Page 335 of Commanding Scythe and Sky

Nodding slowly, I let those words sink in, unsure whether he wanted condolences or was sincerely keeping me updated as promised. Nothing was clear anymore. None of it made sense. I kept my eyes on the birds as his focus burned against my profile, and then, just as quickly as he’d come in, he vanished into the bathroom without another word.

The tension left the room—and my shoulders—the moment he was out of sight. Air returned to my lungs as I glanced toward the closed door. I scooped up the book I’d been reading with absolutely no intent of finding my place, desperate only for an excuse not to make eye contact when he inevitably reemerged.

I’d barely settled into the other armchair near the hearth when the hinges creaked and deliberate footsteps announced his return.

With a question trapped in my throat and my tongue begging to free it, I kept my eyes on the splayed pages in my lap. I’d opened the damn thing upside down. Heat flushed my cheeks, though the spine was nestled against my thighs, so he likely wouldn’t notice.

I listened as he all but collapsed into his armchair beside the door—to the squeak of leather as he slipped his loafers on, to the sigh that sounded every bit as burdened as I felt, and finally to the quiet whoosh of the door opening.

The floor creaked beneath his weight as he moved to leave, and I lost the battle with the words wrestling for freedom.

“Why am I alive?”

The floorboards squeaked, the door’s hinges crying quietly before the latch clicked closed.

The question had plagued me for weeks. I’d poisoned them. I was loyal to their enemy and had betrayed the little freedom they’d given me in an attempt on the royal family. Being locked in the prince’s room was hardly adequate punishment.

I could feel his presence—that suffocating energy infecting every atom around him—without turning to confirm it.

At last, Adrastos drew a breath and said softly, “Moros believes you are integral to victory.” A heavy silence, then an aggrieved sigh. “And I am a man beholden to my word.”

Without another question, he left the room in a rush.

Cyrus

“We got three pings—first in Stockholm, then off Norway’s coast, and the last in Iceland before the chip’s telemetry went dead offshore,” Cali said, leaning her elbows on the war-room table.

Jo was still scowling at the data on the laptop in front of us. “It’s almost like he was clearing locations. Like he wasn’t sure where he’d find them.”

“But we have a hemisphere,” I said. “That’s something.”

My mate broke her statuesque stillness, eyes locked on Cali. “Where is he now?”

“We’re working to recover a body for autopsy, but the GPS puts Everhart in the Norwegian Sea.”

“That tracks with Blythe’s intel,” August noted, nearly as granite-hewn as his sister save for the slow flick of emerald eyes toward Lana, leaning against the table’s edge. “We have our heading.”

The assassin nodded once, though her words undercut the motion. “It’s too easy.”

“Five months of hell, and now it’s too easy?” August countered.

Her eyes narrowed. “He had to know that protocol would demand his life. Why go back? Why search for a ruler you know will dispose of you? Why not take his shot at freedom and run?”

A dozen explanations flashed through my mind—he could’ve gone back to plead his case, deliver intel gathered during interrogation, prove he was still worthy of his life.

“To clear his name,” August supplied. “Maybe he has family—someone he couldn’t risk paying the price for his failures.”

“Moros is a psychopath,” Lana bit out.

“Clinically,” Jo added.

Freya huffed in irritation. “Right, which means he’s going to operate on constant tests. If Everhart had the balls to withstand August fucking carving him like a woodblock, and weeks of every interrogation tactic any of us could stomach, he likely had the fucking guts to face his fate if it meant passing a test that kept his people safe.”

“The man was a sadist,” Jo snapped. “They don’t have people.”

Freya shrugged. “It’s what I’d do—if it was you, or Ally, or Cyrus.”

“You’re not a sadist,” August ground out before I could.