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“It won’t matter if they are. You will meet them, or you will lose. First, you will have my parents’ graves marked. You will absolve them of all wrongdoing in every law, every history book.Everywhere.”
“This is not an ask, Lysias. Zandra being alive is proof enough that they were not part of the plot to murder her. I had already begun to set this into motion the moment the doctor called me.”
A band around Lysias’s heart loosened, and he did not understand this. That a weight he’d carried since then and assumed would always be there would simply...lift. All because he’d asked, and Diamandis had agreed.
And not even because of the blackmail. He’d already started to right the wrongs. Diamandis had been clearing his parents’ names as if the truth mattered, as if he could admit a mistake, as if he could make what few amends there were to make.
Impossible.
“Second,” Lysias continued, needing to hurry, to finish. So he could leave Kalyva once and for all. Before he had tofeelanything. “You will take care of and protect Alexandra at all costs.”
“She is my sister.”
“I want it written into law.”
“It already is. Sheisalive, so sheisthe princess. All laws protect her. Ensure her place.”
Why was this so easy? Why wasn’t Diamandis arguing with him? Why...
It did not matter. It only mattered he finish. He escape.
“And what is your third condition?” Diamandis asked.
“That when she asks where I’ve gone, you tell her that you uncovered my potential revenge, and you paid me a significant amount of money to undo it all and disappear from Kalyva forever.”
Diamandis’s brow furrowed. “Why would you wish her to believe such a thing?”
“It is of no matter. These are my requirements. Either they are done, or you lose your crown tomorrow. And if you go back on any of these promises, I will ensure you lose it in the future. You will never be able to hunt down all who helped me. Revenge isalwaysan option.”
“But you choose not to use it tomorrow. Because of Zandra,” Diamandis said slowly, as if he did not understand what Lysias was doing.
Doyouunderstand what you’re doing?
What did it matter if he understood, as long as he did it? As long as he escaped.
“Very well,” Diamandis said as if he sensed Lysias’s urgency at being gone. He reached out a hand. “Consider it done.”
Lysias did not shake the king’s hand. He turned and left. The palace. Kalyva. And vowed he would never ever return.
Lysias never came back. For a while, Alexandra had considered going to the ball after all. It seemed a shame to waste her fancy dress.
But she was a princess now. Truly the princess. So she would likely have more opportunities to wear it, and she did not feel like smiling at anyone tonight. So she got undressed and allowed herself the luxury of crying herself to sleep.
Because she was safe. Found. Maybe she was heartbroken, but this was... It was not the catastrophe Lysias seemed to think it was. To Alexandra, it was something of a novelty. To care so much for someone they could hurt you... She could only see it as a blessing after twenty years with no one.
So she wept and grieved, and then she slept. In the early hours of morning, she dressed and prepared to find Diamandis so she could warn him of Lysias’s revenge. She was still conflicted about the decision since she knew Lysias would see it as yet another betrayal, but she was saving him from himself. And if he gave her the opportunity to explain herself—
No. She wouldn’t wait for him togiveher the opportunity, she wouldtakeit. Maybe Alexandra, Zandra, whoever she was from this point on, was someone new. But she was also still Al. Still strong and fierce and determined.
Maybe Lysias would be a brick wallforever. Then she would spend forever taking it apart brick by brick.
Alexandra opened the door to the hall and was shocked to discover there was no guard. Alexandra could not decide if this was a good development or a terrible one. She crept down the hall, feeling a bit like a burglar.
But when she stepped out of it into the large foyer that offered her different hallways and staircases to different parts of the palace, she saw Diamandis. Sitting on a bench as he looked through his phone, his assistant standing next to him.
When she stepped forward, he looked up, then stood. “Good morning, Zandra,” he said, greeting her.
She looked from him to his assistant, looking for some kind of hint at what this was. “Have you been...waiting for me?”
