Page 103 of Daughter of the Drowned Empire

Rhyan tightened his grip on me in response. My building was coming into view.

“They attacked over the Katurium, not Cresthaven,” Markan continued, his tone derisive. “What’s that tell you, your grace? You’re the target.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, filing the information away. This hadn’t just been an Emartis demonstration or attack but a message to me in particular.

Did they know I’d gotten the vendor killed?

Or was this more superstition about my lack of power?

“No attack on Cresthaven?” I asked.

“No.” Markan held open my apartment building door, and Rhyan rushed me inside.

I swallowed. I wanted proof my sisters were well, but Markan’s words eased some of the worry aching inside me.

Our mage kept our protection dome up as we climbed the stairs. On every level we passed, I spotted another soturion of Ka Batavia in the shadows.

Markan unlocked my apartment door. Bastard! I didn’t care if he’d been my personal escort since birth, he didn’t get to have a key to my apartment. He stood outside, allowing me and Rhyan in.

Over the threshold, Rhyan gently set me on my feet. The moment my feet touched the floor, it was like a torch had been lit inside of me.

“I can’t stay here,” I said, already putting my hand back on the doorknob.

“It won’t be that long,” Rhyan said.

Now the true panic was setting in—not just the shock and numbness I had been feeling earlier. I was locked in again, helpless again, away from my sisters, and unable to protect them when they needed me.

I turned the knob, but it was locked. I’d been locked in from the outside. Fucking Markan! Why was the man in charge of protecting me always in my Godsdamned way!

“I’m locked in,” I snarled. “Fucking bastard!”

“Lyr!” Rhyan put a hand on my shoulder. I snapped around to face him. He breathed deeply, concern all over his face. But there was something else flickering behind his eyes. Relief. As if he was relieved I’d finally gotten upset.

I shook my head, realizing just how calm I’d been, how odd I must have seemed to him in shock. But that numbness was gone, and my emotions were overwhelming me.

“I can’t…I can’t do this again! Be locked away like this.”

“You’re not locked away,” he said gently. “You’re free. Hey, Lyr, you’re free. This is temporary. Everyone here just wants to protect you.”

I shook my head, knowing he was right, knowing everything he said and the protocol being followed made sense, but I still felt helpless and panicked like a caged gryphon away from its young. “I just can’t keep being helpless, forced to sit still while my family is—”

“Your family is safe. Cresthaven was not a target, and it’s been secured by your father’s guard. Lyr, hey, you are anything but helpless. And you don’t have to sit if you don’t want to.” His good eyebrow lifted. A joke, he was attempting to make a joke. Now. “Or keep standing, your choice. But you’re not a prisoner, and you’re not weak. The moment the threat is over, that door opens. It will be soon. I have it on good authority. Now in all seriousness, why don’t you sit down? I’ll get you some water. I know you’re exhausted. You can use this time to rest.”

I scoffed. “Yet, here we are again, and you’re still my jailer.” But water did sound good. So did sitting. I made my way to the couch.

Rhyan offered me a small smile. “I’ll get your water.”

He returned a moment later with a cold glass and pressed it into my hands. His lips quirked. “And for the record, still not your jailer. Maybe your waiter. But mostly, I’m just a neutral party.”

“Not anymore, you’re not. You’re partly wearing the symbols and colors of Bamaria now. You have Ka Batavia in your veins.”

Rhyan stilled. “Then that makes you partly Ka Hart.”

I know you.

And suddenly, that connection, that thread between us that I thought I’d broken, it was back in full force and being pulled taut. I didn’t know how, but I could feel it, and I knew he could too from the way he’d frozen. He shifted in his seat, looking like he wanted desperately to leave. So why wasn’t he?

“Rhyan? What are you doing here? Why are you protecting me?”