“Fuck.”
If the king escaped Sleep…
I threw open the door to my rooms and slammed it in my wake. “Fuck!”
Light spilled from the living room door and inside I found Kat curled up on the settee, eyes wide.
“What’re you still doing up?” Normally I managed to avoid being alone with her by returning from work so late.
She flinched at my tone, and maybe it was a little harsh, but my muscles were wound too tightly to speak any differently.
Eyebrows raised, she waved a book. “I hadn’t realised the time. Is that a problem?”
I made a low sound as I headed to my bedroom.
She had access to the library now. She could read all she wanted. It was fine.
Yet, the closer I got to the door, the tighter my jaw ratcheted. Gripping the handle, I blasted out a breath. “You couldn’t have just given me back the damn note, could you?”
It had chewed at me all the way back from the hidden courtyard. The message that had been hidden in my orrery—the one I’d risked leaving Riverton Palace for the night she’d robbed me—must have contained something about this thing that would cure the Sleep.
I shook my head, teeth grinding. “You might’ve screwed us all by burning it.” And it would be my fault for letting her take it and not getting it back sooner. I’d been so confident I could lure her into returning the orrery—and I had. But not quickly enough.
Even now, when I turned and found her wide eyes on me, the green so rich I could pick out the colour from here, I was a fool for her.
A damn fool.
“I…” She shook her head, eyelids fluttering. “I didn’t.”
She’d lied.
My stomach sank. “So you gave it to him.” Of course she did. She had been working for him.
That was worse. So much worse. UnCavendish might’ve had more information than I’d ever realised. I should’ve kept him alive for questioning.
But seeing him stand over Kat as she lay dying…
Madness had gripped me.
And because of that, because of a beautiful woman who’d been sent to seduce and spy on me, I risked failing my queen and court—my entire country.
“I suppose you told him about my other self, too.”
She’d left that out of her report, but couldn’t humans lie? I’d been so ready to believe her, I hadn’t questioned the answers she’d given at her debriefing.
Stiffening as if suddenly understanding who I was referring to, she stood and tossed the book on the settee. “No, and also no.” Her delicate nostrils flared and her eyes blazed like gemstones catching the light. “I may not have trusted you to keep my court safe, but by the time I got your orrery open, I didn’t trust unCavendish either.”
Her jaw worked side to side, and the hard pounding of my heart kept me quiet. I didn’t trust myself to speak or move—I might erupt and say something I truly regretted. Even if she hadn’t given the note to unCavendish, she… I… we might’ve doomed us all.
“You want the damn thing so badly. Fine.” She blasted past me, flinging the door open.
I sucked in long breaths in an attempt to regain control of myself. The thud and clatter of her crashing around her room echoed back along the corridor.
She’d been too much of a distraction in Lunden. I’d focused on her, telling myself it was work, when I should’ve paid more attention to the Dawn delegation.
She came stomping down the corridor and stopped in the doorway, mouth pinched. “I may have spied on you, Bastian, but I told you—it became real for me. I changed my mind.” For a second, her voice wavered. “That was why I protected you in this.” She shoved my orrery at me.
The contact with her skin rocked through me, our magic searing then sweet.
I held my breath against a reaction, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the shudder that ran through her.
Instead of looking like she enjoyed it, she screwed her eyes shut and scowled, like she would burn the magic out of her body if she could. I knew it was a pleasurable feeling for her as it was for me, after the pain—I’d seen her pupils blow wide, the flush on her skin.
But tonight, it was as though I was the poison and not the antidote.
“I always kept what was yours—what was personal.” Possibly oblivious to the fact our hands were still entwined, she glared up at me, yet her chin trembled. “I haven’t told a soul about your second self, just like I’d never tell anyone about your nightmares.”
Her words were a series of punches I hadn’t braced for. She knew more about me than I’d truly appreciated, and when she’d recited her conversations with unCavendish, she hadn’t mentioned any of it—not anything important.
The hard edges in me melted as my shoulders sank.
She might’ve taken the note, but that was as much my fault as hers. In truth, I was a hundred times more angry at myself than I could ever be at her.
She gave a shove before pulling her hand away.
I blinked down at my orrery, which was only half-closed. A crumpled piece of paper fell out.
The note.
She’d kept it, along with my secrets.
Of course she had.
“Shit. Kat, I’m—”
But when I looked up, she was gone.
15
Kat
Yesterday had been doubly bad. First my appointment with Elthea had been nothing more than a checkup, taking my temperature, listening to my heartbeat—that sort of thing. No cure.
Then… Well, whatever the fuck that had been last night.
Bastian truly thought so little of me that he believed I’d given unCavendish his secrets.
I stewed over the way he’d spoken to me as I got ready for another day trawling around jewellers. We would come back here for lunch, when I’d have to see Bastian for my antidote, but otherwise I could avoid him. As I smiled at that and slid a star-shaped comb into my hair, a knock sounded at the door to the suite.
Urien, the same dour guard who’d stopped me getting to Bastian’s apartments back in Riverton Palace, appeared with a chest—my chest. How had that got here from Albion?
“There’s a seal on it,” he said as he set it down. “It can only be opened by the owner. No one’s gone through it.” With a nod, he slipped out just as brusquely.
Sure enough, magic hummed under my fingertips when I touched the lid, and it opened with ease. On top of my belongings sat a note with Katherine in handwriting that made my eyes sting.
“Ella!” I tore the seal apart and perched on the arm of the settee to read the letter.
My dear friend,
You certainly know how to make an exit, don’t you?! Lords and Ladies, you almost gave me a damn heart attack. Kindly don’t do that again.
Asher has told me what happened with the mead and “Cavendish.” I feel sick for you and for myself. But I shouldn’t write too much in here, just in case it falls into the wrong hands. Asher assures me no one else will be able to open this chest, but I’m not sure how much I trust in fae magic.