When Iris apologized again, Caspian shook his head. He did wish she’d spoken to him instead of taking matters into her own hands, but right now, he didn’t want her to feel guilty about it when they’d found their way back to each other. That was all he cared about. The path to get there had been messy, but now that she was here again, they could move forward together. The rest, they could figure out along the way.

[color=#b97703]“I am,”[/color] he nodded, holding her gaze earnestly. He could see in her eyes that she didn’t believe him. The uncertainty on her face stung a little, since he did mean what he was saying to her. He wanted to forgive and forget and pick up where they’d left off before she had gone back to the districts. Maybe she would say it was naive to try and move on just like that, and maybe it wasn’t going to be as easy as he was hoping, but after everything he’d been through recently, he didn’t have the capacity to really sit down and process what things were going to look like between them going forward. He just needed her to know his intentions.

As she laid her hands over his, Cas turned his palms over to take them, stroking his thumbs gently against her skin. Her touch was comforting, and he could feel warmth spread through him as they held each other. Even though there were going to be challenges ahead, he was glad she was back. And apparently, she’d returned with useful information about the rebels too. His brows arched in surprise when she told him she had a possible lead to their hideout. [color=#b97703]“Really?”[/color] He gawked. [color=#b97703]“My team’s been looking for two days, and they haven’t turned up anything.”[/color]

If she could even help them narrow down their search parameters, it would have been impressive. The rebels were getting better at hiding under the soldiers’ noses, and he was starting to suspect that they had at least one point of intelligence within the capital’s military. He wasn’t sure what to do about it yet, waffling between openly interrogating the soldiers for traitors and quietly sniffing out the double agents to use them against the Scourge, but either way, it was getting more difficult to weed out rebels in the city lately.

So, when Iris explained that she’d found evidence of the insurgents’ hideout, the king stared at her incredulously and then shook his head, running a hand over his hair. [color=#b97703]“Man, sometimes I forget you used to work with them,”[/color] he exhaled, meeting her gaze again more solemnly. [color=#b97703]“Whatever you think you know, you should pass along to the team in the kitchen. They can direct the men and women on the ground to check it out and see if you’re right about that location.”[/color]

It would be a good way to help convince the security team that Iris wasn’t a threat too, but before he could say so, he faltered when she suddenly asked about Raine. At the question, he winced slightly and averted his gaze. The Suphate princes was the elephant in the room, but he’d still been hoping not to talk about her.

[color=#b97703]“She’s, um… someone I was going to start courting,”[/color] he admitted under his breath. Forcing himself to look her in the eyes, he swallowed. [color=#b97703]“I thought you were dead for a long time, Iris. Now that I’ve taken over my dad’s position, people have been expecting me to find a queen, and there’s been pressure to restrengthen the royal line, and I thought…”[/color] Trailing off, he took a breath. [color=#b97703]“It doesn’t matter. Now that you’re back, I’m calling things off with her. I promise. You’re the one I want to be with, Iris.”[/color]