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Sierra nodded, calling to a friend in the unit, and peeled off, so it was Revek, Rafe, Ava and Luc who rode through the gates first.

The people they passed reacted, but as far as Ava could see, it wasn’t in a hostile way. Their gaze was focused on Luc, not her, and she wasn’t surprised. She had not had a lot of time before she was taken to move about the city as the queen.

Likely no one realized who she was.

They reached the palace, rode into the courtyard in front of the massive entrance, and slid off their mounts.

The guards at the door gave a whoop at the sight of them, and one called out questions about what had happened, whether there had been trouble with the Jatan.

One raced off inside the palace, and Dak appeared in the doorway, smiling broadly at the sight of Luc.

When he noticed Ava he stumbled, eyes wide. He obviously wanted to say something, but didn’t want to speak in front of an audience.

He seemed to take stock of the situation, and then bounded down the stairs, ordering a guard to go to the stables and let them know to collect the horses, ordering another to fetch Raun-Tu.

He stood with his back to Ava while he issued his orders, blocking her in a way that made Ava think it was deliberate.

The moment they were alone, he spun to face her.

“General Ru and you are in the throne room right now, facing off against a delegation of angry nobles and councillors.”

“General Ru and . . . me?” She frowned.

“Someone pretending to be you, wearing the necklace that Grimwaldian used to break in and abduct you last time.” He grabbed her arm and hustled her up the steps, and Luc was suddenly on her other side.

Dak looked down at where his hand grasped her and dropped it. “They starved you?” His voice was shocked.

“Later,” she said, dismissing the question. “What do you mean, facing off?”

Raun-Tu appeared at the end of the long, wide corridor, and he sprinted to meet them.

He and Dak exchanged looks.

“The nobles and councillors are insisting you speak for yourself, which hasn’t been possible since you were taken. General Ru has been speaking for you, and they are now suspicious you’re nothing but her puppet. I don’t think the excuses we’ve been making over the last few weeks are going to hold much longer. And the woman playing you just doesn’t sound anything like you. They’re going to know something is very wrong, very soon.”

Ava increased her pace, heading for the throne room.

“Ava, you can’t walk in there. They’ll see two of you!” Raun-Tu blocked her way. “Including the guards at the door.”

She stopped short. “We need to get whoever is pretending to be me out of there, so we can switch.”

“How are we going to do that?” Dak hissed.

Ava looked over at Luc. “I know if I had been here this whole time, and Luc had just come home, I would take a few minutes, at least, to welcome him back.”

“That . . . could work.” Dak blew out a breath.

“Take me to that room off to the side of the throne room and bring the happily reunited couple in there,” Ava said. “Raun-Tu, you walk in and whisper in my double’s ear about what’s happening, then Luc can make a big entrance.” She eyed her heart’s choice. “You’ll have to make it convincing.”

“I can do that.” Luc’s lips quirked up. He looked over at Rafe and Revek. “You can flank me, make sure no one tries to stop the reunion.”

“Shield you from those nobles?” Revek asked. He cracked his knuckles. “That sounds like fun.”

Rafe snorted a laugh, but gave a nod of agreement.

“We have to do this right now.” Raun-Tu’s sense of urgency was catching, and Ava guessed General Ru was in serious trouble.

She let Dak lead the way down a few twisting corridors and sneak them through a side door to the throne room’s antechamber.