything Citadel orSuredeisrelated. And Delaney.
Just Delaney.
Mallin, though not thrilled with my antics, and Alaric at least understand on a deeper level than everyone else. Just how betrayed I felt by my father that day, as well as Rainah, having only just learned how complicit she was in my wife’s seclusion and keeping Delaney compliant with it.
I should have ignored everyone’s insistence to wait. I should have gone for her earlier.
Mercifully, Mallin doesn’t share Selise’s ire at my mere existence and asks, “What does the letter say? What do they want from you?”
He motions for me to sit in a wingback chair, facing the view of the lawns.
Cocking a brow at Mallin, my eyes cut to Selise while I slide into my seat. Mallin has mostly liked to keep Selise separate from the inner workings ofSuredeis.
It was never that she was untrustworthy. Only that she was not raised within the resistance, not like Mallin, Alaric, Blair, and myself. Selise, same as Delaney, had a sense of innocence still maintained in the event that everything fell apart before it’s meant to. But we’re now nearing the finish line, and there’s only so much hiding left to do.
Mallin nods for me to continue.
“I am to go meet withVulpesemissaries. To discuss the Thornridgeantiletumcrops that they already paid for and inform them they won’t be received. Nor refunded.”
Selise lets out a soft gasp, hands covering her mouth. Her demeanor shifts, like a mask being ripped away. Her care and worry bleed beyond her ire. Maybe our friendship can still survive.
“Why can’t you just return the funds?” Selise asks. “Surely Parliament can afford it.”
“It’s deeper than mere coin, my love,” Mallin tells her gently. “Vulpesisn’t worried about money. Not any more than Parliament. They have plenty. What they don’t have isantiletumfields. Beyond that, this is personal. Between Val and Parliament, given that he’s the one who destroyed the fields.”
Selise looks back and forth between me and her husband. “Because of Delaney’s parents.”
I give a short nod. “Parliament is teaching me a lesson.”
“More like serving you an execution,” Mallin scoffs.
“Are you certain they know it was you?” Selise inquires.
“I can assume so. At my last meeting with Parliament, a woman in the cabinet made too many hints that she’s been aware of what’s been happening in the background between me and Delaney.”
