Page 79 of MidKnight
What’s that mean?
Someone freed him.
Chapter Twenty
It hit me. Isla. That’s why she was here. Why she’d come so quickly and suddenly. Why she’d broken protocol. She’d come to free the djinni.
I wanted to use her crown to smack her across the face. That bitch. That sarding clever bitch made me waste away in meetings with her … I tried to think past my anger and put the pieces together.
I’d survived and captured Abbas. She and Raj hadn’t planned on that. Maybe they’d planned to plunder Evaness for resources or just take over. But either way, a powerful magical slave wasn’t something they’d want to lose.
I turned to Cerena and demanded, “Has Isla been here? Any of her people?”
“Just your friend and her father.”
Ember. Donovon. Ember had already gone. My heart constricted at the thought that she might have done it.
I looked at Connor. “Didn’t you say Sedara executed her family?”
He nodded gravely, “For smuggling.”
Ice ran through my veins. It was her. It had to be her.
“Get her father locked up.”
Ryan nodded. “I can have his quarters searched.
I knotted my fingers. “We should search all of her people. One of them might have it on their person.” I said it, even though my gut told me Ember had taken it. We couldn’t chance that. We couldn’t let them get Abbas back in their clutches. He’d already nearly killed me twice. I didn’t know if I’d get lucky a third time.
Connor grabbed my shoulder. “Bloss Boss, think carefully. I don’t think we can do that. If we publicly accuse Rasle and don’t find proof, we’re offending a country already prepared for war.”
“Their soldiers are on the shores, away from us! Preparing to go across the ocean,” I threw my hands out in frustration. I wanted nothing more than to tear apart Isla’s gowns and find that evil, sharp-toothed djinni.
Isla’s not stupid. She came her to take your measure, distract you, and free that djinni. It doesn’t mean she won’t attack you. She has back up plans in place, I’m certain.
I turned to Donaloo. “Rasle and Cheryn have amassed troops on the beach. Who are they going to fight?”
“Why ask a question, when the answer’s already known? Those who seek power always seek to topple the one who sits on the highest throne.” Donaloo’s answer confirmed everything we’d suspected.
They were going to attack Sedara. But sarding hell, Quinn was right. I couldn’t jump into accusing other monarchs when I didn’t have proof in-hand. I’d look crazy. Unfit. I needed to know more. I needed to know what they thought their trump card was.
I stared again at the wizard, “Who are Avia’s real parents?”
“What creature’s unseen in the deep, deep dark? What creatures have black minds but the voices of larks?”
Could he mean dragons? They live in caves? Fairies?I asked Quinn.
Declan will have to—
Yes. I know. Look it up. Wait! I have an idea!
I touched Donaloo’s unburnt sleeve. “My mother was supposed to have left documents for me. Confidential documents left in the care of her mage. He passed before I got them. I understand they were concealed with magic. Possibly in this tower. Do you think you could retrieve them?”
Donaloo gave a happy grin and dance. “Mother to daughter, secrets revealed. Knowledge unlocked and scrolls unsealed.”
Scrolls and papers fell from the ceiling of the mage’s tower, twirling and falling lightly like snow.
I snatched one out of thin air.
