Page 26 of The Prince's Fealty

Nostex continued. “Would you say that anyone else was acting oddly? Trying to tell you that there was a problem with Prince Torex?”

Var had been poring over every interaction he could bring to mind over the last few days, and mostly, it had succeeded only in giving him a headache. He was questioning everything, but it wasn’t like every word Yomil had spoken over the years had been a lie, or Varwouldhave noticed that.

He’d gotten away with it because he’d been clever.

But how many others had he succeeded in convincing? And was that even fair? It wasn’t like Var had hidden his own disapproval of Tor’s behavior, and looking back now, he couldn’t be certain that people hadn’t interpreted that as disapproving of Tor in his entirety.

He didn’tthinkanyone had been particularly censorious—but perhaps that had been a ruse so that no one would get suspicious.

Ugh! This was impossible.

“I always thought the captain of the guard didn’t like Torex,” Ferna offered uncertainly.

Varhadconsidered that.

“There was some friction when she replaced Tor in the role,” Var agreed. “But I don’t think it’s more than that.”

Quite frankly, if she’d been in on the conspiracy, Var didn’t think they’d be here right now. He couldn’t imagine Darmila holding the lives of the guards so cheaply, either. She’d worked with many of them for years, and the attack hadn’t spared them. Var didn’t even know how many had been killed yet.

Ferna made a face. “I complained about him a lot.”

Var’s lips tipped up. “And are you conspiring against me or him?”

Her eyes flew to his, wide and appalled. “Of course not!”

He leaned in to press a reassuring kiss to her lips. “I know that the two of you didn’t get along. You can simply not like someone and still not be conspiring against them.”

Ferna sagged against him and confessed in a whisper, “I still feel like I did something wrong. Ididn’tlike him very much. But he gave his life to protect Cala! I didn’t… I wouldn’t have thought that, and I was so wrong. I’m sorry!”

Apparently, she’d had a number of the same doubts as Var. Something dark and guilty snaked through Var. He’d known Ferna and Tor didn’t get along, but how hard had he really worked to change that?

He’d gotten frustrated and assumed there would be more time. Because he apparently hadn’t learned his lesson with the deaths of his parents that you could never be certain of what the future would bring.

He could have done so much… Now, he would never be able to do more than tell Ferna and Cala stories about the man they were never going to get to know properly in person.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled against his shoulder.

He cupped the back of her neck and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

“You have nothing to apologize for.”

Maybe she’d contributed a little to what had happened, but the majority of the blame rested with Var.

His poor choices had brought them to this state.

Cala woke up, scrunching up her face and then letting out a surprisingly loud yell when all her needs weren’t met instantly.

Pamuna might have changed a lot of the baby’s diapers since she’d been born, but both Ferna and Var had done their fair share as well.

Nostex patted Var on the shoulder and leaned in to press a kiss to Ferna’s forehead.

“I’ll leave you to it, my dear.”

A few nights into their stay, they were awoken by the sound of yelling, and Var was shielding all of them before he’d even begun to process what was happening. Ferna scooped the baby out of her cradle, and they cuddled Cala between them.

Var’s heart hammered in his chest. He wasn’t making the same mistake twice. The castle could burn down around them, and Var would still be here, protecting his family. But thatdidmean he couldn’t go see what was going on, and that made for a nerve-racking wait until there was a polite tap on the door that Var really couldn’t imagine was from an attacker. Besides, surely they would have heard the sounds of someone attacking the guards outside the door.

He kept the shield up just the same.