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“You want me to pretend the challenge is still active?” Toren asked.

“Through the birth of my child,” Ber answered at once. “And yours, if you produce one. By then, perhaps I’ll see to Ryenil’s downfall. Whatever you do, though, trust no one who isn’t blood-oathed to loyalty. Even the servants bear watching.”

As a hint of his brother’s fierce protectiveness returned, Toren couldn’t stop staring. Who was this man he’d thought he knew? “I don’t understand you.”

“You never have.” Ber stood, turning his intense gaze on Toren. “Don’t tell Tes what I’ve revealed to you. Not yet. If the gods favor me, I’ll have everything settled before she learns the truth.”

“It will be easy enough not to tell her.” Toren smiled, though he felt too conflicted for amusement. “Since I’m afraid I have no talent for conversing with the dead.”

Ber’s laugh rang out. “Well, then, this may be the last time we speak. Be well, brother.”

What did he mean by that? Before Toren could cobble together a question or even a response, his twin spun on his heel and strode out the door.

Chapter59

Speculation

Toren leapt to his feet and rushed after his brother. He refused to allow Ber to have the final word, especially with so much business still between them. Yet again, his twin thought to disappear.

Not this time.

“Your Majesty, are you sure—”

Ignoring Macoe, Toren swung the door open and instinctively turned left, toward the palace entrance. Sure enough, his brother strode down the corridor with quick, clipped strides. Toren almost had to run to catch up, but he managed to snag his brother’s arm and pull him back around while they were out of hearing distance of the nearest guards.

Ber’s glance flicked over Toren’s shoulder at Macoe’s approach. The captain was closer than he’d been in the receiving room, but Ber would simply have to accept it. Something he must have realized, for although his glare cut back to Toren, he didn’t complain.

“Was there something left unsaid, Your Majesty?” Ber drawled, jerking his arm free of Toren’s hold.

“A great deal, but little that we have time to address,” Toren replied. “Where are you going?”

His twin shrugged. “Where I please.”

Toren lifted a brow at the change in his brother’s demeanor.Thiswas the angry, sullen, flippant brother he knew. How could he shift so wholly in mere moments? “You’renotdisappearing again, not with the Centoi contingent awaiting my reply in the morning. I’m sure you’ll travel back with them, so you should remain with them until the morrow.”

“I do not wish to stay here,” Ber argued. “Tell me your message, and I will deliver it to the king myself.”

Toren shook his head. “I will not have my words misconstrued.”

Abruptly, Ber’s mind connected to his—for the first time in centuries.“I will tell him that you are unhappy with both Princess Lora’s actions and my status as heir but that you are committed to maintaining the alliance.”

“No. You may not speak for me,”Toren managed to answer.

But only because he didn’t have to use his voice. The lump in his throat burned with the fire of a million things unsaid. Of a connection so easy and pure that it never should have been abandoned. Toren’s fists clenched in reflex.

That link between twins…here it was, as easy to maintain as it had been during childhood. But they were both more shielded now. Toren could only catch glimpses of his brother’s inner turmoil, and he was forced to guard himself tightly for so many reasons. His energy throbbed to be set free, the secrets he held pounding at his mind.

Despite their bond, there could be no reconciliation. Not with so much standing between them.

“Your control has improved, Tor,”his brother sent.

“It has had to,”Toren countered.“You will wait with the Centoi contingent for my written message tomorrow morning, or I will consider all your claims this day to be lies.”

Shock passed across their connection as Ber scowled.“It is torment to be here, where so many consider me a villain. But I will concede, provided you give me your oath not to discuss with anyone except your husband, your wife, and Macoe what I have said this day. No one else is to know until I permit otherwise.”

Toren’s stomach turned at the thought of keeping this from Tes. He wanted to rail at his brother, to describe in detail how much pain the princess had suffered over his betrayal, but he couldn’t. Not without betraying her himself. Yet if he could be certain of one thing, it was that letting Ber disappear now could end in disaster later.

“On my word as High King, I promise that for one year’s time, I will disclose the details of our discussion only to my spouses or to Macoe, provided you remain in your assigned room until you leave with the Centoi messengers tomorrow.”