Page 8 of The Crown’s Temptation

No one, Teorin thinks. Instead he says, "I do lie." Teorin holds his eyes. "But why lie about this? Why give the information at all?"

Colsar looks at Asharin. He is quiet for a long time. "Who will keep her safe if she awakens? I will go with her." His jaw tightens. "When she awakens, we will find a way to leave and get to the children--"

"Highness." Arabar steps forward. "If I may. You cannot abandon your country. Your children."

"She will hate you forever," Teorin says. Both of them look at him. "If you enter Morrath and cannot leave as she cannot leave, and your children are left in this world without a parent, she will hate you for it, and if you are worth anything you will hate yourself. You know she will." He pauses. "And your children deserve better. It is bad enough they have you for a father," he adds, because he cannot entirely help himself.

Colsar says nothing.

"She may awaken," Teorin continues. "The healers in Morrath have power. And she holds feeder blood, I can smell it on her. If at least one child is a feeder, and that blood has passed to her through the birth⁠—"

“It is not impossible,” Arabar says carefully.

Teorin nods. "This likely will not work. But there is a chance."

"You came here with ships and creatures," Colsar says. "I can hear them and smell them from here. And now I am supposed to trust you with my wife?"

Teorin looks at him for a long moment.

"Who better," he says, "than the man you know wants her more than anything?" He laughs bitterly, although his eyes burn with tears he is determined not to show. "Everyone else in this room has given up. Everyone except two people." He holds Colsar's eyes. "You and I, brother. I will do whatever it takes. Kill whoever I must. To bring her back."

Colsar laughs. It is not a good sound. "If you go you cannot leave. You will be trapped."

Teorin smiles. "That is where you are wrong. Feeders can come and go as they please."

He watches understanding move across Colsar's face.

For a while, the room is quiet. Then, "what if I never see her again?" Colsar says.

"In any scenario you never see her again. In this one, perhaps there is a chance."

Arabar speaks quietly. "If nothing else, when your children are of age, perhaps they will give you their blessing to enter Morrath. Should she live."

Colsar closes his eyes. His hand moves through Asharin's hair in the slow, careful way of someone who is not thinking about what they are doing, only that they need to keep doing it.

He opens his eyes and looks at Teorin.

"She is everything to me," he says.

"I truly do not give a damn what she is to you." Teorin holds his gaze. "But know that I will keep her safe. And for the sake of her children and what has happened here tonight, I will not take what is rightfully mine. My ship will dock. My Morraks will refrain. My men and cousins will not set foot in Veynar. For now."

Colsar looks at him. "I do not know where Sevrin is. But if he is missing, the throne belongs to our daughter Fiorakis. That was Asharin's wish. I will protect it with everything I have."

Teorin stares at him. Part of him wants to disagree, the other part knows Colsar speaks true and cannot reconcile any of it. Not simply the idea of giving up the throne for an infant, but the idea of sitting on a throne without her by his side. Then he speaks. "I will send word should she awaken. Or should I be unable to awaken her."

He stops. "It is not as simple as entering Morrath. We will need help."

"From whom?" Colsar's eyes are alert now, focused. The cold, predatorial rigidity that he is accustomed to seeing from him seems to have returned. For now, anyway.

Teorin closes his eyes and mutters a few words under his breath. Opens them. "We will need Yorali magic. Prince Tamal is with the Dowager. I just sent my Morraks to retrieve him."

"I was just there," Colsar says. "I did not see him."

"He is good at not being seen when he wishes. And he has grown close to your mother, as you will soon learn."

Colsar's eyes darken. "If he is aligned with my mother he will have no interest in helping."

Teorin smiles. "He will not have a choice."