Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
W hile Drake was sleeping, I headed across the room to leave, knowing now was as good a time as any to start my hunt for evidence against Magdor.
I gripped the door handle, my sole purpose for living now seeming to thump inside my veins.
Protect Osaria. Stop the pageant. Save the princess.
“Where are you going?” Kyra called and I blinked out of my focused state, glancing back at her where she sat crossed legged on the coffee table, her skirt hiked up around her thighs and her feet bare.
My lips parted on any number of things that I might have been able to say about propriety or the way upper Fae tended to present themselves, but as she tilted her head at me with a na?ve kind of innocence in her eyes, I found myself holding my tongue.
I didn’t get the feeling my advice would make much difference where she was concerned anyway, and Drake seemed content for her to behave as she liked.
I had my hands full trying to form him into some semblance of a respectable man, and I couldn’t take on the task of taming a mystical creature too.
“For a walk,” I answered her question somewhat lamely.
“Ooh, can I come?” she asked, her eyes so bright they actually shone for a moment.
If anyone looked too closely at her, they might notice things like that.
How there was something so captivatingly magical about her which meant she simply couldn't be a normal Fae. I knew Drake was against confining her to the coin, but I was starting to think it would be best if she at least remained in these rooms. There was no denying that she was a beautiful woman – or at least, she took the form of one - and I very much doubted she would be able to get far without drawing the eye of one man or another. It would only take one small slip for someone to notice something wasn’t right with her.
“Sorry, Kyra, it's too risky. I need you to stay here.”
Her expression fell and I glanced towards Drake's door, wondering how much longer he might sleep.
“But you have the very important task of protecting your master while I'm gone.”
“I do?” she breathed, and I nodded.
“Yes, don't let anyone put snakes in his bed,” I said with a small smile, and she nodded firmly, hurrying to sit in front of his door.
“No snakes,” she said seriously.
In all fairness, if I'd been a servant on the receiving end of some nobleman's fury, I might have been tempted to shove a snake into his sheets.
I'd often been tempted to do shit like that to my former captain.
But that wasn't the way of guards. Those urges had been stifled, repressed, and beaten out of me.
Propriety, respect, and a ferocious protection of the Lunarelle royals was all I knew.
Yet I was now a fugitive keeping the company of a thief.
I had a hand in deceiving Princess Austyn into believing that Drake was an apt suitor, but it wasn't like he'd win the pageant.
It was all in the interest of saving her father, getting the kingdom back in order and on its way to greatness again.
I ran my hand over the stolen scimitar at my hip.
Who are you kidding? You're as bad as Drake now.
No, I'll return it.
Later.
There was something running through my blood, keen and unknown. A thrill I couldn't shake.
Why does it feel so fucking good to forgo the rules sometimes?
I stepped into the immaculate corridor, laying my faith in Kyra's disguise to keep me safe from recognition.
I headed along the hallways I knew so well, passing by servants as they brought food to the suitors' chambers.
They paid me little attention as I increased my pace, heading towards the east of the palace where the royal quarters were.
Magdor had her own special quarters in the east tower, like a crow in a nest. The previous empress had never asked for such a thing so why was I the only one who thought that was suspicious?
I didn't know how I'd get dirt on her just yet, but I knew I had to. I had to catch her at her vile witchery. But then what?
Think, Cassius, think.
I reached the arching doorway which led to the eastern halls but found my way blocked by two guards that I knew.
Rakus and Fikel. I'd trained with them, we'd stood beside each other for hours on end during our shifts and yet we'd barely shared any words beyond observations on the weather, current affairs, and comments on our training.
How was it that I'd spent so many years in the company of these men, and I suddenly felt like I didn't know them at all?
My heart pounded as their gaze fell on me, but no recognition flashed through their eyes.
Thank you, magic girl.
I drew my shoulders back, marching towards them with every ounce of confidence that had been instilled in me during my years as one of them.
I'm still one of them, dammit.
“Good afternoon,” I greeted them.
No response.
“I was getting to know the palace and thought I might take my liege on a tour this afternoon,” I said, flashing them a smile I hoped might help them soften to me. It didn't.
“No one but the Osarian staff are allowed through these doors during the pageant,” Rakus growled, his eyes darkening with a warning.
I wasn't getting past them. I'd been in their position before. If anyone tried to break the rules we were ordered to enforce, we were allowed to intervene with our blades.
“That's a shame. Good day to you.” I turned right, heading out onto a large balcony which overlooked the gardens. It was quiet, sheltered by several potted palms and a red silk awning that offered some shade from the blazing sun.
I clutched the railing, staring across the grounds I knew so well. Every path, every shadow was my domain. I'd watched over it all for so many years and now I was outcast from that life.
“-no matter what he looks like,” a female voice reached my ears.
“I'm not sure we can call him the gargoyle anymore. He's rather handsome,” another woman replied.
I shifted to the edge of the balcony, glancing back towards the corridor I'd vacated, but the guards didn't have a view of me here.
“Magdor is despicable. How could she bring magic into the palace so freely?” the first spoke again.
My heart hammered as their voices drifted out of reach. What was I overhearing? Two maids discussing Magdor and magic? What if they knew something I didn't? Something about the emperor? What if they suspected what I did?
I threw caution to the wind, leaning over the side of the balcony and spotting a narrow ledge jutting from the wall beneath the line of windows. I tried to work out which rooms lay at this side of the castle and realised I was next to the princess’s quarters.
I threw my leg over the railing and excitement pounded through my blood as I lowered myself onto the narrow ledge.
I crept along it, pressing myself flush to the cool stone wall as I moved, knowing if I was caught the consequences would be dire.
But why come here at all if I wasn’t going to risk everything to prove Magdor’s crimes?
A row of windowsills ran above me, and I reached up to grip onto one, taking in a slow breath.
I'm dead if someone spots me here.
Fuck it, keep going.
I carefully traversed the ledge, side-stepping until the voices reached me again.
“She thinks I don't know what she's up to,” a female voice hissed. “But I know she's controlling my father. She has to be.”
I nearly lost my grip on the window and my stomach swooped as I scrambled to keep myself in place.
By the Fallen, that wasn't just some servant girl speaking, it was the princess herself.
My eyes shot up to the cracked open window just above my head. If I straightened, I could peer in. But that made me all kinds of a lech. Then again...she had been Unveiled already. And I'd seen her before anyway...
The beast in me roused, a hungry devilish thing that crept into every part of my being and urged me on.
I straightened so I could look in, my pulse drumming solidly in my ears as I made that decision as if I had a right to.
Her back was to me and she wore a thin pink night gown, her silver hair woven into a long braid down her spine. Her attendant, Zira, was fussing about with her makeup but I could only focus on the woman in the room who owned every fibre in my flesh.
My heart rioted in my chest and adrenaline poured through my veins like liquid fire.
I needed to stop, but I simply couldn’t look away.
“If she’s got some Prophet offering her potions, what’s to say she hasn’t used one of them on my father?” Austyn growled.
“You think she’s controlling him with magic?” Zira gasped.
“I don’t know…maybe I shouldn’t have said anything,” Austyn said, a note of fear in her voice.
“You know you can trust me,” Zira swore. “I’d never tell anyone anything you told me.”
Austyn sighed. “Of course, I’m sorry. I know I can trust you. So…it’s a possibility, isn’t it? After what she did to Kahn, who knows what other kind of potions she’s been feeding people,” she said. “My father hasn’t been the same since she arrived. You have to admit it makes sense.”
My heart beat powerfully beneath my ribs as I felt like very wild thought I’d had about Magdor was finally validated. I’d questioned myself endless times, I’d driven myself mad thinking about this very thing, and now I was actually hearing my thoughts echoed by the princess herself.
Austyn held her suspicions about Magdor, and she was trying to work it out too.
I supposed it could be possible that Magdor was outsourcing her powers, bringing elixirs or ingredients into the palace for her vile spells.
If that was the case, perhaps she had people helping her.
Perhaps my own guardsmen had been working to assist her, or the maids walking these halls were in her pocket.
“Austyn,” Zira sighed. “That’s a big accusation.”
“But what if it’s true?” Austyn pressed and I clenched my teeth, wishing I could storm in there and present all the suspicions I had too.
“How could you possibly prove it?” Zira whispered.