“Your friend is interesting.” Thea held the teapot steady until the last drop fell from its spout.
Elia watched the ripples in her cup, waiting for them to subside before she leaned forward to take it from the tray. “I know he’s rather standoffish, but he has a good heart. I’m sure of that.” And equally sure that ’standoffish’ was a gentle term for how dour he’d been after Thea’s pronouncement they’d be staying the night in the palace. She wouldn’t pretend to understand his desperation to leave, but Cass was his own man and would do as he pleased. Part of her disliked that what he pleased seemed to mean parting ways as soon as possible, but why wouldn’t it? He’d been hired for a job he couldn’t do while he was within the palace walls. Now, Vinson’s expectation he would do something about Peretor stacked with those responsibilities.
“You don’t have to justify it to me. I know not everyone finds Gaius as charming as I do.” Thea sat back with her own cup cradled in both hands. “But I know you’re leaving out pieces of the story, too.”
Elia flushed. Telling her family how she’d climbed into Cass’s bed and found herself in his arms the next morning would have ensured his swift end, likely at the end of her brother’s blade. But Thea was different. Thea was the closest thing to a sister she’d ever had, and was something of an outsider to the rest of the family, besides. They hadn’t meant to push her away after her family’s misfortune, Elia didn’t think, but it had happened. That she’d grown estranged from the rest of them was, in essence, how she’d ended up here. Thea had married a stranger who turned out to be the king. If anyone understood rash decisions, it was her.
“I don’t know what came over me, to be honest,” she admitted after a sip of tea. In her distraction, she’d forgotten to sweeten it. She lowered her cup and reached for the bowl of honey on the tea tray. “He meant to let me sleep on the floor. I suppose I can’t blame an injured man for a lack of chivalry, but in the moment, it left me so agitated that I could hardly think.”
A small sparkle of interest lit Thea’s eyes. “What did you do?”
“I made him make room, and I got into bed.”
Thea covered her mouth.
“I know!” Elia flung her free hand in the air before she added a dollop of honey to her tea. “Why did I do that? Why would I do such a thing?” And why had she liked it so much? He’d tried hard not to wake her when he’d climbed from the bed in the morning, but she already knew. She’d awakened the moment he rolled close and curved his body against hers, before he draped an arm over her small frame to hold her close. Her heart thundered at the memory and she took a moment to compose herself before she took her teacup again, lest her hands shake.
“Then what?” her cousin asked in a whisper, her fingers still resting against her lips.
“Then we slept,” Elia said. “And he was a perfect gentleman the entire time.”
Perhaps that was part of what made him appealing. At any point during the night, he could have been indecent. She was small, alone, and he was strong. Yet for all his strength and coldness, there was gentle propriety and kindness, too. He had never tested boundaries. Never asked for anything at all.
For a time, Thea studied her without speaking. Then she returned her hand to her teacup and made a soft, thoughtful sound.
Elia prickled. “What?”
“I’m assuming you didn’t share that part with your father, given that Cass still breathes.”
“I half expected my brother to gut him on the principle that we’d been alone together. But even he couldn’t deny that Cass rescued me and got me home in one piece. I don’t think he’s happy, but I expect some unpleasant questions when I get home.” One of several reasons Elia considered the storm outside a blessing. She wasn’t eager to leave the palace. It was safe and had become a second home, much the way Thea’s Threadmancer’s shop had been. But here, there was no one to stifle her.
Thea leaned back in the plush cushions of her chair and sipped her tea. “I don’t know, Elia. Maybe it’s time you stop letting them ask questions.”
Elia stared into her cup. She’d considered that a thousand times. The thought hung in the back of her mind often, each time her family had chased off a potential suitor. They’d always been overprotective, and part of that had been because of Thea’s failed first courtship. She wouldn’t fault her cousin for it; there was no way it could be considered Thea’s fault. But the effect was the same, and with her twenty-eighth birthday fast approaching, Elia had all but resigned herself to a role as an old spinster.
Maybe that resignation had been part of why her father eagerly consented to letting her work in Thea’s shop.
“I don’t know Cass well enough to make a decision like that based on his presence,” she said at last.
Thea shrugged. “I wasn’t suggesting it because of him.”
“Then why suggest it at all?”
“Because you can’t keep living your life according to what your father wants you to do.”
Elia lowered her eyes.
Her cousin leaned forward to rest a hand on her knee. “Listen, I know you want to make him happy. You’ve always loved helping everyone around you for that exact reason. It’s why you never tell your family no. But you can’t let their happiness come before yours.”
Elia knew that—she’d always known that—but hearing someone else say it stung in a way she hadn’t anticipated. “What do you propose, then? Just start refusing everything everyone asks of me? Balk at everything they do to try to keep me safe?”
“No. In fact, my proposal won’t work if you refuse what I have to ask.” Thea sat back again and lifted her teacup to her lips. Something different glinted in her eyes. Anticipation, and the sort of secretive air she’d taken on in the wake of her peculiar marriage.
No, Elia corrected herself; that secretive spark had started earlier, the day she’d taken a maple cake to her cousin’s shop to either celebrate or console her in the wake of a meeting with the king.
“What is it?” she asked cautiously.
“I need you to do me a favor,” Thea said. “And we can call it an exercise in practicing independence, if you prefer.”
Elia’s brows rose.
Her cousin raised a hand to forestall any questions. “You’re allowed to say no, but hear me out, first. I didn’t want to say anything in front of your friend, because he seems like he has enough to worry about already. But this isn’t the first kidnapping I’ve heard about in the last week.”
A sudden nervousness wriggled in Elia’s belly. “It’s not?”
Thea shook her head. “That’s part of why Gaius isn’t here. He stepped out. He’s already investigating. You know how he wants to be involved in everything.” She rubbed her brow. “But now I’m just confused. The last person who went missing was a noble. I only learned about it because she used to have me tailor things for her from time to time, and a mutual acquaintance asked if I’d heard. I don’t think she knew your friend, or his uncle. I don’t think there’s any connection at all.”
“Then maybe there’s not,” Elia said. “Samara is a big city. Bad things happen here all the time, no matter how the guard tries to keep us safe.”
A wan smile curved Thea’s lips. “It’s possible they’re not related, of course. But if your friend is going after these kidnappers to get to the root of the situation, he might help determine that for sure.”
The point of the request clicked together in her thoughts. “You want to know what Cass finds.”
“Essentially.” Thea tapped a finger against the side of her teacup. “If I could send men to begin the search, I would, but there’s been some… contention, in the palace, over what I can and cannot do before our marriage is recognized by the Church of Light. Ordering the guard around appears to have fallen on the side of what I cannot do.”
“So you want me to do… what?” Elia tried to picture herself helping Cass unravel the mystery, but the thought was so laughable that it wouldn’t stick in her head. She could hardly wield a knife.
Thea shrugged. “Follow him. Watch him. See what he does, learn from it, and bring that information back to me.”
“Like a spy?”
“I suppose you could say that.”
She almost said no. She was an open and honest person, and the idea of watching everything Cass did to gather information and report back to someone struck her as treacherous.
Yet it wasn’t treachery. It was a request from the crown. The church didn’t recognize Gaius and Thea’s marriage yet, but Elia did, and the rest of the world would acknowledge Thea as queen in another month’s time. And it wasn’t Cass specifically she was meant to watch. Nor was there any reason she couldn’t ask him to aid her by providing that information of his own free will. Then… she found herself nodding before she finished the thought. Then, she could travel alongside him, work with him, and do her part to aid her friend.
“I always thought the crown’s spies would be more like Gaius,” Elia said at last. “Dangerous and capable. People who could sneak and fight and defend themselves.”
“You’d be surprised. Most spies are merely people with good connections. And you have to admit your father’s station gives you that.” Thea’s teacup was empty; she put it down.
Elia, on the other hand, finally raised hers for a good taste. It was much better with the addition of honey, though the tea had grown cool. “I’ll do it.”
Thea’s face brightened. “I knew I could count on you.”
“But if Cass asks, I’m going to tell him exactly what I’m doing.”
“Of course. Unless you have reason to distrust him?” Her cousin raised a brow with the question.
Elia shook her head. “I know I didn’t have a choice, but I’ve trusted him with my life once already and it worked out well. I don’t think I have much reason to doubt him.”
Her cousin nodded. “Good. You know I couldn’t bear it if I sent you off into the wilds with some ruffian.”
The tiniest hint of a smile twitched at the corners of Elia’s mouth. She was the one who had seen the rescue and spent the night in his house; she wasn’t sure she’d excuse him from the title of ruffian, but she wasn’t sure it was an insult, either. “We’ll need supplies.”
“I’ll provide everything necessary as soon as this storm is over.”
“And I’ll need someone to explain the situation to my father.”
That made Thea wince. “I can’t make any promises there.”
“But you’ll try?”
“I’ll try, and if I fail, I’ll send Gaius after him. Even your father wouldn’t try to finagle his way out of an order from the king.” A hint of amusement crossed Thea’s face at the idea, though, and Elia couldn’t blame her. Part of her wished she could be there to see it. Her overprotective father, trying to refuse her call to service while face to face with the most dangerous king Kentoria had ever known? It would be a confrontation to remember. Yet the more reasonable part of her hoped there would be no confrontation at all.
Finally, Elia drank the last of her tea. There were still hurdles to cross, like her lacking ability to do more than defend herself, but there would be time for that. Cass was competent; she’d seen how easily he handled his axe, and he carried his borrowed sword with a confidence she could only dream of. If they were investigating the situation together, surely he could teach her.
She returned her empty cup to the tea tray with a solid, final click. “You know, I’ve always wanted to do something meaningful. I just never imagined it would be something like this.”
“Who knows, maybe you’ll be good at it.” Thea nestled back in her chair and crossed one knee over the other. “If you are, well… Gaius still hasn’t filled the position of royal spymaster, you know.”
Spymaster? Her? Elia laughed. “Don’t push your luck.”
