Divided Throne

Alec wasn’t thrilled with the appointment of the disrespectful gutter thieves as Lily’s personal boy slaves, but there wasn’t much he could do against the word of his queen. He spent most of his time with the army now, watching over the training and making sure nothing slipped past him like it had been before. When he would go home, he’d hear all about how the boys were kicked around when they got too cocky and bratty around Lily.

They stood in the corner of the dining room, dressed in full servant’s attire and waiting for Lily to tell them what to do while everyone ate. For some reason, Alec seemed to be the only one bothered by this. Apparently, everyone else was in full support of these boys being disciplined in this way. Every now and then, he glanced up from his plate to look at them as they whispered to each other, snickering sometimes. When they got loud enough to be noticeable, Lily would shoot them a glare and they’d shut right up.

“Zachary,” Lily called, waving him over. “More wine, please.”

He frowned, leaning over to peer into her glass. “But it’s full.”

Lily raised a brow at him, picking up the glass and pouring the contents right over the front of his pants, leaving a nice stain there.

“Actually, it’s pretty empty,” she said.

He reluctantly took the glass, glaring at his friends as they tried not to laugh at him. Lily looked up at them, tilting her head to the side. Alec imagined she’d be a lot less polite if King Hamilton and Gloria were in the room. Letting too loose would give them both a heart attack, for sure.

“Does anyone else have anything to say?” Lily asked.

“No, ma’am,” Myron said, trying not to laugh.

Lily looked back to her plate, glancing up at Alec. “Do you have something to say, highness?”

“No, ma’am,” Alec mumbled.

He could feel Lily’s eyes piercing into his soul, but soon Gwendolyn entered the room and took everyone’s attention. Her cheeks were red, and it looked like she’d been hurrying to the room. She took a glance at Alec, and he looked away from her. He knew a rather dark secret about Gwendolyn, and he couldn’t really bear to look at her. She seemed to notice, looking at everyone else as she took her seat.

“Forgive me for being late,” she said. “I had some things to take care of, and it took longer than anticipated.”

As Gwendolyn was pulled into conversation, Alec felt Lily touch his knee under the table. He looked up to see Lily with a concerned expression on her face.

“Are you alright?” she whispered, so only Alec would hear. “You just turned pale as a ghost.”

“I’m fine,” Alec said quickly.

He looked back down at his supper, eating in silence for the rest of the night. Thankfully, the talk of the night was of Elbis. Two of Hamilton’s children had arrived, taking a little while away from running the kingdom in place of their father to give him an update on how things were in Elbis.

Prince Joshua and Princess Annemarie were the faces of everything Elbis represented. Beauty, grace, and nobility. Hamilton proudly showed off his younger son and daughter, who dipped into such graceful bows and curtsies that it looked like they were completely unaffected by gravity. Even Belle looked somewhat intimidated by Annemarie’s perfect light brown ringlets of hair and glittering hazel eyes. Alec noticed her trying to match with her curtsy, and while it was a wonderful attempt, Alec wasn’t sure if a human being could match those skills.

“Pleasure to meet you,” Belle said. “It’s nice to have another girl my age around.”

“Yes,” Annemarie said, with a charming smile. “I’m sure we’ll have much in common to talk about. Except I was born a princess, instead of begging someone to do it for me.”

Alec watched Belle’s smile very slowly fade from her face. It took a little bit to process the insult. It was so sweetly and politely said that it didn’t even sound like one. Joshua seemed to get it, because there was an amused glint in his eye, but he didn’t break character. No one else had even noticed, listening to Hamilton as he gushed about how wonderful his children were.

“I really don’t want to like her,” Belle whispered to Alec. “She’s making it so difficult.”

She turned and noticed Rhett and Holden staring at the beautiful girl with their jaws on the floor, arms weakly at their sides. Rhett, especially, who was fixing his uniform and buttoning up the top half that was usually left loose. Belle glared at them, snapping in front of their faces to get their attention back. Alec grinned, bumping his sister lightly.

“Are you jealous?” he asked. “You hate it when they fawn over you like that.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean they can just stop and move on like that,” Belle growled.

As everyone sat down, glasses of champagne were passed around. Alec found it up to him to stand and raise a toast to welcome their new guests. Not that he wanted new guests. The place was crowded enough as is, and with Lucian and Erwin sharing his room with him, Alec wasn’t sure he remembered what privacy was like. But it wasn’t really up to him when politics and allies were involved. He was about to sip the drink when Holden suddenly dropped and shattered his glass, making everyone jump.

“Wait, don’t drink it!” he cried out, almost desperately.

Everyone set the glasses down slowly, none having tasted it yet. Tobias frowned and sniffed the drink, then set it down.

“The boy is right,” he said, almost mournful. “Don’t drink that, unless you want to foam at the mouth until you slowly meet death. There is poison in this drink.”

“How did you know?” Lily asked, wide-eyed as she picked up Lucian and held him close to her chest.

“You can see it, if you look,” Holden told her.

Alec lifted his glass and saw that Holden was right. There was a little bit of undissolved white powder at the bottom of it. Alec almost laughed. The spy was still among them, and the spy was clever. Had they sipped the champagne, everyone in that room would have been dead within minutes. The king and queen of Elbis, their seer, the king and queen of Aegaera, all three of their advisors, the heirs to both thrones, and the military leaders of both armies. It was efficient.

“You mean the spy is still here?” Alec asked Samuel, keeping his voice as calm as he could.

“Well, the activity had quieted down,” he said. “We focused our energy on bigger issues.”

“Find. Him.”

Lily got up with Lucian and hurried out of the room, surely to take him as far from the poison as she could at the moment. Alec thought about it, but then he noticed Gwendolyn follow her out. He’d leave her to this one.

The next few days were quiet. Hamilton and Gloria stayed with their children, getting updated on their country and how it was going. Rhett and Holden stayed with the troops. All was well, until Rhett came to see Alec. He was covered in blood and ash, and his eyes looked like he’d seen hell.

“The outer villages,” Rhett said, voice hoarse and cracking. “They’re gone. Completely torn apart. The people… what’s left of the people… have fled. I… I don’t know where Holden is… I’ve never seen so many men, women, children… bodies everywhere… They’re making their way here, and will tear a path through Aegara to get here. It doesn’t matter who is in their way. Innocent people… They took Holden and there’s no telling what they’re doing to him… ”

“Rhett, slow down,” Alec frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“He’s here.”