Starfall (Starflight #2)(10)
“You forgot something,” she said.
The instant he glanced over his shoulder, she moved like lightning, jabbing her fist between the bars. Her knuckles connected with his nose, and a light crack sounded as his bones splintered beneath her hand. Before he could react, she darted out of his reach into the cell. She tripped over her own boots and landed hard on the concrete floor, but the fury in the man’s eyes was worth a bruised tailbone.
He gripped the bars and rattled them in a violent clatter, sputtering curses through the blood flowing over his lips. One of the Durango guards prodded the Daeva with an electric wand and warned, “Any more damage to Marius’s prize and it’ll come out of your bounty. I suggest you see the clerk and then return to whatever hole you crawled out of.”
The Daeva growled and snorted for a full minute, but he eventually gave up the fight and stalked out the door. Once the clatter of his footsteps faded up the stairs, the guard turned to his partner and issued an order. “Take an extra set of restraints to the maids and tell them to put down a vermin-resistant tarp before they begin.” He thumbed at Cassia. “God knows what kind of mutated lice she’s tracked in here.”
The other man nodded and nervously scratched his scalp.
As soon as he left the room, the first guard leaned against the wall and folded both arms, studying Cassia as if she were a riddle that needed solving.
“You’ve changed,” he said. “For the better, I think.”
He spoke as if they knew each other, which prompted her to examine him more closely. Now that she studied the contours of his face, he did seem familiar. He was in his early twenties, tall and slim with sandy hair and a crooked nose that indicated he’d broken it more than once. Something prickled at the edges of her memory, but she couldn’t place him.
“You don’t remember me,” he said flatly, like he’d expected as much. “Let me help. I was the cadet charged with supervising your shopping trips in the city. You always gave me the slip, and then I had to pull extra detail as punishment for losing you.”
The missing pieces connected, and she gave a small gasp of realization. He was one of her family’s soldiers wearing an enemy disguise. She would’ve recognized him sooner if he hadn’t changed, too. His gaze had grown hard and cold, as if the last two years had drained all the youth out of him. “Private Jordan?”
“It’s General Jordan now.”
“General? That’s a high rank for someone so young.”
“Consider it a side effect of war,” he said, eyes narrowed. “Promotions come quickly when your superior officers are dead.”
Cassia’s cheeks grew hot. Her first instinct was to hang her head, but she kept her gaze firmly fixed on his. “I didn’t want any of this to happen. I had to leave.”
“I know. If you’d married into the Durango family, Marius would have killed your parents. And maybe you, too, once he secured the Rose title.”
Her brows lifted. “Who told you?”
“I have my sources.”
“So is that why you’re here?” Her heart swelled with hope, filling her with the first real warmth she’d felt in ages. “To take me home? Do my parents believe me now?”
Jordan watched her for a long moment before shaking his head. “You’re even more out of touch than I thought.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your parents are gone. They escaped off world months ago.”
“Escaped? To bring back reinforcements?”
He laughed without humor. “More like to save themselves. They turned tail and ran in the middle of the night. We haven’t heard a word from them since. As an added bonus, they emptied the coffers before they left. So I think you’ll agree that whether or not they believe you is irrelevant.”
All that hope sank to the bottom of Cassia’s stomach and turned to ice. She couldn’t believe her parents had left the kingdom defenseless, especially after all the years they’d lectured her on the merits of duty to the throne. Her people must hate the Rose name now more than ever. She pushed past the ball of shame in her throat and asked, “What else have I missed?”
“Well,” Jordan began with a hitched brow, “after you left, the Durangos started making empty threats. No one believed they would invade; everyone knew they didn’t have the money for a war. I figured they’d accept a payout for the broken marriage contract, and that would be the end of it. But then the king and queen died in a shuttle ‘accident’”—he used his fingers to make air quotes—“and Marius took control.”
“Marius is king?”
“Of three thrones—every dynasty except for yours. He’s the one who attacked, and not only us. He hit the other two kingdoms so fast there wasn’t time for an alliance. They fell in a matter of days. Now he owns those lands, and the former title holders are probably waiting for their own ‘accidents’ to happen.”
“But wait,” Cassia said. “That doesn’t make sense.” According to the charter, Marius was within his rights to invade her kingdom because she’d broken their marriage contract. But that privilege didn’t extend to the other two dynasties. He had no cause for aggression there, and certainly no right to assassinate royals. The Solar League should’ve intervened and sent a legion of Enforcers to stop him. “Who’s allowing this?”