Sky stared at Campbell, she didn't know how to respond to him.

"I can't say for certain of course, but it's looking very promising." He grinned at her.

"I can't believe you've located him." What else could she say? She knew for a fact Codey was already in the dungeons below this castle. What she couldn't figure out is what he was playing at by telling her he'd found Codey. She couldn't understand how revealing Codey to her would benefit him.

His smile turned into a frown. "You did want me to locate him?"

She forced a small smile. "It would be nice to know what happened to him, but I can't honestly say what our relationship might be like at this point. It ended so abruptly." Her shoulders lifted slightly. "I'm not even certain he'd want to see me."

His eyes narrowed only slightly at her words if she wasn't watching him closely she night have missed the action. "You seemed so excited about finding him when I proposed it."

"Oh, don't misunderstand me, I do wish to find him, it's simply now that the moment is so close at hand ... I'm finding myself nervous about the reunion," she told him in a quiet voice as she wrung her hands in her lap.

His smile returned. "I see, now I understand. It must be quite hard, having been apart for so long."

She jumped up from her seat and began pacing the sitting room where he had asked her to meet him. As will all the rooms, it was lavishly decorated. As she paced around, she let her hand touch things at random. A picture frame on a table. A figurine of a boy holding a flower out to girl. She turned and stopped before the window, staring across the expanse of neatly trimmed back lawn. The property was beautiful, it was hard to imagine any sort of massacre taking place here. That at one time, blood stained the land. Yet, she knew it happened. Knew Codey witnessed it and it haunted him to this day. She couldn't imagine what recurring nightmares were dogging his dreams at night while he was back here in this place. It must be awful for him, but he had come back to help find the men who attacked her in the garden. Why? Certainly not because it was simply his duty? She sighed and turned to Campbell, forcing a smile "I suppose if your men have found him it would be rude not to see him and find out how things are between us, wouldn't it?"

He slapped his knee with a hand. "That is exactly correct! It would! I'll send word to my men to make contact and have a word with him, see how things lie. All right?"

"Yes, of course, but if he doesn't want to see me don't force it."

"Yes, of course, my dear. They would never."

She turned away, letting the 'my dear' go. Let him think he's wooed her. If he believed he was charming her then she might be able to spirit Codey to safety much easier. "I think I'm going to retire to my room, this has given me a lot to think about," she told him as she turned, sending him a smile.

He stood as she crossed to him. "I understand completely." He took her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm, lingering just a second longer than was polite. She let it pass, nodded to him, withdrew her hand from his grasp and left him standing there staring after her.

Campbell sank slowly into his chair, watching Skyklette as she swept regally from the room, her hips swaying, skirts sweeping over the carpeted floor. God, she was beautiful. She would make him a perfect wife. He would have her, of that he had no doubts. It was only a matter of time. He was already a baron. It wasn't going to be long before he was king. His fingers tapped a rhythm out on the arm of the chair as he considered things.

The king had to know Codey was alive. A smile pulled at the corners of his lips. Perhaps it was time he let the king know that he too knew his brother lived. He rose and exited the room, heading for his study. The time had finally come for him to stop playing games from afar and step onto the playing field. The king was going to face him and he was going to lose. The old man would pay for making certain he was left a bastard with nothing.

He sat in his chair behind the desk, found parchment and pen and began writing. The letter was precisely worded and to the point. When he finished, he pulled out the crest he'd stolen from Codey, dripped wax in the bottom corner of the paper and pressed the seal into it. He smirked, rolled the parchment up and sealed it with his own crest before calling one of his men and directing him to deliver it to the king.

"Wait for a response," he ordered before handing him the rolled parchment. The man left with a nod.

Campbell sat back, nothing to do now but wait for things to fall into place. All his plans must puzzle together. Sky would be waiting for word about her lost stable boy and the king would want to know about his dear daughter. He chuckled. "I have so much to do."

***

There was nothing in him that cared to roll over and look up when he heard the key grating in the lock of the cell door. Instead, Codey remained prone on his nonexistent mattress, facing the wall.

"Hello, brother, I've brought you a little gift."

"I don't care for your gifts. Go away and leave me to die in peace," he muttered to the wall.

"Oh, but I dare say you'll want to look at this one. After all, you're going to become rather intimately acquainted."

When he heard a small sound of female distress, he rolled over with a frown. The guards were hauling a woman into the cell, she struggled as they flung her through the door. She stumbled and ended up on her knees.

"Please, sir, I swear it was for my family. I'll never steal again."

Campbell bent low, smiling at her. "I know, my dear, of course you won't. Because you've already promised to abide by my little bargain, haven't you?"

She whimpered, but nodded, sending Codey a sidelong glance.

"What's the meaning of this?" Codey didn't like how this situation was looking.

"It's simply, really. I've told the princess I've found her lost love. Now, you are going to explain to her the reason you've run off is a very simple one. You are deeply, passionately in love. With someone else." He gestured to the woman kneeling on the floor of the cell.

"You've lost your mind. I don't even know this woman."

"You have two days to get to know her before I parade you in front of Skylette. When I do, your performance better be stage worthy." He jabbed a finger in the woman's direction. "Her life depends on it. Remember that, brother." He turned and left the cell.

Codey glared at the grinning guards as the closed and locked the door. He waited until they'd gone before he went and crouched before the woman. "I'm sorry he's mixed you up in this."

She gave him a shaky smile. "I've gone and don't that myself. I knew I shouldn't have stolen those apples, but I've two little brothers and my mum hasn't been feeling well. She's missed work this entire week. They let her go. We needed it." She sniffled and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her worn, patched gown. "When the baron came to my cell, he said he'd set me free if I did him a favor. I didn't ask, I just agreed."

"Yes, well, I can see why. Death or freedom, not a hard choice to make. Campbell seems a harsh man. I guess life made him that way. Isn't his fault precisely, though he could have chosen to be different. We all can." He sighed.

She smiled through the sparkling tears in her eyes. "Are you some sort of prince?"

He laughed. "No, I'm nothing."

"Oh." Her brow wrinkled. "Why does he care if you break the princess' heart then?"

He arched a brow at her. "Break her heart? What gave you that idea?"

She shrugged. "Why else would he wish you to declare your love for someone else in front of her?" She glanced at the cell doors before leaning closer to him, whispering in a conspiratorial manner. "There are rumors that he wants more."

"More? More what, exactly?"

"Power. He doesn't want to be stuck here in this little barony."

He snorted. "Little? This "little" barony as he calls it protects our borders from Valash. It's important and strategic."

She eyed him with a frown. "Are you certain you aren't somebody, you don't speak like a nobody."

He sat down beside her. "I'm Codey. I worked at the palace, in the stables. That's how I know the princess. I grew up there. Later I became a palace guard," he said by way of an explanation.

"That's romantic. We're the two of you in love?"

He shook his head. "No, we were best friends. We were very close for a long time. Then ... I don't know, something changed, we grew apart. The king wanted her to marry." He shrugged. "People grow, change."

"You love her."

He shook his head in denial. "No, at least not in the way you mean."

She snorted. "I have two little brothers, I know what platonic love looks like and the look on your face is not platonic." She sighed. "The baron wants you to break her heart, he wants you to kill that love. Why does he want that? Think about that."

Codey rubbed his hands over his face, before he groaned and dropped back to lay on the filthy floor. His brother already has his title and his home. What the hell else did he need? Was taking Skylette from him next on his list of accomplishments? His eyes slipped shut. Of course, why not take her? If he wooed her he could marry her and eventually become king. "Goddamn him. He wants me to break her heart so he can have her. The bastard probably wants to be king. He figures he can get that if he marries Lettie." His heart twisted in his chest. He couldn't do that to her, but he couldn't condemn this woman to death, either. He pushed the heels of his hands hard into his eye sockets.

He remembered a long-forgotten conversation with his father, just before the attack on the village. It was a couple days before, he was watching his dad work, talk to people from the village, help solve problems. Afterward, he'd sat quietly, thinking his small child thoughts, until his father spoke up.

"Problems inside that head of yours, son?"

"How do you do that?"

His father chuckled. "Do what, you're going to have to be more specific?"

He looked up at his dad wondering how he could ever be anything like his father. Big, strong, smart, and able to make all the decisions he did. "How do you make choices that may efflect someone's life?"

His dad smiled down at him, reaching out to smooth his hair back. "It's pronounced 'effect'. And it isn't easy, Codey. This job isn't meant to be easy."

"Why do it?"

"Because the king asked me to and I enjoy it." His father seemed to think hard about what else to say. "You don't do a job because it's easy, you do it because it's rewarding. Because it gives you a sense of pride. Being a leader means making decision that are tough. If I were to say I didn't regret some of them, I'd being lying to you. There are some I would love to go back and change, but I can't. I must continue to move forward, to learn what I can from what I've done and use it to make the lives of those around me better. Fear of making a bad decision shouldn't keep one from making that decision. That fear will keep you from living."

"I can't let you die because of Campbell's idiocy. Lettie is smart, I have to believe she'll see through him. That she'll know something isn't right."

"I was going to die anyway," she told him sadly.

He sat up, scowling at her. "Yes, you were. Now I have a chance to save you. What's your name?"

She thrust out a hand. "Antonia Liberance, it's pleasure to meet you. Sort of." She smiled.

He took her hand and shook it. "The pleasure is all mine, Nia."

She arched a brow at him. "You do like to give the ladies unusual nicknames, don't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You call the princess Lettie, when most people would shorten her name to Sky, I assume. You call me Nia, when everyone shortens my name to Ana."

"Why Ana, there is no Ana in your name," he asked her with a little grin. "Shorten it to Toni, maybe I'd get, but not Ana."

She shrugged. "I can't explain people's behavior. But, I've been Ana long as I can remember. I can guess they didn't want to call me Toni when I was younger because I was named after my father. First born in his family are always Anthony. My dad was always Tony. When I was born, I obviously couldn't be an Anthony, so I became Antonia."

"I guess that makes sense. Don't ask me to remember that surname of yours," he said with a chuckle.

"It's not that hard." She stuck her tongue out at him. "What's yours, anyway, you didn't tell me?"

"Lewelyan, it's Lewelyan."

Her brow furrowed. "But that's ..." she trailed off and stared at him.

"You lied to me," she said in a huff.

He frowned. "Lied to you? We've known one another twenty minutes, tops."

"You said you were nobody! You're the baron's son. His real son."

"I was, now I'm simple a prisoner in a cell, just as you are. If I don't dance to Campbell's tune, I die, same as everyone else."

She stared at him. "He called you brother earlier."

Codey nodded. "Half, actually. Same father. So, you see, he is also the baron's real son. I may be the rightful heir, but that matters for little when I hold none of the power. Campbell is in charge, not I. There is nothing I can do for anyone. Not now. Not ever again. The only thing I can do is play his games until he decides he's done and ends it."

"That's ... pathetic."

He shrugged. "It's all I've got. Now, we have exactly two days to get to know one another enough to feign a loving relationship Lettie will buy. I suggest we get to it. You grew up here?"

She nodded. "Yes, born and raised."

"Did you lose anyone in the massacre?"

"My eldest brother. My uncle on my father's side and his entire family. My aunt on my mother's side, though her husband and daughter lived, they left the village afterward. Couldn't stand to remain here. My father said this was home and we weren't leaving. He died four years later when he stood up to the baron's men and they beat him to death."

Codey wanted to weep at all the pain his brother had caused. Too much, all in the pursuit of power. It was a brutal cycle. His mother had been hurt by their father, she sought revenge, Codey's mother and father were killed as a result. Campbell's mother lost her mind when she realized the man she loved was gone because of her need for revenge. Her son became a monster, causing more pain in his pursuit of revenge against their now dead father and the king who protected him. A vicious, never ending, cycle of pain, revenge, and death.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

"You lost your parents, too."

He nodded. They both remained silent for a long while.