“I can take off the uniform.” Without another word, he tugged on his vest stays. It fell open, and she had to tear her gaze away from his bare chest. “I have another shirt in my saddlebag,” he added, and she could’ve sworn she heard a smirk in that tone.

It made her want to kick him. “I don’t need an escort.” She set her jaw, stubborn. When she finally turned to look at him again, he’d thrown on a simple cotton shirt. But she could still see the sharp outline of his muscles beneath it, and try though she might, she couldn’t make herself dislike the view.

“Then I won’t serve as your escort.” He smiled, too damned winning for his own good. “I’ll simply join you as a friend.”

She didn’t deign to answer that. Without another word, she swung up into the stallion’s saddle. Then she wrapped her hands in his mane, leaned down along his neck, and kicked him into motion. Wind whipping through her hair, Zofi smiled—her first real smile in what felt like a lifetime.

And sure enough, when she stole a glance over her shoulder, there was Vidal riding hard after her, a matching grin painted across his face.

Right then and there, she made a silent decision. If he can keep up, I’ll let him stay.

10

Florencia

Five days since the mender told them Father had a fortnight to live. Two since she’d been confined to her chambers, pending Andros’s judgment about her actions.

About the treason I committed.

Last night, unable to sleep, Ren had curled up on the floor beside the thin wooden servants’ door and listened to the guards posted outside her chamber gossip while they played crowns, an old dice game.

“Confinement. That’s all for now.”

“Why such a light sentence? If she really did it…”

“We don’t know that,” the first Talon, a woman, scolded. “Stop believing every whisper you hear passing through the halls.”

Ren couldn’t help it. A faint smile touched her mouth.

But then the woman continued speaking. “First His Majesty’s health, now this.”

“That’s not a rumor—everyone knows he’s been bedridden since the countess’s funeral,” the male Talon retorted.

“With grief. Not some deadly virus. Or, what did Niven claim it was? Poison?” Even through the closed door, Ren could practically hear the woman roll her eyes.

“I never said I believed Niven. But you have to admit, it’s strange. He arrests one daughter, banishes her without even publicly stating her crime. Now another is accused of treason. And not a peep from our king?”

“Our king has better things to do than reassure a grunt like you.” The woman laughed under her breath. “Besides, Captain Lindle received the order to confine the girl from Andros himself. The king was well enough for that.”