Page 23 of Renegade Kings

Rhidian’s grin had me considering punching him in the face, so I had no idea how Dean was holding himself back right now. It was definitely unlike him. Perhaps having to keep the wolf under control was helping with his own restraint as well.

“Well, I hate to disturb your beauty sleep, but you’re all needed in the war room.”

“I don’t give a fuck where you think we need to be. Like I said, Alyssa is asleep, and the least you can do is let her have it.” Okay, maybe he was closer to punching Rhidian in the face than I realised.

Finally, something that seemed familiar!

Rhidian held up his hands as if he thought that was going to placate Dean. “I get it. You’ve had a hard time getting to this point, but our scouts have just come in and we have updated movements on Arik’s forces.”

“Are they at our door?” Dean snapped.

Rhidian looked confused, but then answered, “Well, no. They’re…”

“Are they moving to surround us or launch an attack?”

Rhidian squinted. He no doubt could see where this was heading and didn’t like it. “Again, no, but…”

“But, fuck off.” Dean slammed the door in Rhidian’s face and then started back towards the bedroom.

Apparently, I hadn’t been needed after all.

I waited a beat to see if the hammering would start on the door again, and when it didn’t, I followed in Dean’s footsteps. Surprisingly, he came to a stop in the sitting room and sank down into the chair he’d sat in before. As he sagged back into the seat with a sigh, I knew exactly how he felt. There was a constant edge I felt like I was holding myself on. A tension I couldn’t quite shake and I didn’t know why.

“This is going to get real complicated, real fast,” I commented as I took the seat opposite him.

Dean hummed in agreement, his hands coming to the bandage that wrapped around his middle as he slowly fidgeted with the binding. From the way he was staring off into the distance, I knew he had something on his mind. And as usual, I was going to have to wait him out…

“Something is off about this place,” Dean suddenly said, surprising the hell out of me.

For a moment, I wasn’t sure what to say. I was so used to waiting in anticipation of his—admittedly not very big—reveal that I realised I was completely unprepared to respond. “Yeah.”

Dean looked at me like I’d lost my mind, but then he continued on, anyway. “All these years, Rhidian has been hiding the people he’s managed to save, right?”

“Yeah, that’s what he said.”

“So, where are they?”

“I dunno. This is a big place. Maybe they’re further into the palace or something?”

“But Alyssa has been in our realm for decades. Even if he didn’t start right away, which it seemed from the way he was talking like he did, he still had to get, what? Like, fifty years in? That’s got to be a couple of hundred people, at least. Can you really hide that many people and there not be a single sign of them at the only point of entry?”

“Well, we don’t know it’s the only point of entry,” I argued, not even sure why I was trying to play devil’s advocate, because he was right. This place seemed dead and from the way the guards had been so afraid of the forest outside, I doubted all these people were hiding outside the palace walls.

Dean sighed, his eyes cutting a glare in my direction before he unwrapped the bandage, giving up all pretence that he was actually considering keeping it on.

“Rhidian’s hiding something, and apparently it’s a couple of hundred people and an army he thinks can take down Arik. But why? Why not have them waiting for Alyssa when she got here? Show her that there’s still hope in this place, still some life inside these walls.”

He had a point.

“Do you think Fizzle can be trusted?” I asked.

It was a complete change of subject, but it was one of the screaming issues we had that could at least lead to some kind of resolution for the others.

“I don’t know. I never thought my life would involve having a fluffy little bird cat calling the shots. But, damn, we wouldn’t have made it this far without him. If he wanted to hurt Alyssa, he had more than enough opportunity to walk us into something we couldn’t survive. He kept her safe. He tried to make her leave. That has to count for something. He’s definitely working with Rhidian. There’s no doubt about that. But I think he’s questioning Alyssa’s role. I think we could still persuade him to get her out of here if we needed.”

It was exactly the same conclusion I’d come to. We could maybe trust him to help her run. The problem was that I doubted Alyssa would accept it as a solution to any problem we currently faced.

“I doubt he’d stand against whatever Rhidian has going on here. Anything we get from him, it’s going to need to be under the table without him knowing,” I pointed out.