Amid Stars and Darkness (The Xenith Trilogy #1)

“Zane—” Brightan began, speaking aloud for the first time, but Trystan swiftly cut him off.

“You think I’ll control her, is that it?” he snapped at Lura. “That she’ll bend to my will and I’ll be able to wipe the Vakar culture clean off Xenith without so much as a protest from her?”

He chuckled darkly, the sound deep and reverberating from the very back of his throat. “You clearly haven’t been paying attention. This isn’t the same Lissa as the one who left five years ago. It would be a waste of my valuable time to convince her to forsake her people.” His head turned in Delaney’s direction so that he was watching her out of the corner of his eye. “And I have other things in mind I’d like to convince her to do. Better things. Far more interesting things.”

His gaze roamed down her body pointedly, and she barely held back a shudder. The way he’d angled himself, she doubted Ruckus could see where he was actually looking, and not wanting to start the two of them off, she didn’t want to give away that his last words were meant for her and not Lura.

“The names you gave us,” Ruckus chimed in, pulling Lura’s head back slightly so that she was forced to acknowledge him, “are those the only ones? The only Vakar involved?”

“The only ones in the castle,” she divulged, “who I know about.”

“How else do you think they were able to pull off the mass bombing the other night?” Trystan stated. “They had to have had Vakar on their side. Did you really think they were all disgruntled Kints, Ander?”

“No, the other night proved that,” Ruckus admitted through clenched teeth. “Though I had hoped.”

Trystan’s response was a grunt, and surprisingly he didn’t press any more than that.

Delaney crossed her arms over her chest and moved to lean back against the railing. This whole thing was such a mess. She’d known after those Vakar soldiers had attacked her that some of Olena’s own people were involved; she just hadn’t realized how deeply it ran. Trystan hadn’t been kidding when he’d said people didn’t like her.

Vapid had probably been the nicer way of putting it, even.

Which made her even more confused, because how had someone described as a weak pushover been able to come up with a plan the likes of which Olena had? Using a device to make someone look like her, luring her guards after the fake version of herself … These types of things took smarts and planning. Sure, Gibus had been the one to create the device, and she must have merely stumbled upon it and used the find to her advantage, but still.

Either they were all wrong about her, and Olena wasn’t as dim-witted as they believed, or she’d gotten seriously lucky on this one. Making Delaney seriously unlucky.

“At least the Uprising is tonight,” Trystan told Ruckus.

“Still?” Delaney gaped at him, straightening from the railing. Part of her had sort of hoped they’d postpone it, considering the trauma she’d obviously just endured.

“It’s our best chance of keeping you safe,” Trystan informed her as if he thought she was stupid for not realizing it on her own. “Once you’re Uprisen, the punishment for attempting assassination will be raised, and without access to the Alter Pool, the Basileus and Basilissa will be vulnerable to attack. No Vakar would risk losing their rulers for a chance at stopping your reign.”

“He’s right,” Ruckus agreed.

She thought she was beginning to understand the Tars’ predicament, recalling what she’d been told about the Alter Pool. If the Tars killed her prior to the ceremony, then the Basileus would be forced to choose a new heir, despite his not having any other children. He could perhaps try again with his wife, or he could probably choose someone else.

Case in point, there were options. If she went through with the ceremony, however, the Tars would lose their window. After that, if they killed her, they risked their Basileus and Basilissa being murdered before a new regent could even be discussed. The Kint members probably wouldn’t care, so she assumed this fear stemmed solely from those Vakar members.

“If the Kints want war so badly, wouldn’t that be ideal?” she asked boldly. “Get me out of the way then go for Mom and Pops?”

“Mom and—” Ruckus stopped himself, then took a deep steadying breath.

“Who says the Kints want war?” Trystan asked her, voice low. If he’d noticed her slip, he didn’t point it out. Instead he seemed caught up on the first aspect of her statement. “The Rex is the one who posed this asinine alliance in the first place.”

Oh. She really wished she’d known that the Rex had been the one to initially propose peace between them.

“Just because he wants peace doesn’t mean the rest of your people do,” she pointed out. There was definitely a line, and she was close to crossing it, but she needed some time to think over the upcoming ceremony, and distracting them seemed to be the best way to get it.

She’d thought she’d have the morning to mentally prepare, to steady her racing heart and figure out how she was going to get through this without completely losing it. It wasn’t a big deal, she kept trying to convince herself. Again, there were only those two lines. The real issue was standing up there in front of all those people, pretending to be someone else.

A lot could give her away: body language, the way she greeted people, and apparently her damn eyes, if anyone was as observant as Trystan apparently was.

“Is this assumption based on the knowledge that we would win in a war?” Trystan asked, the corner of his mouth turning up. It was a trick, however, an attempt to mask his residual anger. He did not like her accusations, apparently.

Ironic.

“I am not going to stand here and listen to this,” Ruckus stated.

“That’s because you know I’m right,” Trystan said, goading him. “Face it, Ander. You need me to bind myself to the Lissa every bit as much as the rest of the Vakar. It’s true, many of the Kints don’t agree with peace, but most do. We might have a better chance of winning, but the losses on both sides would be astronomical. This may surprise you,” he said, and glanced at her, “both of you, but I don’t want to throw my people’s lives away any more than my father does.”

Ruckus held up a hand when Delaney went to speak, stilling her. After a moment he nodded and addressed the Zane.

“Pettus just told me the Barer is prepared,” he informed them. Telepathic communication sure made gaining information a lot easier. It may even be faster than the cell phones she was used to.

Though she still did miss her phone.

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