Reylor stared at Alex for what seemed like an eternity. She and Treyan remained where they stood within the doorway of the Councillor's chambers, while Reylor stood with the table between them, leaning over the corpse of his dead paramour. Alex couldn't move, and words would not come to her. Before her stood the same man who took her, assaulted her, left her for dead with his dreadful seed inside of her, and she couldn't even find her voice to curse the ground he stood upon.

"Reylor, what's happened?" Treyan finally asked, cautious of his tone as he took a protective step in front of Alex.

Reylor's stare quickly left Alex's face to Treyan's, and the look in his eyes turned cold as he gazed upon his brother.

"You come in here like you have, and you have the audacity to ask me what has happened?"

Alex gripped Treyan's hand, almost as a warning. "Reylor, what has happened to Bria?" the prince asked his brother yet again. "We last saw her four days ago—"

"You mean before you killed her?" His stare left Treyan's face, but the accusation remained.

"You honestly think we could have done something like this?"

"She brought us back here," Alex interjected, and when Reylor's gaze returned to her, his eyes did not soften.

"That is not what Lexan tells me."

She swallowed the bile that came up her throat. Speaking about her son with Reylor was not a conversation she wanted to have.

"Bria came to us, on your behalf, and was assisting us in finding a way back to the Empire," Treyan said, steering the conversation. "Lexan made himself known before we could complete our endeavor."

"You murdered her when you discovered she no longer had a use," the former Lord Steward whispered before he slammed his fist down on the table and began to approach them.

Treyan instinctively held Alex behind him as he guided them around the other side of the table, keeping it between them and his brother for as much distance and protection as possible.

"Will you listen to yourself?" Treyan asked his brother. "What reason would we truly have to murder her?"

"You have had plenty of reason!"

Alex had to agree with Reylor, though she didn't say as much.

"Where's the Councillor, Reylor?" Treyan asked, his voice even.

Reylor smirked. "Being the mentor to a prince that deserves his attention."

Treyan peered at him. "What does he want with Lexan?"

Reylor remained callous. "Someone needs to fulfill the Prophecy that you failed to."

Treyan's jaw dropped slightly. "How long are you going to allow yourself to be a pawn in this game?"

"Who's playing a game, Treyan?" Reylor asked from across the table with hate in his eyes. "If anyone's been a piece to be played with it's you."

"You still don't get it, do you?" Alex could hear the rage in Treyan's rising voice. "After all this time—all these years—and you still think everyone else is against you!" Now it was Treyan's turn to bang upon the table.

It was too much.

"Enough! Both of you!"

The brothers turned to Alex as though they forgot she was there, but all she could focus on was the body of the dead woman before them. Bria looked so helpless despite her betrayals, so innocent despite her guilt. Alex looked up to Reylor, holding back tears. "Did she ever make her way back to see you?"

"What?" Reylor asked, his tone incredulous.

"Did Bria ever make her way back to your castle?" she clearly enunciated while leaning towards him.

"How could she do that if you murdered her before she had the chance?"

"Reylor," Treyan interjected, but Alex raised a hand to keep him calm. Taking a deep breath, she kept her composure as she remained focused on Treyan's brother.

"If we were going to murder her, we would have done it in Boston. Why would we have waited until the off-chance that we made it back here?"

Reylor nonchalantly dismissed her logic. "You clearly needed her to find a way back."

"You know better than that," Treyan insisted. "All she had was the book. I could have taken it and killed her in New York when we..." he drifted off.

Alex looked to him and then to Reylor.

Reylor must have picked it up on Treyan's hesitation for he perked his brow and was about to ask before Alex interrupted.

"Do you even know why she came to find us in the first place?"

He looked her over for a moment, and she swore his eyes seemed to undress her where she stood. Finally, he responded with a simple, "No."

Alex found herself growling, feeling her rage grow. "She was trying to help you! Whether it was to con us in coming back here for you to kill us, or because she was sincere in her reasons, we'll never know."

Alex felt her attention again drawn to the body on the table. She really hoped they were going to do something about that.

"What were those reasons, Empress?" The last word rolled off his tongue like an uncoiling snake.

Alex glanced over to Treyan—if anyone was going to tell him, it would be his brother.

Treyan closed her eyes as though to center his thoughts. When he opened them again, his expression was serious.

"She was concerned about the Councillor and—"

"Why, what's wrong with him?"

"Not him, you ass," Treyan growled. "You."

"I can assure you that there is nothing wrong with me. Or, at least, there wasn't until I discovered Bria's mutilated body."

"Did you not think that perhaps someone wanted you to find her body?" Treyan took a deep breath and let it out slowly before continuing. "Bria said she heard information that leads even me to start questioning many, many things."

Reylor smirked at that, his red eyes blazing. "You've never questioned anything in your life. It must have been rather important information."

"She suggested suspicions regarding the Councillor's disloyalty."

Alex tensed behind her husband as Reylor straightened.

"What does that mean?"

"It means," Treyan took another breath, "she believed that the Councillor may have alternative reasons for certain events that have transpired, perhaps leading back as far as your banishment."

Pure rage crossed Reylor's face. "You banished me, or did you forget that detail?"

"Not without recourse." Alex could sense Treyan's building tension. To admit not only that he may have been wrong, but to confess it to his brother, after everything...

"That's neither here nor there," the Crown Prince continued. "If what she told me was enough for me to reconsider what's happened, I may have believed her."

Reylor crossed his arms over his chest. "You better be careful, Treyan. That kind of thinking could get even you banished."

Treyan remained solid, unfazed. "You should understand the severity of my concern."

"Concern," Reylor scoffed. "Since when does anything beyond your Prophecy concern you?"

"Oh, will you stop it?" Alex's patience had run out, and she stepped out from behind Treyan to face the one man she'd rather never see again. Instead of fear and terror, she found herself getting annoyed with Reylor, and his arrogance was beginning to be more than she could bare.

She looked him in the eye, her fists clenched at her sides.

"If you'd shut your damn mouth and open your ears for once, you'd understand that your brother is trying to tell you that he was actually concerned for you, despite everything you've done over these last few years, and that's more than you deserve."

She took a shuddering breath. "Now look," she spoke to them. The utter shock of her stepping up as the Empress she was supposed to be was mirrored on their faces. "It is getting late, and there's much to do before the suns set—you need to take care of Bria."

Again, she couldn't help but glance down at the body before her.

"Alex—" Treyan started, but she gave him a menacing look that cut him off.

"Bury her, and then we'll gather what supplies we can and head out at the suns' first light. I don't dare stay here longer than we need to."

She didn't want to mention Sarayna's presence within the Empire, whether Reylor already knew of it or not. He'd find out eventually, but she refused to be the one who brought it to his attention.

"Are you sure?" Treyan asked, slightly nervous as if his thoughts mirrored her own.

Alex understood his concern. "We'll find stable quarters and lodge for the night until we can regroup in the morning. We'll be fine here."

Reylor peered at her, and she faced him square-on.

"Do what you need to do, then leave."

Treyan started to say something else, but Alex turned and left the room before he could respond.

Leaving the brothers to their own devices, she hurried away from them, deeper into the palace, before she allowed the weight of what she had just seen, who she had seen, to paralyze her with panic.