Page 127 of The Inadequate Heir (The Bridge Kingdom 3)

“You’ll just have to trust my intentions,” he said to his aunt. “Trust that if I’m given the chance to rule, I’ll do what I think is right.”

His aunt smiled, then wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight in a way she hadn’t since he was a boy. “I know you will, dear one. Just as I’ll do everything in my power to ensure you succeed.”

61

ZARRAH

“Your arms have healed.”

Zarrah touched one forearm, the swelling from the blows she’d taken from Otis gone, the bruising faded to yellow that was easily covered by cosmetics. She was lucky he hadn’t struck her face, for that would have been a difficult injury to explain, given the story she’d provided Coralyn. “Does that mean I will regain my liberty?”

Long days of being trapped inside this room, seeing no one but Coralyn’s trusted servants, had driven her to the point of madness, and she was desperate to step outside. To breathe fresh air again.

“Yes,” Coralyn answered, taking a seat and crossing her ankles beneath the chair. “If you play your cards right, these hours will be the last you ever spend within the comfort of my hospitality.”

Zarrah’s heart skipped, then raced, and it was a struggle not to hold her breath as she waited for the woman to say more.

“Tonight,” Coralyn said, “the Ithicanians, with the harem’s assistance, will attack during a dinner Silas is hosting for the ambassadors. Their intent is to rescue their king, and I’ve arranged for them to take you with them. After you kill Silas.”

Zarrah blinked in shock, for the last thing she’d expected was a plan of this scope. “Why would they agree to help me? Ithicana and Valcotta are at odds.”

“Because I made the harem’s assistance conditional upon it. They’ve given their word.”

Zarrah narrowed her eyes, distrust flooding her core. “Why? Why not have the Ithicanians kill him during Aren’s rescue, given they certainly have cause? Why involve me at all?”

The old woman lifted one shoulder. “My reasons are manyfold. But the foremost is that you’re the only one I trust to kill Silas no matter the personal cost to you. He murdered your mother. Cut off her head and left you tied beneath her body while it rotted. You won’t leave him alive.”

Zarrah’s instincts told her that Coralyn’s words were the truth even as they screamed there was far more at play. “Why? Aren and his people desire vengeance against Silas just as much as I do.”

A furrow formed in Coralyn’s brow, though it swiftly smoothed away. “I fear they’ll place rescuing Aren ahead of that vengeance, and I can’t risk that. I need certainty, Zarrah. I need toknowthat Silas will breathe his last tonight. If he survives a day longer, my favorite nephew might not.”

“You mean Keris.” Zarrah’s hands turned cold, because she could see the real fear in Coralyn’s eyes, and it infected her own heart, though she was careful to keep it from her face.

Coralyn inclined her head. “I assure you, if the situation was not dire, I’d not take these risks. Nor would I lower myself to an alliance with a Valcottan. But the Magpie wants Keris dead, and he’s very skilled at getting what he wants.”

She wasn’t lying.

Zarrah knew better than anyone that Serin had set a target between Keris’s shoulders, but she’d also heard Silas forbid any harm to come to his son. “I was under the impression Silas had ordered him to depart to Nerastis, which would put him out of Serin’s reach for a time, no? Why are you so desperate, Coralyn?”

“Because he won’t leave!” The words exploded from the old woman’s lips, and in a flash, she was on her feet. “Cursed stubborn boy has drawn a line in the sand and refuses to go.”

Keris was still here.

She hadn’t seen him once since his father had ordered his departure. Although her heart had told her that he wouldn’t leave without some form of goodbye, each day that had passed, her uncertainty of whether he remained had grown. Knowing that he hadn’t abandoned her filled her with warmth even as concern that he was putting his life at risk to remain ratcheted up her anxiety. “Is Keris involved in your plot with Aren? Is he aware you conspire to kill his father?”

Coralyn waved a hand at her dismissively. “Of course not. He’d never agree to use you as his assassin.”

A prickle of suspicion ran across Zarrah’s skin because sheknewKeris had facilitated Coralyn’s meeting with Aren at dinner. “Why not? Silas’s death serves his ends.”

Something flickered in the old woman’s gaze, something that looked a great deal like anger, but it was gone in an instant. “You’re Valcottan, Zarrah. Using you would violate his rather rigid morals, so it’s better not to involve him at all.”

Because Keris had been raised to hate Valcottans. Just as she’d been raised to hate Maridrinians.

Zarrah couldn’t help but wonder what Coralyn would think if she knew the truth about Zarrah and Keris. She’d raised him, which meant it had beenherwho’d attempted to instill that hate in him. That he’d chosen to walk a different path made him a better man in Zarrah’s eyes, but Coralyn would see it as a betrayal. The thought filled her with sadness, but her suspicions eased. Not because she trusted the woman, but because she knew that Keris would never agree to using Zarrah to assassinate his father, though his reasons were far different than his aunt realized.

“I know you don’t care for Keris,” Coralyn said. “To you, he’s just the Veliant who captured you and brought you to this prison. But to me, he’s the son I never had. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect him.”

To Zarrah’s shock, tears spilled down the woman’s cheeks. “His younger half brothers have been filtering into Vencia, and I know it’s Serin who has lured them here. The Magpie was able to turn Otis—Keris’s most loyal brother—against him, so it’s only a matter of time until one of the others tries to kill him. And Silas only encourages it. Pits them against one another like dogs, certain that the most vicious is his worthy heir. I…” Coralyn trailed off, then scrubbed at her face. “So yes, Zarrah. I’m desperate. But so are you. We could both come out ahead if we set aside our animosities and work together.”

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