Page 49

The Best Laid Plans

Ynferno.

The giant mountain at the heart of Tyndra. That’s where Vos thinks the heart is. Tziah, too. Because they saw it.

I stand outside Tabra’s office with Reven—an office Eidolon used while he was here. Waiting. Our gazes skitter away from each other any time they cross paths.

The others, Cain and Pella back from the funeral included, are in there. Even Tabra went inside without me, closing the massive double doors behind her. I’m left out just in case, so that Eidolon can’t hear or see the plans they’re making through me.

Cutting me out like gangrene. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Not great.

Reven is here mostly because the others figure he’ll be the only one able to stop me if Eidolon…does that again.

I’m leaning against the smooth wall, hands behind me for a reason. Even though I’ve washed and scrubbed off the nymph’s sand and blood, I can still see it when I look at my skin. More than once I’ve found myself trying to wipe off stray traces that aren’t really there, so behind me is better.

Tabra pops her head around the door. “You can come in now.”

When I join them, they are all watching me the same way Wanderers eye a sandstorm building in the distance.

“Figured out a plan?” I ask.

They all nod.

“And you’re all sure about this?”

Tabra clears her throat. “Given the possible outcomes, I think there’s no scenario where we don’t try.”

This might be the very first time since…well, maybe ever, that we all agree on a risky next step.

“Good,” I say. “I assume I’m staying here?”

Vos shakes his head, even though his face is a mix of frustration and resignation. “We need you to get us out quickly. You come.”

“I will bring the sand you need,” Bene says.

I frown, working through what that means. They need me for portals. Mostly because we’re running out of time, but also the danger being at the heart of Eidolon’s lands. Makes sense.

I still can’t believe that the blue stone Tziah’s family discovered is actually Allusian’s heart. The mines of Tyndra had produced nothing out of the ordinary until that point. But then Eidolon’s people found out and General Quentin deliberately fed those poor miners not one, but two pieces.

An experiment. Ordered by the king.

We’re not entirely sure for what. Maybe trying to make himself a god in an attempt to rescue his mother? That or trying to create an army of Imperium, or even monsters, to fight for him. That’s our best guess.

But, just like Bene and the other consorts, with the second piece of the heart, every soul except Tziah became a monster that Vos and the other Tyndran soldiers were forced to kill. That’s when Vos broke from Eidolon. When he saved Tziah.

And now we’re going to get it. Me included, I guess.

“Don’t tell me more,” I say.

I glance at Reven, who says nothing, his lips pressed tightly together.

Cain looks down at his feet, and I can tell he’s hiding his thoughts, but in the next instant he lifts his head again. “I’ll leave Ledenon in charge of the zariphate.”

Both Pella and I straighten.

“You can’t,” Pella says.

He gives her a glare I’ve never seen Cain use on his sister. “I set the rules.”

Pella crosses her arms and glares right back. “Listen here, too-big-for-your-boots zariph . You are, to a certain extent, bound by tradition. And a zariph does not leave his zariphate. Ever.”

He shifts restlessly on his feet. “I know that, Pell, but—”

“But nothing.” She cuts a hand through the air. “The way you took over means you need to do everything right for a while. Everything the way our father would have.”

His jaw takes on a stubborn cast and he points an accusing finger my way. “Meren and Tabra would either be captured or dead if I did things the way our father would have.”

“I may not remember, but I’m guessing I had something to say about that,” Reven snipes. Cain glares at him.

“I hate to admit it, but Pella’s right.”

The three of them swing to face me, Cain’s expression sharp with betrayal.

“Sorry,” I say quietly.

After a wide-eyed look, Pella’s offers me a grateful grin. “Agreeing with me had to hurt.”

“You have no idea,” I grumble.

“You’re siding with my sister?” Cain demands.

I shrug. “You need to be building your position as zariph so that if it comes to war, your people will follow you. We have enough of us to deal with this. You stay.”

He scowls. “No. I’m not letting you do this without me—”

Tabra clears her throat. “That is an order from your queen.” She immediately offers him an apologetic look that waters down that moment of utterly haughty Grandmother she channeled, but Cain can see as well as the rest of us that she’s not going to take it back.

“Hells,” he mutters. “It was bad enough when there was only one of her.” He shoots me a glare.

“You know you—” I was going to say “love me” like I used to when we were kids. But things are different now. “Love it,” I finish.

He grunts a dubious sound.

“So we’re agreed,” Pella says. “I go, Cain stays.”

“I didn’t agree to anything.” Cain crosses his arms. “But it appears I have no choice.”

“I’ll go,” Hakan says. No surprise there. He goes where Pella goes.

She shoots him the smallest of grateful, very-un-Pella-like smiles while Cain gives him a nod.

I glance at my sister. “You’re also staying.”

Her expression flattens. “Really? I thought we’d leave our newly reacquired dominion and throne to the viziers for fun.”

Sarcasm? She’s using sarcasm now?

“She’s even starting to sound like you,” Cain grumbles.

Both Tabra and I share a grin at that before I slide my gaze to Achlys, who says immediately, “I’ll stay with Tabra.”

Exactly what I expected, but I nod my thanks all the same.

A small maggot of worry wriggles around inside me, though. Why does it feel like scattering us this way, separating the group, is a disaster waiting to happen? Maybe because every time we break apart—usually my fault—bad things tend to pile up.

“One last thing,” Tabra says. “The amulets.”

I give them a confused frown. “What about them?”

“We should hide them here,” my sister says. “Somewhere only Achlys and I know about. Just in case.”

In case none of us come back and she needs to try to release the goddesses on her own. She doesn’t add that part. She doesn’t have to.

“They’re stuck in Reven’s shadow pocket,” I remind them.

Reven doesn’t so much as blink. “You mean in the place where I hid things before?”

The rest of us stare at him with mouths wide open. “How did you know about that?”

“Tabra told me.”

Now we all swing stares at my sister.

“Tab—” I snap my mouth shut, taking that in for a second. “Why?”

She doesn’t blink. “Reven asked me to fill him in on the important things he didn’t know, so I obliged.”

Of course she did. But…he asked? So many questions. I have so many burning questions. The least of which is why he went to her instead of me.

Pella is the one to ask the first of the most obvious questions. “Why?”

Reven scowls. “I’m tired of going into dangerous situations blind. Not knowing seemed like a good idea when I wasn’t sure who to trust.” His gaze lands on me, rock steady. “I’ve figured that out now.”

Vos crosses his arms and lifts one eyebrow at Reven. “You didn’t think this was relevant sooner?”

“It only just came up now.” Goddess, such a Reven thing to say.

“Uh-huh.” Vos’s gaze narrows on me. “Why are you smiling, Meren?”

“He picked us,” I say. The bubbles in my stomach are something along the lines of feeling more optimistic than I have in a long time. “Take the win, Vos.”

“I’ll go with Tabra and Achlys,” Reven says. Is he thinking that way Eidolon can’t watch where he hides things? Then he holds out a hand. “I need the one you wear.”

But I hesitate, looking at Bene, a massive sandy wolf standing guard at the door.

“It is more important to keep them safe than for me to be heard,” he says immediately.

After a second, I nod. “We’ll figure it out.”

“You always do.”

Reven moves closer and I hold my breath. Last night seems a thousand hours ago, but I can still feel his touch…and his regret.

His fingertips brush against my neck as he reaches for the amulet. Does he linger? I look up to meet eyes glittering with need. Not the kind from before when he knew he loved me, and there’s worry there, too, but it’s something all the same, and my chest expands with it, stomach turning fluttery.

He slips Savanah’s amulet from my neck but pauses before he walks away. Like he can’t quite make himself.

“Wait here with Vos and Tziah until we get back,” Reven says.

In other words, they’re not letting me be on my own anymore. I just nod, and they all go separate ways.

Tziah, who up until now has remained relatively quiet about her opinions, shoots Vos a series of signs too fast for me to keep up.

“No,” he says. “You’re not.”

“What did you say?” I ask her.

“That she’s going to Tyndra, too,” he answers for her. “But she’s not.”

She gives him a glower that is so like Vos in a bad mood, I’d chuckle if this wasn’t serious. “Why would you want to go back there, Tzi?” I ask.

More signing at Vos, glancing from him to me, so I know she’s including me in the conversation. She’s not done when Vos turns his back on her and climbs the dais steps to drop into the throne, feet kicked out before him, hand over his eyes.

“What?” I ask.

“She said if I die, she needs to be there to show the way. And that I probably would get us lost in the mountain anyway. She spent two years of her life in there.”

And lost her family in there, turned to monsters by the heart they ate.

Vos waves a hand. “ You try to reason with her.”

I look between him and Tziah, who is standing with her hands on her hips, glaring at him. “She’s a grown woman, Vos. The choice is hers.”

He drops his hand, not to join in the glares but to give Tziah a look that Tabra and I have shared a thousand times, a cauldron’s brew of worry, love, and support all in one.

Then he shifts his gaze to me, lavender eyes hardening to cut glass. “Anything happens to her, it’s on you.”

Tziah’s face falls and she’s up the stairs to squat in front of him, taking his hand, shaking her head and pointing at me.

I don’t need him to translate this time. I know she’s saying that it’s on her, not on me.

Not true. I am queen.

All of this is on me.