“No, it is not a problem,” he insisted, despite the ache in his shoulders. The burns had mostly grown numb by now anyway. “Just curious as to who she is?”

Aurora lifted a hand, running it lightly over what must have been the person’s foot.

“She’s my mother.”

He looked at her, wishing he’d heard the wrong words, that his tired ears had somehow mixed them all up. But he knew that wasn’t the case. It all made sense now. Her secret journey into the castle against the rebellion’s wishes, and why Jinx would help. The earth witch had lost her mother shortly before joining the crew, and the loss still plagued her.

Holy raging goddess. Kiran was holding a godsdamned queen.

Now, more than ever, they needed to get off the street and somewhere private. There was only one place he could think of, and it would not go over well, but he did not think they had much of a choice.

So he hefted the queen higher in his arms and said, “Follow me.”

“Where in the bleeding skies were you while the kingdom was under attack?” Cassius snarled, slamming the door to the throne room behind him as he approached his father. It did not close properly, undermining his anger, but the hole in the ceiling and the pile of half-charred furniture and curtains and rugs in the center of the room underscored his point well enough.

His father straightened, slowly, lifting one hand off the table he leaned on, then the other. His black hair was scattered with gray, and the wrinkles in his tanned skin settled into grooves as he sneered. “I was busy. I had assumed you had things under control. It seems I assumed wrong. Perhaps I should listen to Casimir. He thinks you’ve lost your edge. Maybe it is time for a little healthy brotherly competition.”

Yes, his father would love that. The brothers had spent their childhood more like animals his father trained to fight each other than a true family. His father had a certain cruel curiosity when it came to pushing his sons.

Cassius turned that same cruelty back onto him as he said, “That might prove difficult, seeing as Casimir is missing.”

That news caught his father’s attention, wiping the bored sneer away in an instant. “What do you mean, missing?”

“I mean as soon as the palace was infiltrated, I sent men to protect each member of the family, but they were too late. The residential wing had been ransacked and bombed with fog magic. Casimir was gone, and my mother, your wife, was laid out on the floor as though she’d been crawling for help. Not that you likely care. The fog left her confused and frightened, and she has been asking for you, and no one knew where you were either until moments ago, when I was notified that you showed up here. So, where were you?”