The following day, while Caspian saw to a few royal duties beyond his escape, Elias went on the hunt for Inari. He hadn’t seen her last night at dinner or breakfast this morning, and he wondered if their kiss had anything to do with her absence.

It had been on his mind as well.

The entire situation took center stage, distracting him somewhat from the journals and the new findings on his ancestor’s rift with Imatra. He hadn’t completely forgotten the crest, the dagger, and his questions regarding the change, but it would have to wait.

When he failed to locate Inari in the dining areas, parlors, or stables, he sought the bowels of the castle once more. He suspected he would find her there, poring over books, looking for clues.

And that’s exactly what he walked in on some minutes later.

She had her back to him, shoulders hunched forward, tawny hair upswept into a messy knot with a few slender strands curling around her throat. Today she wore jeans and a pale yellow shirt that complimented her coloring. He spent a few minutes contemplating the desire to put his mouth to the skin of her neck before breaking the spell and moving deeper into the Crypt.

Not sure what reaction he might get, since she’d clearly been avoiding him, he circled the table and set a hand on the chair opposite her own.

“Elias, you startled me,” she said, snapping a look up from the book.

“You must be engrossed,” he said, taking a seat. He couldn’t tell from her rather closed-off expression if she was annoyed, nervous, or excited to see him. Maybe all of the above.

Maybe none.

“I have to do something with my time. I went for a ride earlier this morning, but it’s no fun with three guards following me everywhere I go. Plus . . . I kept looking over my shoulder the whole time.”

“As you will until this problem is solved.” Elias wanted to ask her if she’d found any more journal entries, but she’d given him the perfect setup to ask a few harder, more uncomfortable questions. So he dove in without delay. “Tell me, did you ever meet Wolfe’s mother?”

Inari’s lips quirked. “I did. Several times.”

“What did you think of her?” Elias really wanted to know what Valentina thought of Inari, but one thing at a time.

Inari straightened in her chair, as if mentally and physically preparing herself for a conversation she didn’t want to have. Her expression bordered on belligerence with a hint of annoyance. Elias didn’t feel those latter emotions had anything to do with him.

“I’ll be honest, Elias. I didn’t like her. I knew of her reputation, what she’d done back before we were born, but that didn’t factor into the reasons for my dislike.”

“What did?” Elias asked.

“The way she treated me. Her interference in mine and Wolfe’s relationship.”

“How did she treat you?”

“Like she loathed the very sight of me. Of course, the first time I ever met her was when she walked in on Wolfe and me in his private study.”

“I’m unclear what you did to make her not like you. Walking in on a couple isn’t really grounds for putting someone on the blacklist.”

“I didn’t find out until after Wolfe and I broke up,” Inari said. “Apparently, she had designs on a Mideastern princess who stands to inherit a lot more than I will when I become queen. It’s more about the money than the title, I guess.”

Elias thought back to a few rumors he’d heard over the past year about Weithan Isle’s economic troubles. The small country wasn’t in total disarray, but there had been talk of hard times and sacrifices. He hadn’t paid too much attention back then, and now wished he knew more. Either way, it explained Valentina’s interest in breaking Wolfe and Inari up if she had designs on someone else for purely monetary reasons. Inari stood to inherit the title of queen and, with it, the vast empire of Somero’s wealth. Somero was a relatively small country in relation to kingdoms in the Middle East, and Somero did not have the oil income those other regions were known for.

“Do you think she knows that Wolfe pursued you even after you broke up?” he asked after several moments.

“Yes. She knows many things, because she has spies everywhere. Wolfe was the one who told me that. They have a . . . tense relationship as mother and son.”

Elias wasn’t surprised to hear that at all, especially if Wolfe was bucking the system. Valentina, according to legend, was a master manipulator. She liked to get her way. Anything that stood in the way of that—including her own son’s willfulness—was probably cause for trouble.

“Why all the questions?” Inari asked.

Elias pulled himself from his reverie and contemplated the wisdom of confiding his and Erick’s idea that Valentina was behind the assassination attempts. He wasn’t positive that Inari wouldn’t then contact Wolfe in some way, which might throw a wrench into their plans. For, surely, Wolfe would go straight to his mother, demanding answers.

“I was curious. All this has brought up the past, with Valentina and my father and her manipulation of our family.” He wasn’t enamored of telling a partial lie. And, if Inari’s arched brow and skeptical look were any indication, she suspected there was more to the story. She proved to be much more astute than he gave her credit for with her next question.

“Do you think she has something to do with the poisoning?” Inari asked, eyes widening incredulously.

She had put him directly in the crosshairs. He could not lie now, not when she’d asked straight out. “Yes.”

Inari gasped and pushed to her feet.

Elias straightened, sure she was about to run out of the Crypt and call Wolfe immediately. “Don’t do anything rash, Inari. Give us time to make sure we’re right. If you go public with this, or if word gets out before we can act, the assassin will go to ground and we’ll never find him. We need him to convict Valentina. If you want all this to be over, you have to remain silent.”

“Do you think she would really go to those lengths? I mean, I know how deceptive she can sometimes be, and that she had caused other problems in her own homeland, but assassination? Would she stoop that low?” Inari asked. She wrung her hands together and paced near the table.

Elias intercepted her. He caught her gently by the arms so he could make and maintain eye contact. “She deceived my grandfather, nearly wound up married to my father while carrying another man’s child. She had grand designs on Latvala back then and, if I had to guess, I’d say nothing has changed. If anything, her tendencies might have gotten worse. If she feels pressured about money and Weithan’s well-being, there’s no telling what lengths she would go to.”

Inari stood before him, one finger moving a stray lock of hair from her eyes. Elias could see the conflict in her expression and feel the nervous tension in her body.

“There’s something else,” Inari said in a quiet voice.

“What is it?” Elias dropped his hold on her arms. She surprised him by taking a step closer of her own accord. They were almost close enough to touch. He stared down into her pretty face, inwardly bracing himself for whatever came next.

“He’s still in love with me. I heard from him four weeks ago. He wants to get back together. Says nothing has changed. And then he sent me a few texts when he heard about Lisbet. Asking if I needed him to come to Somero, did I need any help. I’ve not replied to any of it.”

“Why not?” Elias asked. He was tempted to take another step closer, which would fit the front of their bodies snugly together.

“Because I’m not in love with him. Because when I told him I was done, I meant it.”

“Even if you found out that he’d never cheated at all?”

“What do you mean by that?” she asked, frowning.

“I suspect he wasn’t lying to you when he told you that he’d never cheated. I think, after all that we’ve discovered, that Valentina probably planted the lie among the staff and let rumor do the rest.” He waited to see if that deduction had any effect on Inari. Perhaps, if she thought Wolfe hadn’t cheated, it would change the way she felt.

“So you’re saying that she broke us up intentionally, and has likely tried to take me out because she knows that Wolfe is serious about me. She’s found out about his letters and texts.”

“Yes.”

“That woman is a menace,” Inari said, ire flashing through her eyes.

“Yes, she is. All of this is unfounded, Inari. It’s what we’ve come up with after looking at all the available information. We could be way off—”

“But you’re not. I think you’re exactly right, Elias. It feels like the right answer.” She glanced from his eyes to his mouth.

“I don’t think you should tell your father, either. Not yet. He’s running high on emotion with his daughter in the hospital, and I think he might take action he’ll regret if he knows what we know. We need proof before anything else,” he said. The way she stared at his mouth made Elias think things he shouldn’t be considering at the moment. Like pushing her back against the nearest wall and kissing her until their heads swam.

“I can’t withhold that kind of information from him for long. He won’t be happy to know I withheld it at all, when he finds out. If you and Erick and Caspian can’t find proof within the next few days, I’ll be forced to tell him anyway,” she whispered.

“That’s not a lot of time to locate the assassin. We need to wait until the next event.”

“I’m sorry, Elias. I can’t give you more time than that.” She reached up to stroke her thumb across his lower lip.

“Then you’ll have to excuse me. I have work to do.” He spun toward the door, regretting the loss of her touch immediately.

She’d thrown down the gauntlet, however, and there wasn’t a moment to waste.

---

Inari turned back to the desk and the books lying open on the surface. She couldn’t focus on the material at the moment, couldn’t sit there and look through the pages for journal entries. At least, not yet. She needed to move, to work off her restlessness. Elias’s shocking news and her subsequent disinclination to give him more time were working her nerves over, hardcore. Her stomach was in knots, her mind flitting from one scenario to another.

Despite how bad she felt, she knew that she’d been correct in her decision. Her father would be extremely displeased that she’d withheld any information at all, for any length of time, but she had wanted to give Elias and the guys some time to act. To settle the whole thing so her father wouldn’t have to get involved. He had enough going on, enough to deal with. Elias, Erick, and Caspian could distance themselves from the situation in ways Thane could not, and she knew it.

The tension between her and Elias also needed examination. Their kiss yesterday had sent her into a tailspin, made her want things she probably shouldn’t want. Not while all this was going on. She felt guilty for wanting more kisses, more intimacy, while her sister was recovering in the hospital. Lisbet was doing even better this afternoon, yet it felt wrong somehow to find enjoyment until her sister was home and completely out of the woods.

Perhaps, too, she was afraid of her own feelings. Of the powerful pull she felt toward Elias. The more she was around him, the stronger it became. She’d nearly kissed him moments ago when they’d been standing toe to toe.

If she was honest with herself, part of her hesitation had to do with Wolfe and his cheating.

Or his rumored cheating. Even if he hadn’t done it and was innocent of the charges, it didn’t change how hurt she’d felt at the time. Back then, the wound had cut deep enough to prevent her from seriously dating anyone else. There wasn’t room or time for another broken heart.

That was then. This is now. Things have changed, she thought to herself. Elias did not share Wolfe’s wild tendencies. Yes, he’d been roguish in his youth, had a reputation for flirting shamelessly with the opposite sex. But she never recalled Elias bearing the same stigma that followed Wolfe wherever he went.

They were different men then, and were different men today.

Elias was not Wolfe.

After fifteen minutes of pacing the Crypt, she settled into the chair and pulled the book closer. Looking for clues for Elias helped keep her mind off everything else and gave her something productive to focus on.

She needed a distraction from the thought of Elias chasing down the assassin and what danger it might put him in.