hands up into the air. “The captain of the royal guards—your royal guards—just tried to kill us! Inside your own palace!”
He shrugged again. “Today isn’t the first time Wexel has tried to murder me at Myrkvior. He has never liked me, not even when he was a young guard serving King Maximus, and he absolutely despises Lyra because she almost killed him once in defense of me. Wexel picked Milo’s side a long time ago, and the captain delights in destroying anyone that he or my brother perceives as a threat or an enemy. Unfortunately for me, I top both of their lists.”
“You’re really not going to leave?”
Leonidas’s eyes glittered with a cold light. “I’m not going anywhere. This is just as much my home as it is Milo’s.”
I ground my teeth in frustration. His stubbornness was going to get us both killed, so I tried another tactic. “What about Maeven? Surely, the queen will want to know that her captain tried to kill her son.”
A bitter laugh spewed out of Leonidas’s mouth. “Mother prefers to let her children and other relatives settle these sorts of . . . disputes amongst themselves, just like she did when she was the head of the Bastard Brigade. Even if I told her what was going on, she wouldn’t help or intervene. She would just sit back and watch and congratulate the winner in the end, just like she’s done ever since I was a boy.”
My heart ached for him. Mothers were supposed to love and protect their children, not throw them into the deadly gladiatorial ring of palace politics and see if they managed to survive.
I would never, ever admit it to anyone, but part of me understood Maeven’s actions at Seven Spire. She might have chosen to engage in wholesale slaughter, but she had also been trying to improve her kingdom’s fortunes. She’d had a goal and a reason for her actions, no matter how despicable they were. But not helping your own son, even when he was battling your other son . . . Well, that was just heartless.
Leonidas must have seen the worry on my face, because he came over to me. “Trust me. This is how things are done here. Milo set a trap for us, but it failed. He’ll retreat, at least for now, and I’ll take the usual steps to protect myself—and you too. In the meantime, we’ll all pretend like nothing is wrong and that we aren’t all plotting to kill each other.”
I shuddered. “Pretending nothing is wrong is even worse than your brother trying to murder you.”
“It is what it is, and we are who we are,” Leonidas replied, his voice as cold as I’d ever heard it. “Milo isn’t going to change, and neither am I.”
Thwack-thwack-thwack. The sharp, wet sounds of those glass shards plunging into the guards’ bodies whispered through my mind. He had killed all those men with no hesitation and no mercy. Perhaps Leonidas was more like Milo—like Maeven—than I’d realized.
I thought of the rage that had gripped me, and how I’d wanted to use my magic to rip the guards to shreds, even after they were wounded and no longer a threat. Maybe I was also more like Milo and Maeven than I wanted to admit. I shuddered again.
Leonidas hesitated, then dropped to one knee, reached out, and took my hand. He wasn’t wearing his usual gloves, and he stroked his thumb over my skin, as if he were trying to bring some much-needed warmth back to my ice-cold fingers.
I stood there, torn between tearing my hand away and wrapping my fingers around his. Despite everything that had happened, and all the awful things we had done, part of me was still desperately, crazily attracted to him, and I had to fight the urge to cup his face in my hands, lean down, and press my lips to his.
Hot sparks flared in Leonidas’s eyes, as if he were sensing my treacherous thoughts. His thumb stilled, and his hand tightened around mine, as if he were going to stand up and draw me into his arms. I didn’t know what I would do if that happened. Probably kiss him like a fool.
But the moment passed, and his grip slowly loosened. Regret pinched my heart, and once again, I had to force myself not to reach for him.
“Don’t worry about Wexel and Milo,” Leonidas said. “I can handle them. Besides, I promised not to let any harm come to you. If