The shade wrapped around him, lifting him off the ground with tendrils that looked solid despite being made of shadow. Theron dropped his sword, gasping as the shade squeezed, cutting off his air.
"Stop!" I screamed. "Shade, stop! He's not really a threat! He was helping!"
But the shade wasn't listening to me. It only knew that someone had attacked its bearer's wife, and it was responding with lethal force.
On the bed, Kael's body convulsed. His back arched, and he sucked in a breath that sounded like someone drowning finally reaching air. His skin, which had been corpse-pale, flushed with returning blood flow. His eyes snapped open, glowing red with curse magic.
"Theron!" I scrambled toward where the shade held Kael's brother. "Kael, call off your shade! He was helping us! He was—"
Kael's gaze found me, still glowing with curse light. He saw the blood running down my arm, the bruises already forming on my ribs, the terror on my face. His shade squeezed tighter around Theron, who was turning blue from lack of oxygen.
"He hurt you," Kael's voice was rough, barely human. "He attacked you. He needs to die."
"No! He was helping wake you up! The poison was killing you and threatening me was the only way to trigger your shade to burn it out of your system!" I grabbed Kael's arm, shaking him. "Look at me. Really look. I'm okay. Theron saved you. Don't kill him for that."
Slowly, painfully, rationality returned to Kael's eyes. The red glow faded to his normal storm gray. The shade, responding to his conscious control, loosened its grip on Theron.
Theron collapsed to the floor, coughing and gasping, alive but badly shaken.
"What..." Kael's voice cracked. "What happened? I remember drinking the wine, feeling the poison take effect, and then nothing. Just darkness and cold and..."
"And we almost lost you," I finished, moving to the bed. "The poison was sabotaged. What was supposed to fake your death for six hours nearly killed you permanently. We had to force your shade to manifest to burn the poison out of your system."
"By having Theron attack you." Kael looked at his brother, who was slowly pushing himself upright. "You risked your life to save mine."
"You're my brother," Theron said simply. "Whatever mistakes I've made, whatever hostility existed between us, you're still my brother. I wasn't going to let you die."
Kael closed his eyes briefly, processing everything. When he opened them, they were clear and focused. "You said the poison was sabotaged. Who?"
"Isla. The healer who created the poison for us." I helped Kael sit up slowly, watching him carefully for any signs of lingering effects. "Theron found correspondence between her and Darian. They've been working together, which means they're both working with Daemon."
Kael's expression darkened. "So my brother is the traitor after all. How fitting. The eldest son conspiring to murder his younger brothers and seize the throne." He looked at Theron. "I'm sorry. I know he's your twin."
"He stopped being my twin the moment he chose treason over family." Theron's voice was hard, but I could hear the pain beneath it. "Where is he now? Where's Darian?"
"That's what we need to find out." I moved to the door, calling for Captain Thorne who was stationed outside. When he entered, his eyes widened at seeing Kael alive and conscious.
"Your Highness! You're awake!"
"And ready to end this." Kael swung his legs over the side of the bed, testing his strength. He was weak but functional. "Captain, I need you to arrest Isla the healer immediately. She's working with Daemon. And I need you to find Prince Darian. Quietly. Don't alert him that we're looking."
"Darian left the castle two hours ago," Captain Thorne said grimly. "Claimed he was riding to his country estates to grieve his brother's death in private. But given what you've just told me, I suspect he was fleeing before he could be caught."
"Then we go after him." Kael stood, swaying slightly before I steadied him. "He'll head north. Toward Daemon's fortress in the mountains. We can catch him before he gets there."
"You're in no condition to ride anywhere," I protested. "You nearly died hours ago. You need to recover."
"I'll recover in the saddle. We don't have time to wait." He looked at each of us in turn. "Darian knows our plan failed. Knows I'm alive or will know soon. He'll warn Daemon, and Daemon will accelerate his attack. We need to move now."
"He's right," Elena said from her corner. She'd stayed silent during the shade manifestation, but now she moved forward. "Every moment we delay gives Daemon more time to prepare. More time to position his forces for the Council of Lords."
"How long until the Council?" Kael asked.
"Eleven days," Captain Thorne replied. "Not nearly enough time to root out all of Daemon's agents and prepare proper defenses."
"Then we don't root them all out. We cut off the head of the snake." Kael's voice was firm despite his physical weakness. "We go after Daemon directly. End him before he can execute his coup."
"That's suicide," I said flatly. "He has a fortress full of loyal followers, years of planning, and magical abilities equal to yours. Riding into his stronghold is exactly what he wants us to do."
"So what's your alternative? Wait here while he murders my father and seizes the throne?"
"My alternative is we use the eleven days we have to strengthen our position here. We expose Darian's treason publicly, turn nobles against Daemon, and make it impossible for his coup to succeed even if he does attack." I met Kael's eyes. "We don't need to kill Daemon to defeat him. We just need to make sure his plan fails."
"She's right," Theron said. "A dead Daemon is satisfying but not strategic. A discredited Daemon whose conspiracy is exposed and whose allies are arrested—that's victory."
Kael looked like he wanted to argue, but he swayed again and had to catch himself on the bedpost. His body was still recovering from the poison, still weak from the ordeal.
"All right," he conceded reluctantly. "We do it your way. But the moment I'm strong enough to ride, I'm going after Darian. He doesn't get to escape justice."
"Agreed." I helped him back to the bed despite his protests. "But first, you need to rest. Really rest. For at least a day."
"We don't have a day—"
"We'll make the time." I used my firm voice, the one that had developed since arriving in Shadowmere. "Captain Thorne, arrest Isla and begin interrogating her about Daemon's network. Theron, work with your father to begin exposing Darian's treason. Elena, continue monitoring magical communications. And everyone keep the fact that Kael is alive absolutely secret. Let Daemon think his poison worked."
"What will you do?" Kael asked.
"I'll stay here and make sure you actually rest instead of trying to save the kingdom while you can barely stand." I pulled the blankets over him. "Now sleep. That's an order."
"You can't order a prince."
"I'm your wife. I can order you to do anything that's for your own good." I kissed his forehead. "Sleep, Kael. Trust me to handle things for a few hours."
His eyes were already closing, exhaustion and poison's lingering effects pulling him under. "Trust you. Always trust you."
Within minutes, he was asleep. Real sleep this time, not poison-induced death. His breathing was even, his color improving, his magical signature strong and steady.
I turned to the others. "All right. We have work to do and eleven days to do it. Let's make them count."
Captain Thorne left to arrest Isla. Theron departed to speak with his father. Elena returned to her tower to continue monitoring communications. And Mira stayed with me, helping clean my wounds from Theron's attack and bringing food I could barely taste.
"You did it," Mira said as she bandaged my arm. "You saved him. You exposed the traitor. You're actually winning."
"We exposed one traitor. Darian is still free, Daemon is still preparing his coup, and we have hundreds of compromised agents still in place throughout the kingdom." I looked at Kael's sleeping form. "We're not winning. We're just surviving. There's a difference."
"Then we keep surviving until survival turns into victory." Mira tied off the bandage with practiced efficiency. "You've come a long way from the powerless princess in Eldoria. Your father wouldn't recognize you now."
"Good. I don't want him to. That girl died the day shadow beasts attacked our wedding convoy." I stood, testing my ribs. They hurt but nothing was broken. "I'm someone new now. Someone stronger. Someone dangerous."
"Someone who's about to be Queen," Mira pointed out. "Once Daemon is defeated and Kael takes the throne."
The thought sent a chill through me. Queen. Me. The girl who'd been trained to be ornamental and obedient, ruling one of the most powerful kingdoms in the realm.
"Let's defeat the conspiracy first. Then we can worry about crowns and thrones."
But even as I said it, I knew the future was rushing toward us. Eleven days until the Council of Lords. Eleven days until Daemon's coup. Eleven days until everything we'd been fighting for would be decided one way or another.
Eleven days that would determine whether we lived or died. Whether we won or lost. Whether the kingdom fell into chaos or found its way to something better.