Аманда Хокинг - Torn

“How come he didn’t knock you out?” I asked.

I hadn’t had a chance to talk to Duncan much since yesterday. I’d been wondering how they’d been able to capture Loki when he could render them unconscious with a single look.

“He didn’t think he had to.” Duncan looked proud again, and I let him. “My appearance deceived him, and the other guards tackled him.”

“What was he doing when you found him?” Willa asked.

“I couldn’t tell exactly.” Duncan shook his head. “I think he was peeking through a window.”

“Like a peeping Tom?” I raised my eyebrow.

“He was probably trying to get a look at Wendy,” Tove said offhandedly, and the chair in front me slid so far back, it almost hit my shins. “Sorry.”

“Careful,” I said, pulling my legs up to be safe.

I wrapped my arms around my knees, and Elora glared at me. I didn’t move, and I heard Elora’s voice in my head, That is not how a Princess sits. I was wearing pants, so I decided to ignore her, and I looked over at Tove.

“Why do you think he was looking in at me?” I asked.

“He wants you,” Tove said simply.

“You are the Princess,” Willa pointed out, as if I’d forgotten. “On the subject of which, do you want to have a girls’ night tonight?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I feel like I haven’t seen you much lately, and I thought it’d be fun if we did our nails and watched movies,” Willa said. “You’ve been under so much stress lately, you need to kick back.”

“It would help your training if you shut off your mind sometimes,” Tove said.

“That sounds really great, Willa, but I was thinking of seeing if Matt wanted to do something,” I said. “This all has to be so confusing for him, and I haven’t been able to spend much time with him.”

“Oh, Matt’s busy.” Willa readjusted the clasp on her bracelet. “He’s doing something with Rhys tonight. Some brother bonding thing, I guess.”

I watched Tove move the chair back and forth, and I tried not to feel anything about what Willa said. Matt and Rhys needed to spend time together, and I had been busy a lot. It was good for them. It was good for me.

Somebody sat down in the chair in front of me, and Tove let out a dramatic sigh.

Elora glared at him, but his own mother didn’t. That had never made sense to me, either.

Aurora was always looking down on Elora and me, but Tove acted out way more than I did. Tove did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. I at least tried to have some decorum.

“It is really packed,” Willa said again as Trylle filed in.

It was down to standing room only, so even some of the Markises and Marksinnas didn’t get chairs. It’d never been like this before. Elora cleared her throat, preparing to start the meeting, when two more trackers snuck into the room.

I could barely see them as they came in, but I recognized them instantly. Finn and his father Thomas had come to the meeting, and they stood at the edge of the room. Finn crossed his arms over his chest, and Thomas leaned on a bookcase behind him.

“Good. They’re calling out the big guns,” Tove whispered.

“What?” I pulled my gaze away from Finn.

“Finn and Thomas.” Tove nodded at them. “They’re the best. No offense, Duncan.”

“None taken,” Duncan said, and I think he meant it.

“We need to get this meeting under way,” Elora said loudly to be heard over the mutterings of everyone.

It took a minute, but they fell silent. Elora eyed up the room, and she purposely kept her eyes off Thomas, the same way Finn kept his eyes off me.

“Thank you,” Aurora said with a saccharine smile and stepped closer to my mother.

“As you all know, we’ve had an intruder in the palace,” Elora said calmly. “Thanks to our alarm system and the quick thinking of our trackers, he was caught before he could do any damage.”

“Is it true that it’s the Markis Staad?” Marksinna Laurent asked. She was a nervous Trylle that once made a comment about how she loved that I let my hair go, and she’d never be brave enough to do that.

“Yes, it does appear to be the Markis Staad,” Elora said.

“Markis?” I whispered. Willa gave me a questioning look, and I shook my head.

Loki Staad was a Markis? I’d assumed that Loki was a tracker, like Duncan and Finn. The Markis and Marksinna were the royals of the community, and they were protected. Or at the very least, they didn’t do their own dirty work. Willa was a Marksinna, and she was one of the more level-headed, unspoiled ones I’d met.

“What does he want?” somebody else asked.

“It doesn’t matter what he wants!” The Chancellor got up, his face drenched with sweat from the exertion of standing. “We need to send the Vittra a message! We will not be bullied! We must execute him!”

“You can’t kill him!” I shouted, and Elora shot me a look that made my ears ring.

Everyone in the room turned to look at me, including Finn, and my own conviction even surprised me. “It’s not humane.”

“We’re not barbarians.” The Chancellor dabbed at his brow and gave me a condescending smile. “We’ll make his death as painless and benevolent as possible.”

“The Markis didn’t do anything.” I stood up, unwilling to sit and let them propose murder. “You can’t kill someone without just cause.”

“Princess, it’s for your own protection,” the Chancellor said, sounding baffled by my response. “He’s repeatedly tried to kidnap and harm you. That’s a crime against our people. Execution is the only cause of action that makes sense.”

“It’s not the only cause,” Elora said carefully. “But it is something we will consider.”

“You cannot seriously consider this,” I said “I’m the one he kidnapped, and I’m saying he doesn’t deserve that.”

“Your concerns will be taken under advisement, Princess,” Aurora said, that same too-sweet smile plastered on her face.

The crowd erupted with quiet murmurs. I’m sure I heard the word “treason,” but I couldn’t tell from where. Someone a row in front of me muttered something about Stockholm Syndrome, followed by a chuckle.

“Hey, she’s the Princess,” Willa snapped at them. “Show a little respect.”

“We can barter with them,” Finn said, raising his voice to be heard over the rumblings.

“Pardon?” Aurora raised an eyebrow, and Elora all but rolled her eyes at him.

“We have the Markis Staad,” Finn went on. “He’s the highest royal in the Vittra after the King. If we kill him, we have nothing. They’ll come after the Princess with even more fervor because we took out their only hope of an heir.”

“You’re proposing that we work with the Vittra?” Elora asked.

“We don’t negotiate with terrorists!” a Markis shouted, and Elora held up her hand to silence him.

“We haven’t been negotiating, and look at where it’s gotten us,” Finn said and gestured towards the ballroom. “The Vittra have broken into the palace twice in the last month. We lost more Trylle in that last battle than we have in almost twenty years.”

I sat down again, watching Finn argue his point. He had a way of commanding the room, even if he wouldn’t look at me. Moreover, he was right.

“This is the biggest bargaining chip we’ve ever had,” Finn said. “We can use Markis Staad to get them to back off. They don’t want to lose him.”

“He’s not the biggest bargaining chip,” Marksinna Laurent interrupted. “The Princess is.” Everyone’s eyes turned towards me. “The Vittra have never come after us this bad before. All they want is the Princess, and in a way, they have a right to her. If we give the Vittra what they want, they’ll leave us alone.”