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I stop. I turn to my battle-brothers.

“The wedding. When we wed her on Colossus, that is our chance.”

“Our chance for what?” Gallien’s aura has a tension to it. We’re alone here. No one would hear a word in our private chambers, but he’s cautioning me to be careful with my words.

“We break Fay free. Adriana has spy networks even on Colossus. We ask her for help, and of my younger brother.”

“She won’t trust us. She’ll think it is some ploy to uncover her spy networks,” says Gallien.

“She will trust us. She will trust me.”

“Fay is the most protected person on the planet. They’ve already quelled three attempts to break her free.”

“I will find a way.”

Just voicing these words is a crime.

I am already a traitor. The Interrogators on this ship would call on Colossus to strip me of my command and send us straight back to my home planet for trial if they caught wind of this.

The Interrogators demanded to take Adriana in for a session when they heard of our deal. They wanted three triads in a room alone with her, going over her life story from her first memory to the most recent, to see if she was planning to assassinate me in my sleep. I forbade it. I know they are watching me and reporting everything back to Colossus.

“I stand by you always, Doman. Whatever you command.” Relief floods through Titus’ aura, and it is painted on his face. We’ve all seen terrible things in war. But despite the horrors he’s survived, he travels light, unburdened by the final weight of command that rests upon my shoulders alone.

I am the leader of my triad.

“It’s time we had a long talk with our Mate.” I take in a huge breath and nod to myself, resolute in my decision.

“Adriana is no novice. We have to consider another possibility,” says Gallien.

“What?”

“You don’t become Prime Minster of over a hundred billion souls without the ability to deceive. It could be a ploy. If we’re arrested for treason, she does not have to wed us.”

“What could she report? Just words,” says Titus. “There’s no way to record in our throne room or chambers.”

“And if those words are true? What then? If this deed is being planned, then even a rumor that we know is enough to put our loyalty in question.”

I outstretch my hand. “We felt her aura. We know her. And if we’re going to break Fay free… we need her.”

16

ADRIANA

Ished the deep red hues of the Terosan betrothal robes like a snake molting. The make-up takes longer to wash off, in my cramped bathroom that makes me long for the vast, sprawling field of Virelia, but within minutes, I’m back in my plain grays of the Administration.

I turn my palm. The cut was so fine, so thin, there is only the slightest white mark remaining. The crowd spanning the hills was the largest Terosa had seen, dwarfing even the masses who came for the betrothal of Lysandra and her Frostholdian fiancé. They wanted to see the Aurelian prince for themselves. He carried himself well. When I was carried in the palanquin, I could feel the rhythmic movements of the bearers, sliding through the mineral rich sands.

He knew how to navigate the sands. Was it part of his cultural research… or training to prepare for an invasion?

The knock at the door is light and respectful. “Come in.”

One of my assistants opens the doors. “There’s a triad waiting at the entrance of the ship. The crown prince requests you.”

“Thank you,” I answer, holding my head high, ignoring my nervousness.

I insulted Prince Doman’s own family. I called his mother and fathers murderers of the vilest kind.

I will face the consequences of those words, because they were the truth.