Leandros followed Rheamarie out of the Magistrates’ Chambers and all the way down to Unity Bridge without stopping. There, finally finding themselves alone, Rheamarie whirled to face Leandros.

“What were you thinking?” she snapped.

“They’re planning something, Rhea.”

“No, you’re just paranoid.”

“You really think that? After everything that happened in there?”

“They gave us no reason not to believe them, you’re just looking for one. Egil turned you against Unity a long time ago, Leandros. Don’t deny it.”

A slap in the face would’ve hurt less. Rheamarie didn’t know— she couldn’t know, he’d never told her— what he’d seen Unity do. He could still hear the gunshots. When he closed his eyes, he could still see the moment Egil fell, like it was etched permanently into his eyelids.

“Unity turned me against Unity. I’ve seen them do horrible things, Rhea. Things you couldn’t imagine,” he said, voice cold. “You know I’m right, you just don’t want to admit it because it scares you. They’re planning something, and someone had to call them on it. That someone couldn’t be you, because you can’t argue with them.”

“But you can threaten them? Stop treating me like I’m a child, Leandros. I’m your queen.”

“You misunderstand me. It’s not because you’re incapable that you can’t argue with them, but precisely because you’re queen now. The Magistrates remember their grudges— don’t anger them so early into your reign.”

“And what about you? If you think you didn’t anger them back there, you’re a fool.”

“I don’t matter like you do and you know it,” Leandros said. He tried to smile at her. “Besides, there are so many grudges against me I can barely keep track. What’s a few more?”

“You are a fool,” Rheamarie hissed. She turned away from Leandros and wrapped her arms around herself. “I need a moment.”

Leandros nodded. He understood how she felt— and felt much the same, in fact. Grief, rage, frustration— they coiled inside him like a ring of strange metal fire, hot anger encircling his heart. It made it hard to think, hard to breathe.

It wasn’t until Rheamarie wiped her eyes that Leandros realized she’d started crying. He reached a hand toward her, dropping it after a moment’s hesitation. “Rhea? Is there anything I can do?”

Rheamarie laughed, the sound desperate. “I don’t know what I would have said to them if you hadn’t cut in. When they mentioned family, I— ugh, don’t look at me. You’re supposed to be the one losing your temper. I’m supposed to be better at this than you.”

She scrubbed at her eyes before continuing. “It’s silly, but I used to be so proud of it. You got to go on all these adventures, got to get away from Alfheim. I hated you for it, I was so sick with envy. But at least I could restrain myself, I thought. I could do one thing you couldn’t. I fit in somewhere you never would: home.”

Rheamarie looked at Leandros again, her eyes rimmed red. “This is one adventure I don’t envy you. Leandros, are you sure about this?”

She’d grown a lot in the last few days. It hurt Leandros to have to see, so he turned away. The last few days had worn on them both. The aftermath of the explosion passed in a blur, as had the journey back to Alfheim. There, they’d been greeted with fear and anger thinly veiled under a guise of pity, and they hadn’t been given a moment to grieve before they’d been forced on a train to Gallontea to beg Unity for help.

The island around them was civil and clean and quiet, unlike Illyon and unlike the city just over the bridge. The cobblestone roads winding from building to building were surrounded by fields of flowers, blue like shallow waters in a southern climate. The flowers swayed in the breeze, the same breeze that raised bumps on Leandros’ skin.

Leandros pointed out the flowers. “You asked about taurel the other day, didn’t you? There it is. Unity Island is always covered in them. Taurel, old stone, and coral,” he said, nodding at the flowers, the bridge, and the rocky cliffside respectively. “The rhyme is about Unity.”

Rheamarie glanced dully at the flowers, unimpressed. “You’re changing the subject.”

“I am sure about this, Rhea.

If Unity really is making plans of their own, someone has to stay behind and make sure this mission goes as promised, and you have a province to run.”

“So let someone else stay. I don’t want to go home without you.” Rheamarie’s tone was stern, leaving little room for disobedience. Leandros almost smiled. Perhaps she wouldn’t be so bad a queen after all.

“And what do you think would happen to me in Alfheim without your father’s protection?”

Something wavered in Rheamarie’s expression, and for a moment, Leandros feared she might cry again. “You want to stay here,” she accused.

“Yes,” Leandros said. “I do.”

“Is it really just because you don’t trust Unity? Or is it just easier to take up some heroic quest for revenge than to return home without him?”

“Rhea, this isn’t a game. It’s not some adventure. I owe your father everything and I’m willing to give everything— even my life, if I must— to get him back.” Leandros sighed. “You and I grieve in different ways; every moment I don’t act feels like a waste. I have to feel like I’m doing something to get him back, and I won’t get that in Alfheim.”

Rheamarie studied Leandros like she wanted to dissect him, to see if there really was more to it than he claimed. And maybe there was. Maybe he was doing this for glory or spite, because of guilt or to make reparations. Even if so, Leandros couldn’t explain it to himself, let alone someone else.

Finally, Rheamarie spoke again. “You’d better not give your life for this, Leandros. And if you repeat what I’m about to say to anyone, as your new queen, I will have you executed.” She paused, took a shaky breath. “I’ve always looked up to you. You know I have.”

Leandros hid a smile and nodded.

“I’ve lost my father, possibly for good, and I’m closer with you than I ever was with him. I can’t lose you, too.”

“Rheamarie,” Leandros said gently, “I will be careful; you have my word. I know you’re worried, but trust that leading this team is something I can do.”

“Promise you’ll be more careful with the Magistrates,” Rheamarie said. As if afraid of being overheard, she looked back at the Island, but there was no one there. Just Unity’s buildings looming above them, the clock tower standing tallest of them all. “If they really are up to something, they won’t take well to you getting in the way.”

“I know,” Leandros muttered. Seeing Rheamarie’s frown, he added, “I’ll be careful.”

Rheamarie made a frustrated noise. “It’s not that I doubt you Leandros, but…Unity is one thing. That orinian woman? She’s something else entirely. You saw how dangerous she was. Even Unity might be in over their heads. You think one person, or even one team, can stop her? I don’t know if a whole army could. We don’t know who or what she is, and I don’t like the idea of you getting near her until we do.”

Neither of them had said it out loud, but the word was at the forefront of their minds: magic. Strange, fantastic things happened all the time, but nothing so impossible as what they saw. That woman was magic and magic wasn’t supposed to be real.

But they both knew what they’d seen, despite the scores of Illyon officials, Alfheim leaders, and now Unity Representatives telling them that they’d been under immense pressure, that they must be in shock, that they misunderstood what they saw.

“Someone has to. I’d rather it was me than anyone else,” Leandros said.

Rheamarie pursed her lips. “I have something to say that you’re not going to like.

“Okay,” Leandros said, slowly.

“What about Egil?”

Leandros felt like he’d had a bucket of ice water dumped over his head. “What about Egil?”

“Leandros, please,” Rheamarie said, half-reproachful, half-apologetic. “If anyone could stop that woman, it’s him.”

“It’s a shame he’s long dead.”

“You don’t believe that any more than I do. The rumors—,”

“I saw the execution, Rhea. I was there.”

Rhea’s eyes widened. “You never—,”

“Of course I never told you! None of you ever supported our friendship,” Leandros snapped. He looked away, trying to get his temper under control. He had heard the rumors; they worried him. Not because Egil might be alive, but because that meant…

“If,” he began, “If the rumors are true. If he’s alive and for some reason, he didn’t…didn’t want to come find me, we’re still out of luck. There’s no finding him when he doesn’t want to be found.”

“Fine. You know him best,” Rheamarie huffed. In that moment, she looked less like a queen and more like a petulant child.

At the sight, Leandros smiled, pulled his younger cousin close, and kissed her forehead. “Please, Rhea. Stop worrying. Unity and I will find that orinian and rescue your father, and I’ll be back in Alfheim before you begin to miss me.”

“Fool,” Rheamarie said through a smile. “I’ll miss you the moment I board the train.”

“Speaking of trains,” Leandros said. Rather than glanced back at the clock tower, he pulled his old watch out of his pocket. “Yours leaves in little over an hour. We’d best get moving if you’re to make it on time.”

They didn’t speak after that, had nothing more to say. When they reached the station, there were no tearful farewells. Alfheim guards waited there to escort the queen; it wouldn’t do to show that sort of weakness in front of them, not so early in her reign.

All she said was, “Good luck, Leandros. Bring my father back. Make Alfheim proud.”

Leandros responded with a low bow. After the train had departed, he walked back to Gallontea alone and the anger coiled around his heart tightened its grip.