The Edge (Book 5 of The Claiming Series)

Chapter Fourteen

"I think our best course of action is to start by sending a message to Bayfell. Something that calls for peace—no, something that demands peace," Eli says. "I'm done trying to fight this."

"Are you insane?" Charlie snaps. He's lying on the sofa in the study that Eli and I share, his arms crossed over his face. "They nearly killed you... and killed many of us. No more playing nice."

Eris sits at the end of the sofa, Charlie's feet in her lap. She fiddles with the laces of his shoes. "I'm with Charlie on this one. They pose a huge risk to our kingdom."

I sit across the room from Eli's desk, behind my own, on the ledge of the open window to the study, a curved, arching window that slides up only halfway. In most homes of New Athens, screens protect children from falling out any open windows, but the Summer Palace never had such precautions. The windows are real glass—just another minute status detail that I've noticed since living here. The study is on the second floor of the palace, peering over the west side, toward the hill down to the river, the trees barely blocking where Eli and I used to play as children.

Where we met in secret not so long ago.

"Mave?"

I flinch, grabbing ahold of the ledge and feeling my stomach flip at the sudden thought of falling head-first out the window.

But I sit up straight instead and face my company. Eli's looking at me expectantly, like he just asked me a question.

"Huh?"

"What do you think?" he says.

I sigh and lean my head back against the window frame. "Well, we've already tried peace in the past. I would honestly like to look more into Ruth's idea of having someone on the inside. It'd be a good place to start strategizing."

Eli's face falls. He folds his arms on his desk, doubles over, and hides his face in them. "It just seems too risky. What if said person gets killed if they're found out?"

"Regardless, we're going to war," I say.

Eli sits up straight, his gaze snapping to me. "That's not decided yet."

"It's inevitable. This is Bayfell we're talking about."

Charlie and Eris glance back and forth from Eli to me like they're watching a tennis match. Oliver stands by the door to the study, his hands behind his back, staring at nothing in particular on the wall that takes up the distance between Eli and me.

I look at him. "What do you think, Oliver?"

"Why are you asking him?" Eli says, his voice snapping just a little too loud.

I glare at my husband. "He was an attendant as well as my guard while you were away. I value his opinion just as much as Charlie's and Eris's. You've reinstated him, haven't you?"

"Not as an attendant," Eli says.

I roll my eyes but stop myself from further pushing for Oliver's opinion. "Never mind, then," I mumble under my breath.

"Hey, Mave?" Eris says, her voice small and timid all of a sudden.

"Yeah?"

She's looking at the clock over the door to the study. "You have a checkup with Dr. Reeve in a few minutes."

I groan and stand up from my perch on the ledge. "Right. Almost forgot." I shut the window. When I turn to see if Eli wants to come, he's buried deep in his work once again. I can almost see the gears turning in his mind as the words fly across his eyes on each document set before him. He taps the tip of his pen against the desk's surface.