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“It seems far-fetched.” Auri added a hot bun to her plate. “A single piece of armor and a single arrow in Jast’s colors hardly seems like evidence. And those were the only bits to have made it through the inferno that ravaged everything else. It was as if–”

“–someone placed them there after the fact,” Scarlett said.

“Why would someone want to make it look like Jast?” Mattias asked, then took a bite of his dinner, smacking around the bite. “It’s good, Ma.”

“Mouth closed,” she corrected, then thanked him.

“Maybe to keep the treaty from happening. Perhaps to start another war,” Tomas said.

Brinna dropped her fork with a clank. “A war! Why?”

“How late is the royal party from Jast?” Tarley asked.

“Both are late,” Tomas said. “Over a week. Though traversing the mountains can be treacherous any time of year.” He took a bite.

“What if they were attacked too?” Mattias asked.

Tarley’s heart leapt, then began to pound. She set down her fork and pictured the horse, how beautiful she’d been. The beauty of the embellished silver tack. The man washed ashore next to her—Ollie in his finery. The boots.I’m from the north, he’d said, over and over. She’d considered Jast, but suddenly a memory she’d dismissed surfaced in her mind. He’d been delirious with fever. He’d called himself, “Lachlan.” And just a few days ago, he’d snapped,I told you who I was. You dismissed it.

“Who’s the king of Jast again?” Tarley asked, pushing the greens around on her plate.

“The king? Mallor Nikolas. But rumor is he’s not coming. That he’s sending the crown prince.”

Lachlan. Lachlan Nikolas.

He had told her the truth.

She’d saved the fucking crown prince of Jast.

Tarley stood, her plate barely touched. “I need to go back to the inn.”

“What?” Scarlett asked. “You just got home. And I have some things I need to–”

But a sound outside the door interrupted.

Scarlett froze and each of them looked at the doorway waiting for a knock.

But the knock never came. The door burst open. It was Jessamine, Trevis just behind her.

Scarlett stood. “What is it? Is something wrong? Why aren’t you with the queen?”

Jessamine looked frazzled, her black hair slicked in a tight bun but for a few strands that had escaped, and her brown eyes alight with panic. She had obviously raced there from the inn with Trevis, who stood behind her, hat in his hand.

“Mother. You must come quickly.”

“What is it?” Scarlett moved out toward the door, already going for healing kit.

“It’s the queen,” Jessamine said. “She’s awake.”

18

Lachlan sat at a wooden table near a large fireplace in the dining room of The Copper Pot Inn. It was late enough that any remaining patrons were bellied up to the bar, and the remaining tables were empty aside from a table in the corner with a lone man. He followed Trevis in when a woman approached, holding a crock of steaming food.

“This him?”

“Yes’m,” Trevis answered.

Her dark eyes flitted over him. “You don’t look like much, though Horance’s clothes would make anyone look like they were swimming,” she said. “Let’s put some meat on those bones. Ollie?”