Chapter Forty-One
Valeris
I didn’t leave my room the next day. Not the smartest play on my part, but I didn’t have the desire or energy to interact with anyone.
Ezrielle had stolen my victory at the puzzle ball.
If I had been more careful, Analleia and I wouldn’t have both gotten stuck inside the tunnel. I was smarter than that.
My loss last night all but eradicated my chance of wearing the crown, but I refused to lose hope. If I knew Ezrielle, she had more up her sleeve, other plans. I needed dirt on her—and fast.
I’d underestimated her abilities; rather, I’d underestimated my father’s faith in her.
It was hard to fathom he would even consider letting her sit on the throne, but he knew how cunning she was.
How manipulative and crafty she had become in her deceit.
My own foolish jesting had failed to anticipate her as such a threat.
A knock came at the door.
“Go away,” I called.
They entered anyway. I recognized my uncle’s silhouette out of the corner of my eye but refused to acknowledge him.
“Valeris?”
I sighed. “Was go away not instruction enough? Let me phrase it another way: Don’t come in. Leave me alone. I do not wish to be disturbed. Understood?”
He matched my sigh. “Your cocky attitude will be the death of you one day, Valeris.”
The word cocky resurfaced unwanted memories from the ball, and I shoved them down along with Analleia’s voice, reaching a new level of irritation. I rose from my chair. “You know, I’m running out of ways of getting the point across—”
“I’m both your uncle and your elder, boy,” he interrupted. “I don’t care if you’re the lord over a hundred kingdoms—you’re not going to speak to me like that.”
“Just wait until I’m king.”
He chuckled. “But that’s the issue isn’t it, Valeris? You’re not king. And you’re not any closer after last night.”
I scowled and shoved a finger at him. “That was Ezrielle’s doing.”
“Which is why I’m here.”
I flopped back into the chair, propping my feet up on the desk. “Well, unless you have some good dirt on her, I’m afraid I’m not interested and will have to refer to the statement I already made several times earlier. If you’ve already forgotten, the phrase was get out.”
“Enter a role of leadership with that attitude and the people will destroy you in less than a year. Lose the act and the sulking and behave like an adult. The world doesn’t revolve around you.”
My jaw ticked. I didn’t like the way his words sliced through me.
He continued, “Ezrielle is up to something.”
“Yes, I already know that, in fact—”
“Quiet, Valeris. I’ve never dealt with someone who liked to hear themselves talk so much.”
I glared up at him. Everyone else had let me sulk, why wouldn’t he?
“I checked the registry,” he started again. “She’s leaving palace grounds tonight, staying somewhere in the city. If you want to search her rooms without being caught, tonight is your best bet to do it.”
I let a smile slip through my sour extorter.
It was the perfect opportunity.
Too good of a chance to pass up.
This was why my uncle could say whatever he wanted to me and get away with it.
––––––––
I TOLD ANALLEIA TO meet me on the rooftop of the palace after dark.
Ordered, really.
I didn’t need her. I could do it alone—at least that’s what I kept telling myself as I scribbled out the missive my page delivered to her—but I needed her expertise.
This mission had a higher chance of success by including her, which probably held more truth than I wanted to admit.
In reality, I should push her as far away as I possibly could.
Part of my foul mood was rooted in the fact I had never spoken about my family’s dysfunctional dynamics to anyone, and the way I had laid it all out for her scared me.
She had given me no reason to trust her, yet in her presence the words had come pouring out of my mouth unbidden.
That was dangerous.
“I thought you wanted me to go home.”
I spun. Darkness cloaked her like magic, camouflaging her in the night. Her long white-blond hair was pulled into a loose ponytail that spilled down her back, and her bright blue eyes bore into mine, piercing. Threatening. Captivating.
It took me a moment to respond. “That was yesterday,” I snapped, trying to bring myself back into focus. “We have less than a week before the finale.”
She quirked an eyebrow.
“Ezrielle is out tonight,” I said. “I need to search her rooms for evidence to use against her.” I peered over the edge of the roof. “How did you get into her suite?”
Analleia took a hesitant step closer, looking over the ledge with me. Apprehension clouded her face.
She was afraid to do this.
“That’s not the easiest—or the safest—way to sneak in,” she said. “Why not go in through the royal apartments?”
Because that route was less exciting, and I had a feeling Ezrielle would have bribed some of the guards to keep an eye on her room.
“This is the only way we won’t be noticed,” I said.
A slight tremor shook her hands. “Let’s go through your room, then. It’s less climbing, which means lower chances of being seen. Or falling.”
I frowned. Why was she bothered by this? She had done it before, and the tower wall we’d scaled last night had been much higher than this one. My eyes flicked to where I’d wrapped her wound.
“Is it your shoulder?” I asked.
Her lips thinned. “I’m fine, but there isn’t a large lip on this one. Are you sure you want to come?”
I straightened with offense, both at her insinuation and lack of answer to my question. “Why wouldn’t I?”
She rolled her eyes. “Because I don’t think you realize how difficult it will be.”
I harrumphed, taking off my cloak and handing it to her as I led the way back to the royal apartments. “I don’t want any of the soldiers gossiping.”
More than I’m sure they already had.
She frowned, and I watched a blush stain her cheeks before she pulled the hood over her head. The same blush from when I’d nearly kissed her in the damp tunnel.
I nodded to the outer guards as we passed through the doors.
They acted like they weren’t paying any attention to us at all, but I caught both trying to peek underneath Analleia’s cloak as we swept past them.
Gossips never slept here. Information and secrets made up the highest form of currency even among the royal guards.
Shadows painted the hallway, collecting in the crevices and corners like forgotten items. The silence of the corridor unnerved me, the lack of noise resulting in a buzz that filled my ears.
No soldiers milled about, although twenty would come running if I called.
Howland was in the retiring room across from mine, asleep for once in his life.
I wasn’t quite sure how I had managed to sneak out without him knowing—twice.
He seemed to sense my movements and intentions in his dreams.
Analleia pulled her cloak down farther, a question hanging in her gaze as she surveyed the emptiness around us. “Shouldn’t we at least try her door first before we dangle above the abyss?”
I hesitated, then nodded to the right, leading her through the darkness to Ezrielle’s door. The golden knob resisted the push of my hand, rejecting me.
A snarl curled across my lip, a curse on the tip of my tongue.
Analleia elbowed me out of the way, slipping something from her hair as she squatted down in front of the lock, fiddling a small hairpin inside.
I rolled my eyes. These were the royal apartments of Paravellia.
If she thought she could break into the room with a little—
The lock clicked, the door swinging inward to reveal a dim room.
My jaw went slack.
That should not have been possible.
Analleia smirked up at me as if sensing my shock.
I eased the door open, ushering her in before closing and locking it behind us.
It had been years since I’d entered Ezrielle’s apartments, and the last memory of being in here as a child, with my uncle and the constable, was not fond. My hands tightened into fists, my breathing picking up.
Sheer lace and exotic prints overpowered the room, intertwining into the most extravagant array of interior design I had ever seen. Ezrielle knew how to spend money—and she was good at it.
“Where should we begin?” Analleia whispered.
“Everywhere.”
I strode over to the desk, rifling through the papers and various powders scattered across its surface.
Seamstress. Cobbler. Perfumes. A list probably consisting of every diplomat she had slept with since the Paravellian Balls started and what she had gained from each of them.
Appointments. Nothing out of the ordinary.
I opened drawers, looking for what, I wasn’t sure.
My fingers crept along the edge of the wooden desk, seeking out any hidden mechanisms that would grant entrance to an invisible pocket.
I came up empty.
I resisted shoving everything onto the floor. Walking out of here without leverage was not an option.
I flew through the room, begrudgingly making sure everything was returned to its original position and place instead of ransacking it. Ezrielle collected a lot of interesting things, but nothing that equaled blackmail.
“Come on,” I muttered to myself, pulling out each book from the bookshelf to check for papers slipped between the titles.
The books she collected weren’t helpful either.
Nothing to point me in the right direction.
I pulled out a book on advanced mathematics and a small painting stroked onto aged paper floated to the desk.
I picked it up with careful hands. Ezrielle and my second-eldest sister, Evonnora, smiled back at me, Ezrielle a child at the time and Evonnora unmarried.
I had been too young to notice much, but my uncle had said the two sisters had been close at one point.
It was hard to imagine Ezrielle close with anyone, let alone any of our siblings.
Perhaps she’d forgotten she had shoved the painting there.
I doubted she found mathematics to be very interesting.
“Valeris.”
Analleia’s voice came out as an urgent whisper.
I strode across the room, faltering when I saw the hidden compartment she had found in the wall, marked by a design but expertly hidden within the matching stones.
A letter extended from her hand. I took it, my eyes scanning it quickly.
She peered up at me. “It’s a coronation speech.”
And full of the greatest nonsense I had ever seen. She was already planning her own coronation. I tilted my head, reading one of the sentences over again.
Our country reels from this tragedy, torn from end to end, my only hope is we will be able to unite again, bring our severed souls together. Let there be no more warring, no more bloodshed. Come to me, and I will hear you out. Bring me your burdens.
“What tragedy?” Analleia asked.
I scanned the rest of the letter, failing to find mention of whatever disaster she was referring to. I set it back inside the safe, closing the door after ensuring there was nothing of interest left to see.
Analleia moved on to the other room, continuing to search. Whatever Ezrielle was up to was nasty.
She may be a conniving hypocrite, but I had never dreamed she was downright sinister. What tragedy did she plan to enact?
A set of footsteps approached from down the hall and stopped in front of the door.
I heard the metal click of a key inside the lock.
And watched the handle turn.