It was clever of him.
I will be awaiting your arrival. It has been too long, Sister. We have much to discuss, and I have missed you. Until we meet again soon,
Radu Bey
His handwriting, always elegant and meticulous, wobbled a bit around the words I have missed you. Was it because he was lying? Or because he was admitting a difficult truth?
Lada passed the letter to Nicolae and began pacing.
“Interesting,” he said upon finishing. “Far more civil than I expected, to be honest. Perhaps the little zealot still holds some affection for you, even now.”
Lada did not react, suspecting Nicolae was baiting her again.
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
“I will meet my brother.”
“And will you accept new terms? Between your brother’s influence and the sultan’s leniency, I think we can secure the greatest terms Wallachia has ever had.” Nicolae sounded excited, his words rushing together. He had suggested the same thing in her rooms. This letter was proof that his ideas were correct. “Everything you have worked for will be rewarded. And all your people will benefit.”
Lada smiled, twisting her dagger to catch the light. “I will meet Radu. And I will bring him home.”
Nicolae sounded significantly less excited and far warier. “He said nothing about coming back to Tirgoviste.”
“No, he will not wish to.” Her grin spread. “We are going to kidnap my brother.”
“What?” Bogdan asked. “Why?”
Because he should have been hers regardless.
Because she missed him, and she hated him for that.
Because Bogdan wanted more than she could ever give him. Because she mistrusted Stefan. Because Nicolae’s questions festered under her skin. Because Petru, young and thickheaded but hers, was dead, killed by the boyars she had then eliminated in the dining room of this very castle. Because even after all this, she knew in the blood that flowed through her veins that she could trust Radu.
And because…Nicolae had been right. Lada was trying to pick a fight with Mehmed, even if she had not realized it before. She was not doing it for Wallachia. She did it for herself. For everything he had been to her. For all the ways he had failed her. She had Wallachia, and she would do everything she could to protect it, but she wanted to punish Mehmed. Kidnapping Radu—taking back the first, and the last, thing Mehmed had taken from her—might be enough to make him come to her when tens of thousands of bodies had not.
Just three bodies mattered. The same three that had always mattered.
Radu’s.
Lada’s.
And Mehmed’s.
Bursa
RADU COULD NOT GET off the boat fast enough. For once it was not because he was sick, but because of who was waiting for him. He had been at the bow, searching the horizon since dawn. As soon as he saw Bursa in the distance, it was all he could do not to jump out and swim. Knowing he would be far slower than the boat kept him onboard.
They drew closer, alongside the city—one he had visited with Nazira, before Constantinople—and the wind whipped at Radu’s face, as frenzied as his anticipation. Finally, they approached the dock.
Radu saw a familiar figure, as bright and welcome as spring.
He jumped over the side of the boat, landing hard on the dock. Nazira met him halfway. He threw his arms around her, lifting her off the ground and spinning her in a circle. He did not know whether he was laughing or crying. After a few minutes of embracing, Radu released her. He cupped her face in his hands and studied it. She was browner than she had been—evidence of more time in the sun than usual—and her clothes were in colors she would never have picked out for herself, but she looked healthy. There were no haunted hollows beneath her eyes, no suppressed terrors in the full sweet circle of her lips.
“Nazira, I—”
She put one hand over his mouth. “Please do not apologize. I know you. You have probably carried nothing but guilt all these months, tearing yourself apart. But you did it. You got us out safely. We survived, which means we are alive to heal and grow.”
Radu sighed, hanging his head and shifting her hand so it rested on his cheek. “The whole time we were in Constantinople together, that was my only prayer. That whatever else happened, you would be safe.”