(eng) Morgan Rhodes - Falling Kingdoms 05 by Crystal Storm

Author:Crystal Storm [Storm, Crystal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

CLEO

PAELSIA

“Have you seen Prince Ashur anywhere?” asked Nic.

Cleo looked up from the book about Chief Basilius’s life that she’d chosen from the shelf downstairs. Her thoughts were so scattered, she must’ve read the same page, which covered all five of his marriages, ten times.

Nic stood at the door of her private room. Enzo stood guard outside, her constant protector, but she’d made sure to tell him that Nic was not to be barred from interrupting her.

“Not today,” she admitted, still stunned that the prince had returned from the dead. “Why? Is that odd?”

“He likes to wander off and not tell anyone.” His expression darkened. “Does he seem different to you than before? I can’t figure it out.”

“He seems much the same to me, but I didn’t know him well,” she admitted.

“Neither did I.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that. Sometimes it doesn’t take years to know someone. A handful of conversations can be more than enough to know someone’s heart.”

“If you say so.”

Cleo knew that Nic and Ashur had known each other well enough that her friend had grieved the prince’s loss deeply. And she also knew there was more than a simple friendship between the two, emotions they were only beginning to explore, perhaps now forever unresolved.

“Taran and Felix also seem to be missing,” she said. “Where are they?”

“An excellent question. I thought I was allied with Jonas, but now it seems he conspires with Magnus.”

“What?” The very thought made an uneasy laugh rise in her throat. “If you’ve seen the two in discussion, the subject is very likely about the king.”

Ever since Jonas had successfully— yet unsuccessfully— sunk his dagger into the king’s chest two nights ago, the king had remained in his room, his mother constantly by his side, fearful her son was too close to death to survive long enough for the secret magic she promised to restore him.

Cleo did worry that if he died before the witch found Lucia, she’d refuse to help them, but she didn’t mind at all the thought of him suffering in a tiny room in Paelsia.

A fitting end for a monster.

What had Gaius Damora been like back when he had known her mother? What horrors had he subjected Elena Corso to? It was a question that had plagued her ever since he’d spoke her name.

“Do you trust him?” Nic’s voice broke through her thoughts.

“Who? Magnus?”

He laughed. “No, of course not him. Jonas.”

Did she trust Jonas, the boy who had kidnapped and imprisoned her—not once, but twice—and at one point wanted her dead for being present when his brother was murdered?

But he was also the boy who rose up to become a leader. To fight for his people. The boy who had risked his own life to save hers.

“I do trust him,” she admitted.

So much could change in a single year.

“So do I,” Nic said.

She nodded. “If he’s speaking with Magnus, then it must be important.”

“I still don’t like it if he’s keeping secrets from us.”

Neither did Cleo, especially if it was a secret Jonas and Magnus now shared.

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