Eithan just sat back, running his tongue over his teeth. “Fucked I may be, but you did this to yourself. First by breaking my trust, then by forging a connection with my bride.”

“I don’t have a—”

He waved a hand flippantly, stopping his denial. “I don’t mean romantically, of course. But she values you and would happily sacrifice her life to save yours. Which is exactly what I’m betting on.”

Gibson’s eye widened, and he lurched up only to hiss in pain when his body dug into the straps holding him down. “What the fuck did you do?”

Eithan grinned. “I simply wrote a letter. Nothing important. Just that you were imprisoned for aiding in her kidnapping and are awaiting execution.” He winked. “I may have alluded to Emperor Sulian being behind it.”

Gibson seethed, spittle flicking out onto his chin. “If tricking her was your goal, you could have already executed me and lied.”

“No,” Eithan said, the chair legs scraping across the floor as he pushed to stand. “From what I saw, Vera’s power didn’t come out until she got angry.”

He walked to the door, more than ready to wash the dried blood from his body. He wrapped his hand around the handle, watching Gibson’s thoughts play out across his face as loudly as if he’d screamed them.

“You see, Gibson, I need your body tortured, yet discernable, when she comes running back. I need her to see your mangled body and know she was so close to saving you.”

“I don’t need her angry,” he said, tightening his grip until the etchings of the handle cut into his palm. “I need her to rage.”

Chapter 10

VERA

Naris loomed before her, and her entire body seemed to tense in an equal measure of anticipation and nerves. Size wise, the Bhasurian capital didn’t seem all that different than Matherin, but where Matherin was busy with the daily bustle of people going about their lives, Naris exploded with it.

The main street they led their horses down was crowded beyond anything she’d ever seen before. If it wasn’t for the obvious lack of decorations and zeal, she’d have thought some form of festival was taking place.

Squeezed between two rows of what she could assume were general shops and taverns, were rows of vendor tents, other travelers on horses, and countless Magyki ambling about. Not to mention the overwhelming noise of voices all shouting over each other.

She stared bug-eyed, watching yet another group dash in front of Jaeros’s horse, when a memory flickered in the back of her mind. Something Emperor Sulian had said about Bhasura being overpopulated.

He’d mentioned during their dinner that he was willing to offer land to the Magyki in return for fair trade with the island. She hadn’t thought much about it then, the idea seeming foreign and unrelated to her at the time, but if all Bhasura’s cities were this crammed, she didn’t understand how King Vesstan could say no. Was his desire not to intermix their people that strong?