His father swept his hand around at the carnage of the broken desk, buckled chairs, soiled carpet, and smashed artworks. "This has to stop, for the good of the throne and the Avanov family."
"No doubt you have a plan."
"I offered Lukan a deal, and like the wimp he is, he agreed to my terms."
Axel stuck his feet on his father's wrecked desk, enjoying seeing him wince. "Then you certainly did better than I today."
"Perhaps it is time you listened and learned, my arrogant son." His father pulled out his handkerchief and flicked it over the chenna-stained squab of the only other functional chair. Then he sat. "Lukan has commanded Morass to kill Mott tomorrow after the wedding ceremony. With my new ice crystal in Morass's face, the imbecile will obey."
A gush of air-relief for himself and sorrow for Morass, who had no choice-escaped Axel's lungs. If he were honest, patching together credible footage of a copulating couple was not how he wanted to spend the evening.
"It's not over yet, son. The Fifteen will not be happy with Mott's demise, and as Lukan is the one to benefit, they will be quick to blame him. It will fall to Lukan to justify his actions."
"They won't turn him down. They can't, because he's the legal heir. And let's face it, regicide is hardly a new thing in Chenaya."
"Quite. Some might say it's a sport played exclusively by crown princes. Still, there are plenty of men among the Fifteen who believe that neither Lukan nor his brother are suitable candidates for the throne. They would happily see you as emperor."
Axel's stomach knotted. "That implies that Lukan and Tao's reprieve is short lived."
"Except this time, the Fifteen will take care of the messy bits. I have it in good faith that many of them are looking to make a clean sweep of things. They are supremely tired of Mott and his offspring."
Axel sighed, wishing this whole sordid business was over. He considered mentioning that he would never take Tao's place on the throne, but he knew his father would brush his objection aside. He leaned forward into his father's personal space. "I'm going to Treven. Nothing else is more important than that."
"Not even Lynx?"
Axel took a quick breath-it wouldn't help if his father knew the depth of his care for her. With a wafer-thin crust of calm hiding his emotions, he asked, "Where is she? In the dungeons, I presume?"
His father's jaw dropped. "The dungeons? Our future empress? What do you take me for?"
"Do you really want to know?"
A rare smile split his father's face. "Perhaps not. Now, my son, please see reason and work with me here. If we plan carefully, in the not-too-distant future, the throne will be yours." He fixed Axel with sharp eyes. "But your game with Lynx-it ends now."
Axel raised an eyebrow.
"You have what you wanted. You have taken over command in Treven. Now leave Lynx. The only way Mott will go blithely to his death is if she and Lukan show up tomorrow for the wedding."
Axel grudgingly admitted that his father had a point. Still, he shot back, "Knowing she is safe is hardly interfering."
His father sucked in an impatient breath and then pulled his informa from his pocket. Quick as a flash, he held it up to Axel's eyes, blasting his retina with a red beam of light.
"What the hell?" Axel yelled, tossing his chair back in his scramble to get out of the rays.
"Oh, calm down, Axel. It's the new technology I programmed to control the doors in the lair." His father stood. "If you're so worried about the Norin bitch, spend your night searching for her. It's certainly not the worst thing you could be doing between now and the wedding."
Axel no longer believed Lynx was in the dungeons, but when he left the room, he still slid open every door, looking for her.
It was fruitless. Finding her in the palace, with its thousand rooms, would be almost impossible, but he had to try. After dismissing the guardsmen in the camera control room, he pulled up a chair at a bank of monitors and started the slow scan of every room in the palace fitted with candle sconces.
His ears pricked when he saw Lukan in conversation with Morass. His cousin held a crossbow and a vial of yellow liquid in his hand. Axel's blood chilled as he listened to Lukan brief Morass to kill Lynx after the wedding. He buried his face in his hands and tried to breathe as the full implication of Lukan and his father's scheming hit him.
Needing to move, he leaped up from his seat and started to pace as he considered how to save her. Lynx avoiding the wedding was not an option. That meant he had to come up with another workable plan. The obvious solution was to change the command Lukan had programmed into Morass's head.
Axel flipped to the ice crystal program on his informa and flicked through lines of coding. Cold fear settled on him when he didn't recognize the programming. Clearly, it was something new his father had devised.
It's just code. No different to anything else. Just figure it out.
Face puckered in concentration, he began to unravel the complexities of his father's mystery. Just when he thought he was making progress, he hit an unfamiliar encryption. Conscious of the passing of time, he systematically worked through it.
Until he met the next encryption, then the next.
Finally, it struck that this was no coincidence. The changes were coming so quickly that his father had to be dueling with him. His heart sank. Was this why his father had let him stay in the lair? To prove that he was in control and that Axel had no choice but to obey him?
Not while Axel drew breath.
But he knew that a battle of attrition, with him thrusting and his father parrying for supremacy of Morass's brain, was pointless. He could never win on his father's battleground.
Perhaps the answer was to command one of Stefan's loyal men to eliminate Morass while the assassin waited in his hiding place during the wedding? Axel rejected that idea. His father would expect Axel to try something like that. It would only expose Stefan and his ice-crystal-immune men to possible scrutiny. Axel couldn't risk Stefan's safety like that.
There was always another plan . . . Axel tossed his informa down and hoicked his feet onto the table. Too radical to consider seriously, he tried to push the idea away. It refused to budge. Sweat beading on his upper lip, he prayed to all the gods he didn't believe in that he would not be required to use it.
But it was the only current option. Axel grunted, knowing it was the hugest, riskiest toss of the dice he had ever made.
His father and Lukan had left him no choice but to step in front of Lynx's quarrel.
Axel grimaced and then brushed his fear aside. He didn't plan on dying. His ceremonial armor-a black leather brigandine emblazoned with a red-and-gold Dragon-would offer some protection against the quarrel, and King Thorn had an antidote to the poison. The Norin were a mere three days away by airship. Twenty-four years of overprotectiveness convinced Axel that his father would have him on the first available airship out of Cian. Lynx would be afforded no such courtesy if Morass targeted her.
If Lynx knew, she'd never let him risk his life for her. She could know nothing of his plan, but she would surely use her influence with her father to save his life. That influence would give her power-and amnesty from his father's scheming. His father would never target Lynx while she held the key to Axel's safety.
It was the only solution he could see to the calamity his father and Lukan planned. Face set in a mask of determination, Axel set off to enlist Stefan's help.
Chapter 40
Lynx heard the key rattle in the lock on her cell door. With no windows, she had no idea what time it was. Sleep had been elusive, due to a combination of claustrophobia and despair, which she knew her wedding day would do little to dispel. Her beloved Axel would have to stand by and watch her marry his cousin. Every fiber in her body berated her for causing him pain, but honor had to be served.
Winds, please let him understand. And forgive me for hurting him.
With one oath almost fulfilled, she needed to meet with Uncle Bear to plot a strategy to complete her second oath-telling her father about the ice crystals. Regardless of the Chenayans, she would find time today at the wedding to speak with him. It would take her mind off her own sorrow at losing Axel.
The door opened, and she stood to face her visitor, expecting to see Mother Saskia.
Lynx raised her eyebrows as Lady Tatiana stepped into the room. Over her arm hung a golden dress. She held it out to Lynx.