Page 14 of Wings of Snow

Blessed Mother, Lord Crimsonale had actually soundedsympathetic.

The king, however, hadn’t been. My father’s face had mottled in rage at that comment, something that rarely occurred. To the public, the council, and the nobles of our court, my father always wore his mask of a strong, unfailing leader. His sadistic, controlling side was never on display.

But it had been this morning.

Because of Ilara.

My nostrils flared as I thought back to everything that had been occurring of late. I replayed every conversation, every council meeting, every moment that the king had heard and learned of what Ilara was and what she was doing over and over in my mind, looking for something that would give me a clue as to what was really going on.

And Michas’s comment earlier this morning kept coming back to me.

“When have the gods ever failed us in that aspect?”

He was right. They never had failed to replenish ourorem. Not until lately.

“What else do you know, Michas?” I mumbled to myself then blazed a path toward the door.

Striding from my room, I burst down my corridor on a gust of my air affinity. I didn’t stop until I reached the wing where archons and nobles stayed while they were at court.

When I reached Michas’s door, I pounded twice on it.

Footsteps reached my ears, letting me know wards didn’t surround his room.

The second his door cracked, I pushed through it.

“Excuse me,” Michas said indignantly.

I didn’t reply and instead closed the door behind me, then cast a solid air Shield around us so nobody could hear our conversation.

“Tell me what you know,” I all but growled. “Tell me what you know of the vanishingorem. All of it.”

Michas’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. He was in fencing clothes, and I guessed he’d been about to venture to the training rooms.

“Please,” I added when he remained silent. “It’s important.” When he continued to study me, I said in a rush, “I don’t ally with the king. I never have. If I could force my father off the throne, I would.”

Michas’s eyes widened, and he cast a frantic look around.

“My air Shield is keeping this conversation quiet. Nobody can hear anything we say.”

His chest rose quickly, but when he reached a hand out and encountered a solid wall of air, some of the tension radiating on his face lessened. Dropping his hand to his side, Michas said, “Do you truly mean that, about the king?”

“I do. My father’s a tyrant. Only most don’t know that.”

Michas’s lips thinned. “He’s more than a tyrant. My father heard—” He paused and glanced around the room again.

“What? Tell me?”

Michas studied me again. “You truly aren’t loyal to the king?”

“No,” I snarled. “Now fuckingtell mewhat you know.”

The young lord took another deep breath. “I’ll deny this conversation if it ever comes back to me.”

“Noted.”

“You can’t pin anything on me.”

“I know, and I don’t plan to. I just want to know what’s happening with our continent.”