Page 37 of Lies That Bind
Tonight, your attack on our Red Palace killed my father, Prime Leader Vlek?—
I stopped reading,shock rushing through me. Holy crap. What did he just say? I killed the leader of the most war-hungry nation known to man?
“Prime Leader Vlek is dead from the attack,” I announced in a hollow voice, and Commander Ledger stopped pacing. He turned to me with a sadistic grin and whooped a fist into the air.
“Hang on,” I told him. “I haven’t finished.”
I’ve waited two decades to take over the war efforts from my weak father. So, I wanted to say thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity. I’m going to give you two options now, and I’d like you to choose very carefully.
1. Marry me, unite our people, surrender your country, lands, and ember to me, and I will not harm anything you hold dear, including your three beautiful sisters.
My hands shookas I read the threat between his words. Marry him! Was he insane? I didn’t even know Prime Leader Vlek had a son, or any children for that matter. I assumed so, as having heirs was smart, but if I didn’t know much about him, how did he know so much about my sisters? I read on:
2. Deny my hand, and I’ll strip your lands of their people, mine all of your ember, and kill each and every one of your sisters before forcing you to be my wife.
I await your reply,
Maxim
My skin beganto smoke with barely contained rage.
“What did it say?” The commander peered up at me with alarm, glancing at the smoke rising off of my body.
I set down the letter on the table so he could read it and took in three deep, calming breaths in the hopes that my skin would stop smoking. Marry him? Not gonna happen.
And too bad for him, he’d done the one thing I’d never show any mercy for. He’d threatened to kill my sisters. How did he know so much about me? I didn’t like that at all.
After reading the letter, Commander Ledger rubbed his jaw. “Vlek must have been working late in the building. That part is good news.”
“How does he know about my sisters?” I asked.
He sighed. “They have Talanagi. They could send spies over in the night and fly out by morning, and we wouldn’t know.”
We watched the skies pretty closely because we knew they had a lot of fliers, but maybe not close enough.
That was unnerving, but he was right. Look how we’d just flown into Luska unnoticed.
“What do we know about Vlek?” I asked the commander.
Commander Ledger winced. “We heard he had a daughter. I didn’t know about a son.”
We had been asleep for decades when we could have sent in spies to ferret out all the intel on this family. Now I was going to have to pick up where my father lacked.
“I want more eyes on the sky. I want reinforced borders around Riverine, and I want to send a team of spies to find out more about this Maxim,” I told him.
He nodded.
“And I want to send a reply,” I said.
The commander bristled. “What kind of reply? We should bring this to the admirals to formulate a response together.”
“The admirals have no say in who I marry.” Which I was ninety-eight percent sure was true.
“Well, then, let me talk this out with you. I have some thoughts?—”
“Get me Lieutenant Elaine Steele.”
His brows bunched together. “Your governess? You want to bring a nanny in on the only written communication we’ve received from Luska in decades!”
