Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“Is she okay?”
“I hope so. Could use a healer, but it’s sounding rough out there.”
“I’ll get you a healer. And I’ll handle the mob. I just need to find Serin.”
“She was with Cora.”
“Cora said she went looking for me.”
“Fuck.” Vishen rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe she went to see if you were with your father?” he suggested. “I don’t think the guards would have let her back out into that mess.”
He was right.
I turned and ran back down the hall and steps, making my way to my father’s wing.
I burst into the doorway, my gaze taking in everything: Tove standing there, my father at his desk, but most of all, Serin.
She’d changed out of the gown she’d worn to the tournament. In its place was the outfit she wore when training with Nira. There was a flask in her hand. The other was hovering over a dagger at her waist.
But before I could do anything but feel a rush of relief that she was here, alive, and she seemingly unharmed, there was a thud that had all of us turning toward my father, who had face-planted onto his desk.
“What is going on?” I asked.
Tove turned and walked toward the desk, grabbing my father by a handful of his hair, checking out his face. Then, dropping him back down, didn’t even flinch when my father’s head whacked onto the desk.
“That is a question for your wife,” Tove said.
I glanced at Serin, then the flask, putting that information together with what Mendalyn had told me about Grimwood.
“Who is that?” Serin asked, glancing past me as Mendalyn moved into the room, her bow out, an arrow nocked, ready to do what needed to be done if Tove or Cass posed a threat.
“Help,” I told her, reaching out for her hand and pulling her closer to my side. “What is going on here?”
“Well, your wife just made your life a lot easier for you,” Tove said, roughly grabbing a stack of papers from under my father’s face, making him smack back down on the surface again.
Serin shot me a ‘what the fuck’ look I figured I must have mirrored back.
“Put that down,” I demanded when Tove made his way to the hearth with the paperwork.
“Are you sure you want me to?” Tove asked. “These top few are to start the work to build ten more work camps,” he said, flashing the papers. “They’re already signed. Just not sent out. And this one is to start a conscription for all the first sons in every fae family in the Dark. Also signed and waiting to be given to the head of the military. Then there is one to open government-funded brothels full of imprisoned women because Cass believes that there is a morale problem and the answer is forced prostitution. And guess who gets nearly a hundred percent of that revenue?”
“You want me to believe you, my father’s most trusted advisor, wants to burn all his plans?”
“Most trusted and most loyal are not the same,” Tove said, tossing one of the pages into the fire, pausing to watch it catch and burn. “Did you know your father is naturally a neat man?” he asked, gesturing toward the desk. “This mess drove him crazy for a long time before I convinced him it’s how he likes to work. And it conveniently allows me to let paperwork get ‘lost’ for several weeks or months at a time.”
“You’re trying to tell me you’ve been working against my father all this time.”
“Someone needed to step in while you took your time formulating your plan. Your father couldn’t be left to his own devices. Not when these were his plans.” Tove tossed another page into the fire.
“What about the laundress?” Serin asked, making it clear I’d missed a chapter or two.
“Like I said, I didn’t hire her. Simply found her. Asked her a few questions about why she was imprisoned. Not much goes on in this palace without me knowing about it. Though your more ramped-up security lately has made it more difficult. That dog was a pretty inspired addition. He grumbles if he hears anyone nearby.”
“He’d rip your throat out if you pushed it.”
“Indeed,” Tove said, tossing another paper into the fire.
“Why should I believe you? That you’ve been working against Cass this whole time?”
“The whole time? Perhaps not. I believed at some point that he was doing what was best for his people. Back when I followed him blindly instead of gathering my own information. But after your sister’s visit… we both know how much of a turn your father took.”
“He wasn’t right before then.”
“And I wasn’t seeing it. But it became too obvious to ignore after that. Then his spiral…” Tove stopped, shaking his head.
“Why would you step in then? Why not let it become clear how unstable he was?”