Vhalla squeezed his hands lightly, and let him hide behind the security of his jabs. She knew just as well as he did the real reason why he had been in his brother’s room. She knew from the moment she had seen a pillow and blanket on Baldair’s couch.
“Speaking of incompetent nitwits, I should bring you back to the fools who run my Tower.” He stood and swayed from exhaustion.
“Will you be all right without me?” Vhalla braved the question. Leaving was the appropriate thing to do, but worry changed the rules.
He sighed, running a hand over his hair, trying to tame the stray pieces that escaped over the events of the evening into place. “I’m always all right.”
“No.” She stood as well to bring a palm to his cheek. His mask broke under her touch. “Don’t hide from me, my prince.”
“Vhalla, please,” he pleaded, his voice thin and strained. “Come back tomorrow?” He closed his eyes and tilted his head toward her hand. “I need you.”
“All you ever need to do is ask,” she whispered in thankful awe that he relented so quickly to accept whatever comfort she could offer.
“I’ll fetch you when I can,” Aldrik affirmed.
“I may be with the minister.”
He paused, searching her face. “You’re still working on crystals with him, aren’t you?”
“I am.” Vhalla didn’t even try to lie. “I’ve meant to speak with you further about it but . . .”
“I know, with my brother being how he is,” Aldrik agreed with a sigh. “Later, but soon. When Baldair is better, we need to speak on it.”
She was relieved he relented. Whatever the conversation would reveal, Vhalla already suspected it would be exhausting for the prince. Perhaps, if she played her cards right, she could have already closed the caverns for good by the time they had it.
Aldrik led her through the secret passageway behind his mirror. Vhalla returned to the Tower without a word. They’d moved past the point of words long ago. A look was all it took for them to communicate.
Into the night, he weighed on her thoughts. Vhalla tossed and turned in her small bed, a bed that suddenly was cold and uncomfortable and far too small. Exhausted, Vhalla finally relented and closed her eyes, slipping out of her body with ease.
Her Projected form was unhindered by doors and darkness. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t find him in his bed as she’d hoped. He was hunched over in front of his hearth, scribbling frantically on the papers that he’d hidden from her.
You need to sleep. Vhalla nearly startled the prince out of his skin.
“What are you doing?” He blinked at her ghost-like presence.
Making you take care of yourself.
“You’re so annoying, you know that?” he said after a long pause, the tiniest of smirks curling the corner of his lips.
Pot meet kettle. Go to bed, Aldrik. Vhalla was glad she returned. He was going to exhaust himself, which only increased the odds of him falling ill also.
Vhalla stayed with him until he crawled into bed, watching as his body relaxed, his brow softened. She waited until she saw her prince’s breathing deepen, telling her he was asleep. She lingered long after in the darkness, a silent sentry to the crown prince, until her body was too exhausted to maintain the Projection. She finally withdrew into a deep and dreamless sleep.
“ARE YOU FEELING all right?” Victor asked, glancing up from his workstation in the far corner of the room.
“I’m fine,” she mumbled.
The minister laughed. “Dear Vhalla, you don’t think I believe that for a moment, do you?” He crossed over to stand before her, blocking her view of the axe. The minister summoned her attention with a tap on the chin. “Tell me.”
Where should she start? The ailing Prince Baldair? The gray area she’d walked back into with the crown prince? Keeping crystal magic a secret?
“It’s nothing.” It was too much to tell.
“Vhalla, trust me. I cannot protect you if you shut me out.”
“I don’t need your protection,” she snapped. She was too tired and too weathered to be treated like a child.
“No?” the minister asked slowly. “If I were to dismiss you from the Tower, where would you go? Where could your safety be assured? Where could you remain out of the hands of the Knights of Jadar?”
“I handled myself when it came to the Knights.” Vhalla ignored the magic and still mysterious fire that was the catalyst for her escape.
“And Egmun?”
“Were you absent at the Sunlit Stage?” Her ability to manage the Senate should’ve been apparent.
“What about the Emperor?” Victor folded his arms over his chest. “When he demands you become a weapon in his war, what will you do to refuse him?”
Vhalla’s tongue was stilled. That required some thought. But she wasn’t exactly a novice at defending herself to the Emperor either.
“Perhaps you will use Aldrik for that?”
She was on her feet. “Are you threatening me?”
“By the Mother, no!” Victor held up his hands with a chuckle. “I simply want you to understand how this relationship works.”