I knew the moment he spotted that tome sitting between me and Tegan because his face paled a little. “What are you doing?” His voice was a low rumble.

I held my hands up. “Nothing, we were just talking about⁠—”

“What is—” His eyes widened. His chest rose and fell rapidly. “Show me.”

I frowned. “Show you⁠—”

“The prophecy,” his voice was barely more than a growl.

I gasped and held the scroll out toward him. “Valathame delivered it.”

He froze, mid-reach. “Valathame delivered this personally? Here?”

“Yes, she did.” Saber answered, then spoke those same foreign words Valathame had spoken to her.

Everest swallowed roughly and took the scroll from my hand. Behind him, the others gathered around. I kept my eyes on my soulmate, wanting to watch his reaction as he read all of those lines. Except his face was unreadable. His eyes left nothing on the table, no emotion whatsoever. His pulse didn’t change. He didn’t even flush or sweat. He didn’t blink. He read that prophecy like I was a complete stranger and he had nothing to do with it. I was expecting something from him.

And then it hit me. Some of my energy evaporated. “You already knew.”

His face fell. He nodded.

“Because it already happened . . .”

He nodded.

“Everest—”

He pressed one finger to my lips and shook his head. I wasn’t sure what that was about, but I was a little too stressed to overthink it.

Tegan pushed to her feet, bringing the tome with her. “You and I have to make a decoy of the missing page.”

“Yes.”

She pressed the tome to his chest. “Have you seen the missing page?”

He sighed and hesitated to answer, then nodded. “It is imperative no one else sees even the decoy.”

“I have to see it⁠—”

“You will. Not now.” He gave me a little smile. “You’ll have the real one and the decoy, so you’ll be able to finish it off.”

“No pressure,” I grumbled.

“Let’s go make this decoy then.” Tegan stepped around my soulmate. “I know the perfect place.”

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

SAM

The Prince had a serious hair kink.