Chapter 97 What If It's Not Enough?

Chapter 97 What If It's Not Enough?
Liam's POV

Kiara's laughter filled the corridor as I stepped in from my morning workout.

‘What on earth is she doing with Mrs. Fernworth and the servants?’

She stood in the middle of four maids, a length of ivory fabric draped over one arm, gesturing at something on the table with her free hand. Mrs. Fernworth was beside her with a look I could only describe as quietly devoted, and the maids were laughing like they had not a care in the world.

She was pointing at two fabric samples and saying something I couldn't catch from where I stood.

‘She's really something.’ I watched a moment longer than I needed to, then kept moving.



Cam looked worse in daylight.

The bruising had spread overnight, deeper, darker, climbing from his temple down the left side of his jaw. Roman had hit him considerably harder than I'd appreciated in the chaos of last night.

The physician stepped back as I entered and bowed.

"How is he?" I asked.

"Improving. He should remain resting for–"

"I slept four hours," Cam cut in. "Four. And you're still telling me to rest. Please, for what exactly?"

"Calm down. It's for your own good." I rubbed his shoulder briefly. "You don't want people asking questions about your face, do you?"

He gave me a look that would have landed harder if one of his eyes wasn't swollen shut. "Not at all."

I pulled the chair from the corner and sat. "You did well last night."

The irritation shifted. Something quieter replaced it.

"I didn't do much," he said. "He caught me off guard."

"You did more than enough. You always do." I held his gaze. "I won't forget it."

He was quiet for a moment. Then, with the blunt honesty that made him both useful and occasionally exhausting: "I would lay my life down for you. That's not a figure of speech. I need you to know that."

The words landed in my chest with the particular weight of things you already knew but hadn't heard said plainly.

"I know," I said. "I don't take it lightly."

He nodded.

"Roman?" he asked.

"Lower floors. No one accesses that level without my authorization."

"Has he been receiving treatment?"

I glanced at the physician, who straightened immediately. "His condition is critical, my Alpha. The injuries sustained were severe but–"

"Will he live?" I asked.

"Yes. With time."

"Good." I turned back to Cam. "He needs to be alive and coherent enough to answer questions."

The unswollen side of Cam's mouth curved slightly. "You nearly made that impossible."

"It took considerably more restraint than I care to admit," I said. "Leaving him breathing."

"I noticed." He shifted and winced. "What about Tiara?"

The name landed in the room like something dropped into still water.

Cam's expression told me he had been thinking about this already and hadn't arrived anywhere comfortable.

"She'll know Roman is gone," he said.

"She'll assume," I said. "Knowing is different." I moved toward the door. "I'll handle Tiara."

"My Alpha." He stopped me with his voice. "Be careful with that one. She's cornered and she knows something is wrong. Cornered is when people become most dangerous."

I looked back at him.

"I know. Rest."



I had a meeting in twenty minutes and enough time to stop at Tiara's room first.

The door was already open when I got there.

Two voices inside. I stopped just outside the frame.

I heard Kiara's voice first, even and measured. Then Tiara's, carrying the particular edge of someone who had already decided to be angry before the conversation started.

I stepped into the doorway and stayed there. Neither of them looked at me.

Blood twin sisters with opposite lives and entirely opposite choices.

"How are you feeling?" Kiara was saying.

Tiara sat in the chair by the window, arms crossed, expression doing several things at once. "Is this a joke? Did you invite me here to make sport of me? To sit there with that face and pretend to ask how I feel?"

"I invited you," Kiara said, "because I'm the Luna and it would look strange if I didn't. So you're going to sit there and have this conversation because the alternative is giving people something to talk about." A pause. "And we both know how much you hate giving people something to talk about."

Tiara's jaw tightened.

"I can have you removed at any time," Kiara continued pleasantly. "From this room, from this palace, from any room I choose. You know that. I know that." She tilted her head. "So let's not pretend this is something it isn't. I'm asking how you feel as a courtesy."

"Go to hell," Tiara said.

"That's not an answer but I'll take it." Kiara folded her hands in her lap. "You should enjoy the next few days. The coronation will be beautiful."

Tiara looked at her and smiled slowly. "Enjoy your time," she said softly. "While you still have it. I bet you don't even know what's coming your way."

She stood, smoothed her skirt and turned toward the door.

She saw me.

Her expression hardened immediately.

"You tricked me," she said.

"I wrote you a letter," I said. "You came on your own accord."

She stared at me for a long moment, made a sharp sound under her breath and walked past, her footsteps hard on the stone.

I turned back into the room.

Kiara was still sitting with her hands folded, looking at the empty chair with an expression I couldn't read.

"She knows," she said, without looking up. "About Harlan's plan. Maybe not everything, but enough."

"She said as much herself just now."

Kiara's face tightened slightly with concern.

"You're a genius," I said.

"I'm managing suspicion around Roman's disappearance," she said. "It needed to look like business as usual." She paused. "How is Cam?"

"Uncomfortable and blaming the wall."

"And Roman?"

"Alive. Critical. Improving. The physician is doing everything he can." I crossed the room and sat beside her.

She nodded slowly. Then, quietly: "I'm scared, Liam."

I put my arm around her and she leaned into me without hesitation.

"We have Roman's confession," I said. "The weapons information. The letter with the ministers' seals. We have more than we've ever had."

"I know," she said. "I know all of that."

"But?"

"But Harlan has been doing this for years and we've been doing this for three days." She was quiet for a moment. "What if it's not enough?"

I looked at the empty chair by the window.

The coronation was days away. Harlan was still moving. Hirlon was somewhere in this city. Roman was in the lower floors and Tiara was loose in the corridors and the letter with the ministers' seals was still out there somewhere.

‘Can we actually do this?’

I pushed the thought down and held her tighter.

"We'll do what we can with what we have," I said.

She nodded against my shoulder.