They remained quiet for so long that Darling began to wonder if he hadn’t bored them to sleep.
Finally, Lady Tehrshin rose to her feet to address him. “I remember my father telling me when I was a girl that the League would never act against any nation. That all they wanted was to keep us in peace and health. But over the years, I’ve watched as they lost sight of their mission. Now I am one of those who is directly affected by their actions. They hold my only son for no reason whatsoever. Today I am the one who suffers. But tomorrow, it could be anyone in this room. They need no reason these days to kill or suppress. I support you, Your Majesty, and I commend your courage. Would that all men possessed it. May the gods bless you always, Emperor.”
“Here, here,” Lord Sirisk said as he, too, came to his feet. “Long reign and health to Emperor Cruel.”
Suddenly, one by one, the gerents stood up and gave a formal nod of approval.
Astonished by their unexpected reversal, Darling stood before them, trying to absorb the fact that for the first time in his life, they were with him.
Not against him.
Releasing his pent-up breath, he returned their salute with one of his own. “Thank you for your support in this. Now I’m off to finish preparations.”
With those words spoken, he quit the room.
Drake and Maris ran to catch up to him in the hallway.
“Wow,” Maris breathed in awe. “That was something I never thought I’d live to see.”
Drake nodded in agreement. “It was incredible. Emperor Darling. I can’t believe they’re with us.”
Darling wasn’t so sure about that. At any moment, he expected one of the gerents to betray him. Dear gods, I’ve become as jaded as Maris…
But he was grateful that it’d gone better than he’d dared hope.
Looking forward to getting Zarya home, Darling led the way to the war room where they’d left the others. He’d only gone about halfway when they met up with Nykyrian.
“We’re ready to move forward,” Darling told him.
Nykyrian didn’t respond.
A shiver of dread washed over Darling. While the Andarion prince was usually somber, there was something about him different. Something more rigid than normal.
“What’s wrong?” Darling asked.
Nykyrian sighed heavily. “The media is going wild again.”
Darling let out a sound of utter disgust. Of course they were. “What did the League do now?”
“They…” Swallowing hard, Nykyrian hesitated, which was something he’d never done before.
That, in and of itself, scared the shit out of him. This was bad.
Real bad.
His face emotionless, Nykyrian held his mobile out toward Darling. “The League has released a statement that while torturing one of their prisoners for information about the Resistance and you, the prisoner died during interrogation.”
Darling’s entire body seized up as he heard those words. Please, please don’t let it be who I think it is. He wanted to look at the mobile, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so.
Because in his heart, he already knew what he’d see and he couldn’t face it.
“Who did they kill?” Drake asked.
Nykyrian’s eyes turned dark. “I’m so sorry to be the one to tell you, Darling. But I didn’t want you to find out from someone else.”
“No,” he breathed as his vision darkened. “It’s not her.”
Nykyrian winced. “I’m afraid it is. Zarya’s dead.”
25
Darling forced himself to look at Nykyrian’s mobile. For a full minute, he couldn’t breathe as he saw Zarya’s battered, lifeless face and the cold, static writing around it that chronicled her last few hours of utter hell.
She’d told them nothing…
Even with their torture, which was plainly evident in the picture of her, she hadn’t betrayed him or his friends. She could have destroyed them all and saved herself.
Or at least quickened her death.
She hadn’t. To the very end, she’d been loyal to him…
Pain racked him in a way it never had before. His senses reeled as dizziness blurred his vision. It hurt so much and so deeply that he wasn’t sure how he remained on his feet.
I failed her.
The one person in this world he should have protected above all others, had been brutalized and murdered by his enemies while he’d been powerless to find her and stop them.
In that one moment of soul-splintering agony, he had total clarity over what Zarya had gone through while she’d searched for Kere. No wonder she hadn’t checked on him as a political prisoner under the care of her men. She’d been right. The fear and desperation were all consuming. That horrific need to find the one you loved while you imagined what was being done to them…
This awful, sickening sensation of knowing they were out there and you couldn’t get to them while life went on. You still had to pay bills and attend to daily matters that seemed so trivial and inconsequential.