“They were convinced,” he assured me.
Chevelle wasn’t like me. He possessed a nearly unshakable calm and considerable patience. After all we’d been through, there was no question he would have taken revenge on Asher. Everyone knew that. What they couldn’t guess was the backlash it would cause. What traps Asher had set for him. If he were to fail, what that would have meant for me. If he were to succeed, what that would have meant for the realm. Chevelle had understood that. He’d kept me from acting rashly, a reckless vengeance that would have likely gotten me killed. I would have retaliated with passion. He could wait.
And he was right. There was a difference between courage and suicide. Honor wasn’t much good to the dead.
“Chevelle?”
“Hmm,” he purred. I shivered. He could think it was from cold.
“How did you know I’d kill Asher?”
He stiffened. “We didn’t.”
I felt my face contort, but couldn’t decipher what they’d actually planned when we’d confronted him among his guard.
Chevelle sighed. “When we found that he’d set bindings on you, we had to allow him to live.”
They’d made a deal.
“He’d been collecting new powers. He’d learned to create a binding that would not release upon his death.”
Which explained why Chevelle had been studying bindings instead of just hunting the council.
“When council attacked, it set so much more into motion. Francine was to be taken, and you, but Junnie stepped in. She forced their hand with an arrangement no one could refuse by council law. Council bound you both, for their safety, and permitted you to live. Under their watch.”
“I can’t remember,” I said. “Everything else. But not the bindings. Was it long?”
“No, the entire process was very quick. When council descended, Asher set his spell and ran. And then you were gone.” He faltered, then corrected. “In the village.”
I had been gone. And it had seemed a very long time.
“He watched you, to be certain you weren’t fundamentally affected by the castings. Apparently, he saw enough of your old self there to approve. Once council was disposed of, we expected him to release you. He wanted you back as his second, under his control.”
“So, when I stabbed him...”
“Not exactly the plan.”
“Wow.”
A short strangled laugh escaped him, the kind mingled with relief and disbelief. We sat in silence for a few moments, recalling Asher’s last words. The words that would release the bindings. The words that would direct his power to me. If it hadn’t been for some messed-up sense of pride on his part, I’d still be bound. Trapped in my own mind. Or dead.
“There is something you should know, Frey.”
I waited.
“Junnie saved your life. She protected you. She fought for you.”
“But?”
“We are not certain she meant to keep Asher alive long enough to unbind you.”
I nodded, forcing myself to ignore the tightness in my chest. “All right.” I took a deep breath. “But she’s still done nothing to warrant my enmity.” There was no way to prove she had intended to keep me bound now. Though it was possible. If nothing else, she might have only been trying to keep her family alive. How many of the council members who were slaughtered had been her blood?
Fannie had been responsible for many of those deaths. Junnie had saved her, and Fannie, as she escaped her bonds and regained pieces of her old self, had slipped into madness, reaping revenge on those who had trapped her. She had cut down her own family, Junnie’s family. My family. A small voice whispered that council’s resistance to Junnie was now shrunk by half, but I choked it off. Fannie was dead. Asher was dead. Junnie was all that was left.
I sighed and turned from Chevelle’s embrace to face him, handing his cloak back. “I’d like to meet with the guard in the morning.”
He stepped back, straight and dignified, and gave a curt, acquiescent nod. I felt like such an ass.
Chapter Eight
Excursion
They were scattered about the study, patiently waiting for me. It still annoyed me I was the only one who needed so much rest. Ruby’s hair was pulled back, exposing the points of her ears. Not entirely fey, but close enough.
“What news?” I asked before they had a chance to take their places at the table.
Anvil reported. “Word has already flooded the valleys. There were but a few minor protests south of Camber. No news of the reaction of the rogues.”
“We will ride out today. Silence the dissidents.” A few eyebrows rose. “Grey, Chevelle, Rhys, with me.” I glanced at Steed. “Ruby will need to lay low for at least three days. Please attend her.” I wasn’t finished, but Ruby was bloodying her lip waiting to respond. I let her.
“Three days?”