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Silently, we trekked to the room where tables, chairs, and sofas sat haphazardly. The secret getaway from the terror thathad reigned in these halls for far too long was thankfully empty. For the first time in months, my shoulders fell away from my ears and I felt as if I could breathe in the privacy and shelter this room provided. Casting more light around us, we pulled back chairs and faced each other across a worn wood table.
I rubbed my beard absentmindedly, trying to figure out how I wanted to express my concerns. Before I could speak, Kaztar turned to his wife, all semblance of cool collectedness disappearing like he’d removed a mask during a ball. “Domi, I want you to return home and stay there until I come to get you. It’s not safe for you here any longer.”
Domi scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “I am not leaving you.”
“Please, Domi,” Kaztar pleaded, sinking to his knees and bracing his hands and forehead on her thighs. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you,” he said, lifting his head and showing her the deep lines that anguish carved into his expression.
Her eyes were harder than steel as she glared at Viktor and myself, before returning to her husband. “If you had listened to me in the Iron Realm, none of this would have happened.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” Kaztar’s voice broke over the words, and his hair fell in front of his face as he dipped his head into his wife’s lap again.
Viktor and I sat in awkward silence during their exchange. Air stilled in my lungs as I waited to hear what she would say.
“What if something happened to you? Do you think I would be able to live with myself if something happened to you after I ran home like a scared little child?” she finally snapped, her anger still sharp as a knife.
“But–”
“But even if I did return home, we have no guards for the estate any longer. They’ve all been conscripted.” She ripped her ire in my direction.
I held up my hands in supplication. “If you wish to return home, I will send them with you. Kazimir won’t notice their absence.” It was true, and I was willing to lie about our numbers to protect Domi. Kazimir was too busy fucking his whores half the time to remember the might of his army, and at this point, I didn’t have much to lose. It was only a matter of time before my head rolled off the scaffolding and my body was tossed into the angry sea.
“Are you sure?” Kaztar asked, picking his head up and searching my face for any deception.
I blew out a breath, deciding it was time to share my worries. “I am certain. When do you think Kazimir is going to remember that Liliana refused to return with us? By all accounts, she was here when Ruslan, Izidora, and those other Dragons rescued Princess Gizela too. It’s only a matter of time before my father, mother, and I end up like House Zadik.” Voicing that statement settled a stone in my gut and made my blood run cold. Sure, I’d acknowledged it was a possibility in the back of my mind. But to speak the words aloud, to those who were closest to me, made them far too real.
Viktor visibly flinched beside me. Tibor and Renata were like parents to us, just as much as Kazimir, and losing them was fucking hard. Kazimir forcing us to watch their execution was what finally changed my mind about the whole situation. Thankfully, Viktor saw the truth about our friend after that, too. Or, former friend. He wasn’t the same male we’d known even a year prior.
“We won’t let that happen,” Kaztar swore, but I shook my head.
Slicking both palms over my hair, I sighed. “You can’t promise that, not without risking House Rass.” I tried and failed to keep the hopelessness from my tone.
“He’s right,” Domi pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest.
Viktor drummed his fingers against the table, thinking. “Kazimir won’t notice their absence, not with how many new recruits are coming in from the countryside. Take them, stay safe, and if we need to flee, we will at least have a place to go.”
“I can spare ten thousand. Can you house them?” I asked Domi.
She uncrossed her arms, rubbing her palms against her thighs before nodding. “I can find places for them.”
“Good. You should leave under cover of darkness. The new moon is in a few days. That will be the best time to go,” I said.
“We’ll need to send some of those who can do the spell Desmond taught them,” Kaztar insisted.
“That’s how they’ll have to leave regardless,” I replied. “We can’t have reports making their way to Kazimir about thousands of soldiers marching through the woods in the Night Realm away from the capital.”
Desmond’s magic trick was handy, I had to admit, even if the Mage was whispering maddening thoughts in Kazimir’s ear. Ever since he’d arrived, Kazimir had gotten so much worse. It was as if the Fates planted him in our path, trying to steer the outcome they wanted rather than the one the council fought for.
Sighing, Domi finally acquiesced. “Fine. But I want to be kept in the loop. I won’t stay there if I don’t know what’s going on.”
Kaztar lifted her hands and kissed the backs of them tenderly. “I promise I will write to you daily, my love.”
We lapsed into silence, so used to holding our tongues that none of us knew what to say next, or even how to express the feelings we’d buried deep in the recesses of our minds.
Finally, I shattered it with a shocking statement. “We have to stop Kazimir. He can’t be allowed to rule any longer.”
Viktor nodded grimly. “He called me to the harem room earlier. He wants to march on the Iron Realm, through the Zherzha Pass. I say we let him.”
“Fuck,” I swore, locking my fingers on the back of my neck and looking up at the ceiling while I gathered myself. “We’re all going to die there.”
