Allied (Ruined #3)(4)

“Good. Keep doing that.” He paused, cracking a knuckle. “How . . . how was she? Did she look all right?”

“She seemed well. Taller than I expected.”

He chuckled. “Yes.”

“I don’t think the other Ruined knew what she was doing when she saved me. She waited until they left.”

He nodded. There was no way Olivia knew Em had rescued this woman. Olivia was probably the one who lit the house on fire. “Do you have a place to stay?”

The woman shook her head, worry crossing her face as she glanced at the little boy still happily eating his tart.

“We have shelters set up.” He turned to Violet. “Will you have someone take them to the kitchen for a meal, then to the shelter?”

“Of course, Your Majesty,” Violet said.

“Thank you for bringing the message,” Cas said to the woman. Violet opened the door to relay instructions to the guards.

The woman bowed to Cas again as she left. The boy trailed after her, his eyes round as he stared at Cas. His mouth was now smeared with cherry.

Violet shut the door. Cas strode across the office to his desk and flopped down in his chair. “How long until my next meeting? And what is my next meeting, by the way? Have they narrowed down candidates for my secretary? You shouldn’t have to know all this.”

Violet walked to his desk and sat down in one of the chairs placed in front of it. She’d been indispensable in the fortress, and had proved to be an even more powerful ally as they worked to secure Cas’s power as king. “Yes, they have a couple of candidates. You’ll meet with them soon. And your next meeting is in half an hour with me and the new governors. They’ve found Jovita.”

Cas looked up quickly. “They found her? When?”

“We just received word. A few soldiers are following her, discreetly, like you asked. But she’s amassed an army of hunters and former soldiers who betrayed you—a small army, but it’s bigger than when she left Lera a few days ago.”

“And you think this army . . . is to attack me?”

“You, and the Ruined. Perhaps not in that order. She’s headed west, which is worrying us.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s nothing west, except the jungle. Until you get to Olso.”

He took in a sharp breath. “You think she’s going to make a deal with August.”

“We can’t be sure. She could just be planning to hide in the jungle for a while. But our messenger said she’s showed no signs of stopping yet.”

Anger bubbled in his veins, more intense than he had expected. Jovita had already lost to the Ruined once. She’d sent hundreds of Lera soldiers to Ruina to be slaughtered by them. She’d lost to Cas, too, when the majority of Lerans had aligned behind him. But she refused to accept defeat, even at a point when Lera was in danger of being attacked by Olivia.

“Would they be able to kill her? The soldiers who are following her?” Cas asked. The words popped out of his mouth so suddenly he was almost surprised to hear them.

Violet appeared surprised as well. “I’m sure they could, if you gave that order before she reached the Olso border.”

He should have killed her himself, when he had the chance. He’d told Em that he would, then he’d hesitated until it was too late. He would have saved himself a lot of trouble by just getting rid of her.

The thought startled him, and he looked up at Violet to see her wearing a slightly alarmed expression. His anger must have been apparent.

“We’ll discuss it at the meeting,” he said, dropping his eyes to his desk.

“Sure.” Violet stood. “Is there anything else?”

He kept his gaze on his desk, pretending to examine a list of refugees in Royal City shelters. “Is it possible to find out—for sure—if Jovita was the one who poisoned me at the fortress?”

“We could certainly try. You don’t think it was her?”

“I do, but she always denied it. I’d like to know for sure.”

“I will see if anyone has information.”

“Thank you.” Perhaps it would be easier to order Jovita’s death if he knew, definitively, that she had tried to kill him. Surely that would help ease the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach. She deserved to die. He just needed to be certain of it.





THREE


GALO WAS A fantastic, diligent, and admirable man. At least according to his parents. The praise was unexpected and, surprisingly, unwelcome.

His father beamed at him from across the dinner table. Galo had only been home a few hours, but already he’d seen his father smile more in that time than he had in his entire life.

His mother placed a tray of fruit for dessert in the middle of the table, putting a hand on Mateo’s shoulder for a moment as she did it. Galo had never brought home a boyfriend before, and his parents seemed thrilled with Mateo. But they seemed thrilled by everything Galo did at the moment.

“Will you be making any changes to the guard now that you’re back in the castle?” his father asked.

“Um.” Galo shifted in his seat. He was most taken aback by his father’s exuberance over his job as captain of the king’s guard. He’d been a perpetual disappointment to his demanding father, and when Galo had left three years ago to join the guard his father had said something along the lines of I guess you won’t be able to find anything better.