The Trylle had grown weak and complacent in recent years, which was part of the reason the King felt such contempt for them. So the King wouldn’t give the attack all he had. He didn’t think he would need to.
He knew enough of Trylle society to know that the girl’s coming-out ball would be soon, and he had spies in neighbor camps that could tell him exactly when it would be. The King could go after her before that, when security was more lax at the Trylle palace, but he wanted to make a big show of it. He wanted all the trolls from every tribe to know exactly how powerful he was, so he planned the attack for that night, even though there would be far more Trylle guards on duty.
After the meeting ended, the King went out with his Vittra army to work them on a few training exercises. Since Loki wouldn’t be going on the mission, he stayed behind, leaning against a bookcase in the back of the King’s chambers.
“How are you holding up?” Sara asked when it was only the two of them in the room.
“Oh, you know, as well as I always do after a good beating.” Loki smirked at her, and she pursed her lips.
She walked over to him and put her hand on his side, meaning to heal him from where the King had kicked him, but Loki squirmed away from her touch.
“Loki, I know how strong the King is. Better than anyone,” Sara said.
Over the years, he’d seen her with her fair share of bruises, probably even more than Loki himself had earned from the hands of the King. He glanced over at her but quickly looked away.
“I’m fine,” he insisted, even though he wasn’t.
“You should let me heal you.” She stepped closer to him, but he just moved away. “You might have a ruptured organ or a broken rib. Why won’t you let me help you?”
“Because.” He sighed and ran a hand through his sandy hair. “I deserve it.”
“Loki, you can’t mean that. You know you don’t deserve it. Oren lashes out over everything, and you can’t take it to heart.”
“But I should’ve helped them,” he said quietly. “Jen and Kyra. Oren told me to. He said they couldn’t handle it. And I knew it. But I didn’t help them enough. I knew that she would get away.”
“You couldn’t have known that,” Sara said, trying to reassure him.
“No, I did.” He paused. “I even hoped for it.”
Sara’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened. “Loki!”
“Oh, come on, Sara!” Loki looked at her, exasperated. “I know how much you want that girl, but what good will it do bringing her here? Do you really think it will make your life better? Or the King’s?”
“We’ll both be happier,” Sara said, but she lowered her eyes. “Everything’s better when the King is happy.”
Loki laughed darkly. “You really think she’ll make him happy? I’ve lived under the service of the King my entire life, and in twenty-three years, I’ve never seen him happy. Nothing makes him happy.”
“You don’t understand.” Sara shook her head and stepped away from him. “And I can’t believe you’d purposely let her get away.”
“Why is that so hard to believe?” Loki asked. “The King will treat her the same way he does you or me, and you know it. For once I wanted to see somebody get away. I wanted somebody to escape from the trap you and I are stuck in.”
Sara kept walking away from Loki, the train of her long red gown dragging on the floor behind her. Her black hair had been pulled back in a severe ponytail, the way she usually wore it. She did everything she could to seem as strong and imposing as her husband, but there was something soft and frail about her.
Sometimes Loki was surprised that the King had not broken her, but when she looked back at him, her brown eyes swimming with tears, Loki realized that he had. Physically, she may have looked the same, but inside, Sara wasn’t the same woman he’d met fourteen years ago.
“You don’t understand,” she said emphatically. “The Princess will change things, and not just for me. For all of us. She has that power.”
“Sara.” Loki sighed and stepped over to her. He put his hands on her bare arms, and she stared up at him, her lips quivering. “You’ve been trying to change things since you married Oren, and I’ve been trying to for as long as I can remember. But nothing we do makes anything better. He’s never going to relinquish his power. And one girl isn’t going to change anything for us.”
“Maybe you’ve given up, but I haven’t.” She wiped at her eyes and pulled away from him. “I will never stop believing that we can be better.”
“I’m not . . .” He trailed off. “Never mind.”
“But I don’t understand. If you think you did the right thing letting her get away, then why did you say you deserved what Oren did to you?”
“Because of all that mess out there.” Loki motioned vaguely to the door, through which they could hear the grunts and groans from the soldiers. “They’re going to war over her. People will get hurt, some even killed, and I could’ve just brought her back and avoided this whole thing.”