Protect the Prince (Crown of Shards #2)(34)

“How does it feel?” I asked. “To be going home?”

He shrugged. “No different than all the other times I’ve returned over the years. I would always visit my mother whenever the Black Swan troupe was close to Glanzen. She still lives in the palace.”

“And your father? Did you always visit him as well?”

A humorless smile lifted Sullivan’s lips. “Sometimes.”

All sorts of dark feelings and hidden meanings oozed out of that one word. I waited for him to elaborate, but Sullivan kept his thoughts to himself. Perhaps he didn’t want his relationship with his father to color mine.

So I tried a different tactic to get him to open up. “And what about Dominic, your older brother?”

“You mean the beloved crown prince? The one nicknamed Prince Charming?” His smile twisted into a grimace. “Sometimes.”

Once again, all sorts of feelings and meanings were packed into that one word, and once again, he didn’t elaborate.

“But I always spend time with Gemma, Dominic’s daughter.” Sullivan’s tight expression eased into one of genuine happiness. “She’s my favorite niece.”

“She’s your only niece,” I pointed out. “I’m looking forward to seeing her. And Alvis.”

“And they’re looking forward to seeing you too, highness. You’re all that Gemma talks about every time I speak to her through my Cardea mirror.”

Sullivan had a mirror in his room at Seven Spire that was similar to the one I’d discovered in Maeven’s chambers, although I hadn’t told him or anyone else about my conversation with her. After she had disappeared, I had tried to get the mirror to work again, but with no success. Maeven must have been the only one capable of sensing and triggering its magic.

I had wanted to use Sullivan’s mirror to speak to Gemma, and especially Alvis, and make sure that they were okay. But Sullivan had had a difficult time getting his father to host me, and I hadn’t wanted to add to the tension by talking to anyone behind the king’s back. Besides, I would see Gemma and Alvis soon enough.

But I forced myself to put my feelings aside and think like a queen, which meant picking Sullivan’s brain about King Heinrich.

“Do you think your father will agree to a new peace treaty?” I asked the question that had been weighing on my mind for weeks.

I had done everything I could think of to smooth things over with Heinrich, including immediately restoring trade agreements with Andvari and vehemently denouncing the Mortans as the ones responsible for the Seven Spire massacre. I had also sent Heinrich a letter apologizing for Vasilia’s actions and expressing my deepest sympathies and condolences for the loss of his son, his ambassador, and his countrymen.

I had heard nothing in return.

Heinrich hadn’t sent me a letter, and he hadn’t made any public comment about the Mortans. His silence worried me.

If the king didn’t agree to a new treaty, then I would have traveled all this way for nothing, and returning to Seven Spire empty-handed would only further weaken my position with my own people. I had to go back with something, some new treaty or trade agreement that would convince the nobles to work with me instead of against me. If I didn’t, then it was just a matter of time before Fullman, Diante, or someone else challenged me for the throne, or Maeven tried to assassinate me again, or both.

Not only that, but failing in my first diplomatic mission would reinforce my own belief that I wasn’t worthy of being queen, much less a Winter queen, whatever that really meant.

The uncertainty on Sullivan’s face filled me with even more concern. “I don’t know, highness. I just don’t know. My father has always been . . . difficult. Then again, I didn’t stay at the palace and marry a nice Andvarian girl like he wanted, so perhaps that’s why our relationship has been strained in recent years. But now that Frederich is dead . . .”

His voice trailed off, but he didn’t have to finish his thought. We both knew how delicate the situation was between Bellona and Andvari.

I waited, hoping that Sullivan might offer some more insights into his father, but he turned back to the window, lost in his own thoughts.

In that moment, I wished that I could have protected him from this. That I could have spared him from returning home and facing all the pain clearly waiting for him there. But I couldn’t protect Sullivan from his emotions or his past any more than I could protect myself from my own.

So I stared out the window too, watching the miles churn by and wondering what fresh new misery awaited us both in Andvari.





Chapter Nine


I expected Maeven to set another trap somewhere along the way, perhaps even try to derail the train, but our journey proceeded without incident. Three days later, our train pulled into the main station in Glanzen.

Serilda, Cho, Sullivan, and Xenia had already gotten off to secure our route to the palace, but I was still in the queen’s car with Paloma. She opened her mouth, but I stabbed my finger at her.

“If you ask me if I’m ready for this, I’m going to scream,” I muttered.

Paloma grinned, as did the ogre on her neck.

I glared at her a moment longer, but then I rolled my eyes, and a begrudging smile crept across my face. This was the last moment I would have with my friend for hours to come, and I wasn’t going to waste it being annoyed, especially since I didn’t know what would greet me at the palace.