“What?” I blurted, while Navan stalked closer to the man and grabbed him by the shoulders. He blinked several times, as though he couldn’t quite believe his eyes. Lazar averted his gaze to the floor.

“Uncle Lazar. Wh-What are you doing here?” Navan gasped.

Lazar swallowed, then stepped around Navan and into the room to create a little more distance between them both. “Yes, Navan. It’s me.”

Navan shook his head, stupefied. “What? How?”

Lazar sighed. “I’m a rebel, nephew. Have been for a long time.”

Navan staggered backward. “You’ve been playing both sides? All this time? Why?”

Lazar shuffled his feet, still looking slightly uncomfortable. “Because I believe in the cause, Navan. I believe that our great nation was never meant to be severed in two, and I believe that we are long overdue for a rehaul of the system. I believe in the power of the people.”

Navan went silent. Then his hands balled into fists. His breathing became sharper, a muscle in his jaw twitching. “And you believe in… this?” He gestured a hand around the room. “You believe in capturing and imprisoning innocent people? Stealing and slaughtering humans?” His voice rose. “Letting your own family members be tortured?!”

His chest was shaking now, and I realized, just as had happened to me barely an hour ago, his shock was transforming to rage. I had seen how Navan acted under the influence of rage before… and it had not been pretty. I half expected him to fly at Lazar and rip his head off like he had done to Jethro, but he held himself in place, for the moment.

Lazar held up his hands in a peaceful gesture. “I don’t expect you to accept it’s a necessary evil, Navan, even though to me, it is. I don’t want to get into an argument with you. Really, I don’t. Neither did I want you here in the first place, for the record. But you ventured here of your own accord, and now, well… I’m not in charge. Orion is.”

“So I take it you haven’t come here to help us escape, then,” Navan scoffed, a part of him still appearing to be disbelieving.

“I’m afraid I haven’t.”

The words sounded incredibly harsh coming from an uncle to his nephew, and yet, even as he spoke, his air of discomfort remained. It made me recall my earlier encounter with him, and I realized that perhaps his motives for getting me to talk were more virtuous than I’d initially thought. Maybe Lazar had been trying to prevent his nephew from getting hurt more.

But apparently his good intentions didn’t stretch much farther than that.

“Then why have you come here?” Navan spat.

“Orion feels he’s given you enough time to talk and wants to finalize the agreement. He… sent me to bring you to him.”

“Oh, excellent,” Navan said. “Thanks so much for that. Just what family is for.”

He turned his back on Lazar and faced me, his expression positively seething. It looked like it was taking all he had to keep himself in check, so much so that I felt compelled to say to his uncle, “Can you just wait outside for a minute?”

Lazar nodded, not meeting my eyes, and moved swiftly out of the room.

As the door clicked, I moved to Navan and clutched his hands. “Are you okay?”

“I just…” He pulled a hand from my grasp and ran it through his hair in exasperation. “I can’t believe it.”

“How is your uncle even getting away with this?” I asked. “I thought your family was, like, really high ranked back on Vysanthe. How is he doing this unnoticed?”

Navan blew out. “Uncle Lazar is kind of the black sheep of the family—though not for reasons even remotely related to treason. He’s an alchemist, like my father, but he’s published some shoddy studies over the years that have discredited him as a scientist and lost him favor with the queen.”

“I guess that explains why Orion is interested in you over him? Otherwise, Lazar could have done whatever job Orion wants you to do.”

“True. My status back home is greater, and I have more influence and access to things in general.”

We fell silent, and for a long moment, the only sound in the room was that of the footsteps, drifting in from the corridor.

“I was never that close to him,” Navan said finally. “If I were, then this would hurt a lot more. But I never could have imagined he would stoop to this.” He glanced sullenly toward the door, then back at me with a look of deep resignation in his eyes. “You ready to leave?”

I hesitated, not feeling ready to leave this little haven in the slightest, but then nodded. “If you are.”

He took my hand and led me toward the door. “I’m not sure I’ll make it halfway down the corridor before I decapitate him, but let’s see how this goes.”