Tosya leaned forward, arms folded on the table. A nearly empty tumbler of kvass rested beside him. “Is Nicolai holding steadfast?”
I remembered the count’s disturbing neutrality in our last council meeting. Anton hadn’t forgotten it, either. “He is faltering the more perilous this becomes.” The prince sighed. “My vision for this revolution is peaceable, and Nicolai has clung to that. He isn’t the warrior his father was, and, in truth, I’m not confident he can remain loyal to our cause. It’s all happening too fast, and if we can’t persuade the people to be more patient, blood will spill, and too much of it.”
“Which is why Feliks’s idea isn’t a bad one,” I said, circling back to the version of the revolution where Anton took the throne first before carefully giving the people their rights.
The prince frowned as he studied me. Dark rings had surfaced beneath his eyes. “You know why I won’t rule over my brother. Because he is my brother. And by order of birth, the throne is his.”
“Yet you seek to take it away from him, regardless. By direct manipulation. Through me. Which is worse?” The challenge between us coiled hot in our auras. It broke apart at Tosya’s exclamation.
“You wish Sonya to force Valko to abdicate?” His brows lifted with incredulity. “How?”
We hadn’t gotten to this part—Anton’s pivotal, impossible plan. “Sonya can do more than sense emotion,” the prince replied. “She can alter it in someone else.”
“Once!” I said in exasperation. “I was able to do it only one time!”
Tosya stared at me like a stranger. “Truly? And when did you acquire that gift?”
“When Valko tried to kill her,” Anton replied flatly.
Tosya’s brows raised another notch. “Ah,” he said, his gaze drifting between us, all too keen on everything left unspoken. “I see.”
I felt blood rush up my neck into my cheeks. Here, in this run-down boardinghouse, I felt far away from the palace, far away from Valko and the spell of charisma and attraction he’d cast over me, the link of mutual understanding he’d claimed we shared. It was hard to believe how conflicted I had been, how torn I’d felt between my desire for him and his brother.
“You’ve had an interesting few months at the palace, haven’t you, Sonya?” Tosya asked. Despite himself, he grinned. His perplexed and light emotion sent a tickle under my arms.
“Don’t tease her,” Anton said. “It isn’t funny.”
That only gave his friend permission to laugh. “You’re right. It isn’t.” Tosya tried to compose his features, but his humor only rose and flitted across my skin. “It kind of is.” He snorted, his eyes watering. “Just a little.”
I sucked in my cheeks and struggled not to laugh with him and let his aura overtake me. Anton’s frown deepened “What’s the matter with the two of you?”
“It’s him.” I pointed at Tosya, lips quivering.
“Stop it,” Anton commanded his friend.
Tosya chortled harder. I smacked his shoulder, and he buried his face in his hands. His palms pressed against his eyes as his entire body trembled with laughter. “I’m sorry! Truly, I am. It’s late and I can only handle so much surprise in one evening.” He pulled his hands away, his face red with merriment. “Thus far I’ve learned the two of you are not only acquainted”—his emphasis on that word designated it as a euphemism for something far more complicated—“but also that the young girl I once knew, who once rolled in the mud with the pigs when she had a sudden urge to cool off, is now the sovereign Auraseer, and that her entanglement in our revolution means she must ‘alter the emperor’s emotions’ to the extent he willfully and joyfully hands over the throne.”
“You see?” I said to Anton. “Even he thinks it’s ridiculous!”
The prince’s jaw twitched. He leveled a firm stare on his friend. “You haven’t seen her do it.”
Tosya shrugged. “Granted.” He tossed back the dregs of his kvass and strangely gained sobriety in doing so. “So let’s see her do it now.”
I blinked at him. “Are you serious?”
“Yes. Maybe that’s why you were such a charmer with the wild horses in your youth. Could you bend their emotions, too?”
My mouth opened and shut a few times while I considered him. “If I did, I had no idea what I was doing,” I finally answered.
Tosya cocked a half smile. “Come on, then. Show me something. Make me get up and do a jig.”
“This is absurd!” Anton snapped. “She doesn’t do parlor tricks.”
“But we’re in a parlor.”
“Tosya.”
“Couldn’t resist.”