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One
Her Eminence Anastasi Zimena of Lythikos?
Oh hell no.
Olivia’s focus zeroes in on the woman who walked in on Trystan Thorne’s arm two minutes ago, moving with an air that would lend credence to her claim – if Olivia didn’t know full well that there is no Her Eminence Anastasi Zimena, not in Lythicos, not in all of Cordonia.
For some reason, this woman and Trystan are pulling a con. Olivia intends to find out why.
She dismisses the impulse to march up to them and demand answers. Too unsubtle and inelegant, and Olivia Nevrakis is nothing if not elegant. So she bides her time. It doesn’t take long to figure out that “Anastasi” is conducting a series of interrogations, not that the lot of hopeless fools realize they’re being interrogated.
Whoever this Sonja person is, she’s important to her. She makes a mental note to learn who they both are.
She watches Trystan and “Anastasi” dance together, and… her identity isn’t the only thing they’re faking. There’s none of the ease and comfort of an established relationship, so whoever they are to each other, it isn’t a romantic partner. Still, they’re something. There’s a spark there. A personality clash, maybe. Or an attraction.
She watches Trystan walk away, with Anastasi hot on his heels, and makes her move. She puts one of her daggers to her lower back and whispers, “So… Anastasi of Lythikos, eh? What a pleasure to run into you here… cousin.”
Two
Mafalda walks out of the police station and stops in her tracks. Trystan and Emma are standing close together, his hand on her shoulder and their faces inches apart.
“Aha,” she says under her breath. “I knew it.”
She’s had her suspicions about Emma’s relationship with her client/new partner/bane of her existence since the beginning. There’s been a certain… tension between from the moment Trystan told her he wanted to hire Emma, and Mafalda has spent the last few weeks wondering whether it stems from Emma’s annoyance with the arrangement or something more.
Looking at the two of them now, leaning closer to each other, she doesn’t have to wonder anymore.
“I’m not interrupting something, am I?”
They try to play dumb, which… seriously? She’s almost insulted. She’ll give Trystan a pass because he barely knows her, but Emma should know better by now. She’s a detective, for god’s sake.
Oh, well. No one is particularly smart in the grasp of infatuation, Mafalda thinks. She’ll be magnanimous and let this one go.
She fully plans to have a little fun at their expense, though. It’s the little things in life.
Three
Lydea wasn’t prepared to break a sweat, let alone get a serious workout this morning. After all, Trystan is good, but she’s better. Still, she knows very well how easily arrogance can lead to failure, so she takes half a dozen of her best people with her to arrest him. Just in case.
She wasn’t expecting the woman, but she shrugs it off as a mere detail. It’s hardly a surprise that her brother has company. She even feels a little sorry for the traumatic memory this is bound to leave in the stranger.
Until she launches herself into the fray and takes three of Lydea’s best people down.
But she isn’t too upset. Trystan is clearly more worried about New York over there than he is about himself, so it’s an unintentional favor when she lands hard on her back and distracts him long enough for Lydea to incapacitate him.
It isn’t until the flight back home that Lydea realizes she’s seen that face before. In the intelligence files about Trystan’s new colleagues.
Detective Emma Rose.
“Oh, brother,” she says with a sigh. “Still mixing business with pleasure, I see.”
Four
Ruby hangs up the phone and turns to Luke.
“Babe, wake up.” She nudges him gently, then harder when he only grunts. “Wake up! Trystan needs us.”
He opens one bleary eye. “If he’s having a bagel emergency again, I swear to God…”
“Luke. He’s been arrested for his fiancée’s murder. He must be halfway to Drakovia by now.”
He sits bolt upright. “I’ll be ready in five.”
She jumps out of bed and drags on a pair of pants, going over her conversation with Emma again.
“Trystan was arrested this morning.”
“What? But…”
“I called Marguerite, her plane leaves for Drakovia ASAP. Are you in?”
“Obviously, but what happened?”
“His sister broke into his apartment this morning saying he was under arrest for Juliana’s murder. I tried to stop them, but there were too many of them. I’ll fill you in later, for now, try to meet us at the airport in thirty."
Even as she begins to pack, Ruby’s mind keeps coming back to one question. What was Emma doing in Trystan’s apartment so early?
Five
She watches Trystan walk up to the dais, and maybe it’s because she remembers Liam’s coronation so well, but she easily recognizes the fear in his eyes.
But there’s also something else, something she can pinpoint precisely because it’s so unlike how it was with Liam. Where her best friend was proud to be taking on the mantle, Trystan looks like he’s walking to his execution. This isn’t a happy, if scared, man. This is someone who wishes he could be anywhere but here.
In many ways, he reminds her of Leo. But Leo had the good sense to recognize how unsuitable he was for the job and walk away in time. Apparently, that’s beyond Trystan’s capabilities.
But no. Olivia remembers the way he looked at Emma – first back at the Iverson gala, and again after his recoronation. She refuses to believe he’s going to be such as an idiot as to go through with this.
“We need someone who loves Drakovia above all else.”
She follows the direction of his gaze knowing full well what, or who, she’ll see. Really, it’s exhausting being right all the time.
Still, when Trystan places the crown on Lydea’s head, Olivia surprises herself by feeling almost sentimental. A king abdicating for the person he obviously loves? It’ll take a stronger person even than Olivia to be unaffected.
“I didn’t see this coming,” Liam whispers next to her.
She exchanges an amused look with Riley.
“Trust me, Liam. We know.”