Heart of Iron (Heart of Iron #1)(63)

Pursing his lips, he moved around her to the balcony that looked out into the moon garden. It was a short drop, so he climbed over the railing.

“What are you doing?” Ana asked, coming over. “Where are you going?”

“For a walk. Isn’t it stuffy here?”

“No. We’re on a balcony.”

He gave her a pointed look. “Wouldn’t you like to stretch your legs?”

“No.”

He smiled tightly and mouthed, “Let’s talk privately.” Ana hesitated. He held up the cloth basket of food again. “And you have to be hungry.”

“Well I’m not—”

Her stomach grumbled. He raised an eyebrow.

Embarrassed, she folded her arms over her middle. “I mean—I’m fine. I don’t need your charity.”

“Believe me, it’s not charity,” he replied, and let go of the banister, dropping into the bushes below.

“Wait!” she cried, rushing up to the railing. “There’s a Messi—”

When he landed, he whirled around and came face-to-face with a Messier in the bushes. He gave a start, leaping back, but it didn’t make a move to apprehend him. He slunk around it, out of the shrubbery, and its blue gaze followed him the whole way.

He pulled a leaf from his curly hair and gave Ana a wave.

“I can’t go down there!” She eyed the Messier.

He rolled his eyes, stepping out onto a cobblestone path. “It’s not going to hurt you—it works for you. Now come on.”

The palace’s moon garden wasn’t like his family’s garden in Astoria. There weren’t exotic flowers or mazes of thornbushes. The palace’s garden was simple, with topiary bushes in the shape of the Goddess and crescent moons and stars, and willow trees lining the edges. A stark black moondial stood in the middle of the garden, counting the rotation of Luna around Eros, and rising up from the edge of the garden was an Iron Shrine, its windows warm with candlelight.

Most of the garden could be seen from the palace—except for a small grove near the East Tower. The eldest Armorov, Rhys, had shown him the spot years ago, although back then it had been used to get away from their tutors.

Behind him, he heard Ana land in the bushes and creep around the Messier. “Why isn’t it doing anything?”

“What’s it supposed to do? You’re the heir, so the palace is yours. It’s not like it’s going to arrest you.”

She caught up to him, picking a twig off her shirt. “I still don’t like it. Why couldn’t we talk in my room? What, it isn’t good enough for a spoiled-rotten Ironblood like you?”

“It could be bugged. Someone could be listening. Can’t you trust me a little?”

“Trust you? You lied to me. You led your mother straight to the Dossier! And now that I’m apparently royalty, you probably want to marry me so you can get the throne—”

“We’re cousins, and you’re not my type.”

The anger on her face dropped. “Cousins?”

“Your mother was my aunt—my mother’s sister,” he confirmed, and ducked under a low-hanging willow branch and into the hidden grove. Small white buds sprouted from the ground, and he made sure not to step on them as he found a spot to sit.

She stood stiffly at the edge of the grove. “I’m not a Valerio. I’m not like you. You killed my friends, my family—”

“My mother did that,” he corrected under his breath, and then added louder, “Jax is alive.”

The anger on her face fractured into hope. “He is?”

“Yes, and he’s here. My mother won’t let him out of her sight. I don’t know why—” She spun to leave the grove. “Wait! What are you doing?”

She threw a glare back at him. “I’m going to order her to release him.”

“You can’t do that—”

“Can’t? Or you don’t want me to?”

He bit the inside of his cheek. A little of both. “If you bring attention to him, it’ll put a marker on his back for the rest of his life. A Solani protected by the Empress? He’ll be a walking target, I promise you.”

“Then what do you expect me to do? Just sit here while your mother does who knows what with him?”

No, but if Ana ordered his release, then his mother would know that he was talking with Ana; and if Ana did nothing, there was a very real chance that things would get worse for Jax—and that was the last thing he wanted.

“Let me save him,” he heard himself saying before he realized what exactly he meant. Ana blinked, just as surprised.

She scoffed. “Like how you saved me?”

“My mother won’t suspect it coming from me. She doesn’t expect much from me at all, really.”

She debated for a moment, shifting from one foot to the other.

It was a look Robb had seen a hundred times before. In ballrooms. Parties. Framed in a window, leaning back, just before letting go.

But you’re a Valerio, they all said.

He unbuttoned the cuff of his right sleeve and bent back his hand to show her the dormant tracking chip. “This was how my mother found the Dossier. I didn’t tell her. It was activated just before the Grand Duchess made her announcement—my mother came looking for me.”