We walked back to our inn in shocked silence.
“She wouldn’t do it,” I finally said. “Lia would never join forces with the enemy against Morrighan. Never.”
“I know,” Berdi said.
My abdomen cramped, and I bent over, clutching myself. Berdi and Gwyneth were immediately at my sides, holding me in case I fell. “The baby’s just stretching,” I said and took a deep, calming breath.
“Let’s get you back to the inn,” Gwyneth said. “We’ll sort this out about Lia. There has to be some explanation.”
The cramp eased, and I straightened. I still had two months to go. Don’t come early, child. I’m not ready.
“Do you need to rest?” Berdi asked. “We can stop in this tavern and get you a bite to eat.”
I looked at the nearby tavern. It was tempting, but I only wanted to get back to—
I froze.
“What’s wrong?” Gwyneth asked.
Something caught my eye. I shook off their assistance and walked closer to the tavern, trying to get a better view through the window.
I blinked, trying to refocus again and again.
He’s dead.
Lia had told me. I heard her words as clearly as if she were saying them to me now. She had stared at her feet, and her words had run together in a quick, nervous string. His patrol was ambushed. The captain of the guard buried him in a distant field. His last words were of you—tell Pauline I love her. He’s dead, Pauline. He’s dead. He isn’t coming back.
But her eyes had darted away from mine time and again.
Lia had lied to me.
Because there he was, plain as day. Mikael was sitting in the tavern, an ale on one knee and a girl on the other.
The world spun, and I reached out to a lantern post to steady myself. I wasn’t sure what hit me harder, that Mikael was alive and well or that Lia, whom I had trusted like a sister, had deceived me so completely.
Berdi was at my side gripping my arm. “Do you want to go in?” she asked.
Gwyneth was there too, but she was looking through the window where I still stared. “No,” she said quickly. “She doesn’t want to go in. Not right now.”
And Gwyneth was right. I knew where to find him when I was ready, but I wasn’t ready now.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
The guards were escorting me down the corridor to Sanctum Hall when we heard footsteps coming our way. Hurried footsteps. Kaden rounded the corner into our hallway and stopped.
“Wait for her at the stairs,” he said, dismissing the guards. “I need to speak to the princess.”
They did as they were ordered, and he pulled me into a narrow dark passage. His eyes grazed over my cheek.
“It was only a clumsy fall, Kaden. Don’t make more of it than it is.”
He reached up, gently running his thumb beneath my cheekbone. His jaw clenched. “How long are we going to go on like this, Lia? When are you going to be honest with me?”
I saw the earnestness in his eyes, and I was surprised that my chest ached with wanting to tell him everything, but Rafe and I were too close to freedom now for the luxury of honesty. I still didn’t know what Kaden might do. His devotion to me was obvious, but his loyalty to Venda and the Komizar was proven.
“I’m not hiding anything from you.”
“What about the emissary? Who is he?”