Total pages in book: 163
Estimated words: 152616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 610(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 610(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
“You’re right,” Grady admitted after a few moments. “I can’t know what that means.”
He fell quiet as he trailed behind me, but that didn’t last long. “Is that the only reason, though?” he asked, voice low. “Because you can touch him?”
“Why?” I shot him a look over my shoulder. “What other reason could it be?”
“I don’t know.” He glanced up at the ceiling as he fell in step beside me. “Do you like him?”
“Do I like him?” I laughed as my stomach gave a weird wiggle. “What are we?” I nudged him with my elbow. “Sixteen?”
He snorted. “Do you?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I like him well enough to want to touch him, if that is what you’re asking,” I said, skin prickling. “I don’t know him well enough to like him more than that.”
Grady stared ahead. “Yeah, but even if you did know him, you can’t like him, Lis.”
“Yeah, I know. You don’t need to tell me that.”
“Just making sure,” he murmured.
Ignoring the sudden knot in my chest, I said, “Shouldn’t you be working or something?”
“Yes, but the Baron is holed up in his study with Hymel.”
They were likely trying to figure out where a thousand soldiers were going to camp. I pushed open the doors to my quarters. “Did Naomi tell you why the Hyhborn were here?”
“She did.” He sat on the edge of the chair. “Got to admit, that surprised me.”
“There’s something else I learned last night.”
“If it has anything to do with what went on in the chambers with the Prince, I’m not at all interested.”
“It has nothing to do with Thor— ” I caught myself when Grady’s stare jerked toward me. “It has nothing to do with the Prince, but King Euros,” I said, and then told him about how the King had preferred that Archwood go the way of Astoria. I didn’t tell him about the past— about the world that had fallen. Thorne trusting me with that was important, and knowledge of the past felt . . . it felt dangerous.
“Can’t say I’m surprised to hear the King would rather see the city leveled,” Grady said when I went quiet.
“Really?” My brows rose.
“Yeah. Were you surprised to hear that?”
“A little,” I said. “I mean, there’s a huge difference between the King taking little interest in the welfare of us lowborn and deciding that our homes and livelihoods aren’t worth the possibility of a Hyhborn being injured or dying.”
“Yeah, I don’t see a difference there.” He shrugged. “All Hyhborn care about is themselves at the end of the day. Half of the time I’m surprised that they haven’t just gotten rid of us and taken the realm for themselves.”
“Gods.” I stared at him. “That’s dark. Even for you.”
He snorted.
I shook my head. “There’s more. It’s about Vayne Beylen.”
Curiosity filled his face. “I’m all ears.”
“And it has to stay with your ears.”
“Of course.”
I glanced at the closed door. “Claude and Vayne are related.”
His brow shot up. “What?”
“They’re cousins, related on Claude’s father’s side of the family,” I told him. “Beylen is a caelestia.”
“Fuck . . .” He drew the word out. He leaned into the chair, draping an arm over the back. “How did you learn this?”
“Claude told me. The Hyhborn don’t know.” I crossed my arms, inhaling deeply and immediately regretting it, because the damn robe smelled of . . . of Thorne. “But him being a caelestia explains why the Iron Knights would back the Westlands.”
“Yeah.” He dragged a finger over his brow. “I suppose.”
I studied him. “I’m sorry.”
He looked up. “For what?”
“I know you kind of looked up to this Beylen, and hearing that he’s a caelestia probably changes it.”
“Why?” His brows knitted.
“Because caelestias aren’t lowborn— ”
“They basically are compared to the Hyhborn. I mean, look at Claude. He’s about as dangerous as a half-asleep kitten.”
I wrinkled my nose. “You really don’t think that changes things? What he is? His support of the Westlands Hyhborn— a princess who wants to be queen?”
“Look, I know I said all Hyhborn are the same and shit, but I was . . . I don’t know. I was talking out of my ass. Beylen and those who follow him are risking their lives. There must be a reason why Beylen would support her— why those already following Beylen are also supporting her. She could be different.”
I huffed out a breath, shaking my head.
“You think your prince is different.”
“He’s not my prince,” I snapped. “And I just . . .” I sat on the edge of the chair. “There’s something I feel like I’m missing with Claude and everything, and that it’s important. He said that Beylen was starborn or something like that. It sounded familiar, but I don’t get it.” There was a lot I didn’t get, like how Claude had said the Prince of Vytrus could provide me with what he could not. Everything.