Chayden snorted. “Normally, I’d take that opening. Good thing for you, I’m preoccupied with the near-death experience in front of me.”
Fain cursed as he sat back in his chair. He pulled up a news segment and flashed it on the main screen so that all of them could watch it. “I was scanning for our arrest or assassination warrants to be issued and look what I found.” He opened the channel.
The female commentator was brunette, petite and held a wicked gleam in her eye that said she was enjoying her job a little too much. “This is streaming in live, right this very second… All of you are the first to hear it, just as it’s happening on Exeter. Prince Caillen was spotted only moments ago leaving his father’s palace where his uncle, the acting emperor, was found slain along with his head advisor. Apparently His Highness is on a major killing spree with the League scrambling to identify who his next target might be and to stop him before he kills again.”
Desideria gaped. “How could they have that so fast?”
“Nothing moves faster than the media.” Fain changed the screen over to another report on a different frequency. “I swear, they hired a publicist to convict you both. I couldn’t get this much coverage if I painted myself pink and ran naked through the League’s main hall with a bomb strapped on my back, screaming ‘death to sycophantic pawns.’ ”
Desideria would have laughed if the situation had been a little less dire. She frowned as a woman around her age who was dressed in royal Exeterian robes stood in front of the media with a dour expression. Behind her were several of Desideria’s mother’s Guard, but the most shocking was Kara’s presence…
Why would her aunt be there? And dressed so strangely? Kara looked more like one of Caillen’s people than hers. The younger woman’s expression was bitter while she addressed the gathered reporters. The stripe under her face identified the woman as Leran de Orczy.
“It is with a sad heart that I report my cousin’s actions. My father was a good man and didn’t deserve this any more than my uncle Evzen did. If it’s the last thing I do, I swear I shall see justice met and I won’t rest until I hold Prince Caillen’s heart in my fist. The League is issuing the bounty on his head and we’ve already backed it with Exeterian funds. Whoever ends his killing spree and his life will be rich indeed and I will owe them my eternal gratitude.”
Stunned, she looked at Caillen whose face was as pale as hers had to be.
Had she heard that correctly?
He met her gaze and she saw the anger smoldering in the dark depths of his eyes. That fury made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. It was the look the angel of death had to wear whenever he went to take someone’s soul.
Without a word, Caillen unbuckled himself to take over the con where Fain sat. He isolated Kara out of the crowd and enlarged her photo.
“Anyone know who this is?” he asked in a tone so cold it was a wonder it didn’t give them freezer burn.
Baffled by his fury, she frowned. “My aunt. Why?”
Before he could answer, Chayden spoke up. “She’s the woman who hired me as a tirador against the Qills.”
Caillen felt his heart stop as that unexpected bomb smacked him in the face. “What?”
Chayden pointed to her image. “She came to the North Tavali a year ago and gave a hefty payment for us to make runs against the Qills using a Trimutian flag.”
Desideria was aghast. “Why would you do such a thing?”
“ ’Cause it was a lot of money and I’m a mercenary bastard. Not to mention, I took a lot of pleasure raiding Qill lands and ships. Payback’s hell and I was her willing bitch for it.”
Caillen gave him a droll glare. “Did you not ask her why she wanted you to do that?”
“Didn’t really care. I recognized her as my aunt, but didn’t say anything since she didn’t recognize me. I assumed her payout was authorized by my mother to start a war so they could raid Trimutian resources with the League’s backing.”
The same thing Caillen had thought, but now…
There was a whole lot going on here. He turned back to the face that had haunted his nightmares for years. “For the record, that’s the bitch who murdered my father when I was a kid.”
All four pairs of eyes turned to him.
Fain gaped. “What?”
Caillen stared at the cold face of the woman from his childhood. Yes, she was older, but those features were emblazoned on his memory. How could he forget the woman who’d torn his childhood apart and had ruined his sister and murdered the only father he’d known as a child? “She was in the alley when my father was killed. She and the assassin went off together.”
“Are you sure?” Chayden asked.
He gave a slow nod.