21. Vesper
The dumpster was on the floor just above the guards’ quarters.
I didn’t let the irony get past me that the family thought less of the guards than they did their own trash. Or that they kept most of it inside until it was ready to be taken out to the landfill once a week.
Another thing about their image.
They didn’t want their trash to be seen by outsiders. They wanted everyone to see their picture-perfect palace and ignore the ugliness that lay rotting within.
Just like the princess. I paused after throwing the bird cage into the trash can along with the feathers. One of them got stuck to my uniform, and when I picked it up, the image of Aurelia’s troubled expression flashed across my mind.
I had never seen her act like she did. Even when I was trying to kill her.
She was unrestrained. Panicking. Upset.
Something told me it wasn’t just the bird that had made her like that, but maybe it was her breaking point.
Just another thing I shouldn’t be doing.
I shouldn’t have wandered up to her room to check on her. I should have been plotting how to kill her. Maybe that had been the plan at first, but when I heard her voice through the door, how angry and pained it sounded…something switched in me.
As days—no, hours—passed at Princess Aurelia’s side, the voice that reminded me to kill her became more like a whisper and the one that had me pitying her—it was like a siren.
“You did well.” An all-too-familiar voice came from my right.
With a sigh, I turned to face Cedar. Her back was against the far wall, her eyes watching the door to her right. Her arms were crossed over her chest, but there was something about the tenseness of her face that told me she was less relaxed than she’d like to show.
“Meaning we kept her from dying?” I asked and held the feather carefully in my palm.
Cedar’s eyes cut to mine, a small smirk playing at her lips. I hate that smirk.
“All you, friend,” she said. “But it’s not over.”
“And you know that how?” I asked and walked toward her. When I reached her, I looked out the open door and down the hallway. Not a soul in sight.
“Can’t tell you. But what I can tell you is that if you let this marriage happen, she’s going to die,” she said.
The seriousness of her threat caught me off guard, but there was another chill that ran through me when I thought about the possibility that the princess waiting up alone in her room would cease to exist.
“The prince doesn’t treat her well, but he would be stupid to kill her,” I muttered under my breath.
My heart sped up and panic had my chest tightening. Imagining the princess lying on the ground, cold, and covered in blood shouldn’t have been as hard as it was.
Fuck. Damn it…What’s wrong with me?
“The prince isn’t capable of killing her,” she said. “It’s closer to her than that.”
Slowly, I turned to face her. Witches are dangerous. I’d known that the entire time I worked with them…but never met one with as much power as she seemed to have.
“If you won’t tell me how you know, then at least tell me what,” I said.
Her eyes shot to the side, apprehension flashing across her features.
“He wasn’t smart enough to come up with the idea to off her, but there are people beside her who were. People who hate her. And because of them, she will be blamed for something the prince will do. He will use her as a scapegoat.”
Was that why he was meeting with her…stepsister? I wouldn’t put it past them, but even that seemed cruel of them.
“You’re a seer,” I said. “That’s how you know all this.”
She rolled her eyes and let out a huff.
“Okay, I get it, you don’t want to save the princess,” she said, her tone annoyed. “But you will regret it if you don’t.”
“How do I even know you’re telling the truth?” I asked, shifting closer to her. “What if this is you just trying to get me killed so you’re the one who can off her yourself?”
She shook her head and gave me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. Heat raced through me and up my neck. I hissed and sent her a glare.
Fuck her and her fucking magic.If I ever got back to my washed-up town, the first stop would be the bar to ask about why the hell Cedar’s magic was as painful and potent as it was.
“Don’t want the princess getting a look at that before it’s time,” she said before pausing, a contemplative look crossing her face. “She was never my job, Vesper.”
Just as she was about to leave, I cleared my throat. She looked back at me with a questioning gaze.
I held up the lone feather for her.
“Given your immense powers, I think you can help me with this.”
A true smile spread across her face at my sarcasm-laced words.
“Oooh, now you’re just trying to butter me up,” she teased with a light laugh. “But it’ll work. I’m a sucker for compliments. Give me a little more, and I may just spill more about your girlfriend’s future.”
“So you are a seer,” I said as I dropped the feather carefully into her hands.
“You and I both know that I don’t need to be a seer to know the future.”
Her knowing look caused a shiver to run through me.
Aurelia was still where I left her.
I had almost expected her to vanish. Maybe have another tantrum in the fountain.
I would have much preferred that instead of the way she was crouched on the floor. Her hair fell from all sides. The all-black dress she wore earlier that day blended in with the darkness of the room.
It reminded me too much of a child trying to hide from the monsters in the dark. It was pitiful and made me feel things I shouldn’t.
I shouldn’t have wanted to comfort the princess. I shouldn’t have gone out of my way to throw away something that was causing her pain.
I want to save her.
I shouldn’t have come to see her in the first place.
“How did you know?” she asked from her crouched position.
“Know what?” I asked and stalked closer, scared that one wrong move might flip another switch in her. She seemed very much like a wounded animal at that moment. Scared, unable to move, and just waiting for her perfect chance to attack.
“You weren’t sent to give blood,” she said. “I never asked for you.”
She turned her head to the side, her bloodred eyes glowing in the darkness. Her face was stoic, but there was such a heaviness to the aura around her that no matter what mask she put on, the emotions she was feeling began to suffocate the room.
“Would you believe me if I told you I just had a feeling?” I asked. Her eyes narrowed.
I didn’t really understand it either, nor did I believe it was fate drawing me up those stairs. I’d like to believe it was some pattern my conscious mind didn’t fully recognize that had told my subconscious to get my ass upstairs before something bad happened.
But, in truth, I had no idea.
One moment I was sitting on my bed, decompressing after my shift, and the next I just felt the need to check up on the princess.
“If this is your way of telling me you’re in love with me, I’m not interested.”
Her bluntness caused a shocked laughter to spill from my lips.
“You’re going through a hard time,” I said, digging into my pocket for the magical item Cedar gave me. “The least you could do is tone down the attitude for, I dunno, a few minutes?”
I lifted it and showed it to her. The one bloodied feather clean and glowing slightly in the darkness. Cedar had fastened a vine-like silver chain with her magic and some spare scraps in the garbage room.
Not a good gift for a spoiled princess who was used to the biggest and shiniest jewels on this planet, but hopefully it would stop her from making that pained expression she was staring at me with.
I closed the few steps between us and placed it in her outstretched hand.
“I thought I smelled magic on you,” she said, her eyes cutting to mine. “Are you harboring a witch in my palace?”
I let out a huff and shook my head.
“I would get rid of them if I knew how to,” I admitted. “But they did say that you were in danger. That the prince and someone close to you were going to use you as a scapegoat. Is that true?”
It felt weird to tell her the truth. But it was also freeing in a way.
Her eyes searched my face. It felt different that time. Not in a criticizing type of way, but like she was desperately searching for an answer that I couldn’t give her.
“I have it handled,” she said and took a look at the feather in her hand. “Are you sure you still don’t want in on the deal? This may be your last chance.”
This may be my last chance. Maybe she had something planned? Had Cedar gotten it wrong?
I wouldn’t be surprised if she did. Aurelia was cunning. I saw that much with what she had tried to do with the magical poison.
But would it work?
For some reason, I wanted it to.
“I don’t want your father’s head,” I whispered. “He holds no value to me. But you could kill him if you wanted.”
She let out a scoff. “Me? Kill Father?” She let out a bitter laugh. “What makes you say such a stupid thing?”
“I don’t think it’s stupid. I think you could, and I think your people would thank you.” Another truth. One that was even more dangerous than the first.
Her reddened eyes met mine. I almost felt bad for the way hope lit them up. But it was diminished quickly.
“There is a reason why I worked to get on his good side all these years,” she whispered. “After Mother died, I fought him—almost too much. And it cost me. You think the people are on my side? Maybe, but the people he employed certainly are not. They fear him enough to do whatever. Even torture their own princess.”
I couldn’t hear it. I didn’t want to. I was afraid of what it would change in me.
“I can’t help you with this, princess,” I whispered.
She gave me a quick nod, all hope in her expression crumbled in seconds. Then, she turned her back to me.
“Leave, then. I have a lot to do.”
I didn’t want to, but my feet moved me to the door. I wanted to ask her to tell me what she knew. I wanted her to ask me to help. To ask me to save her.
Because, at this point, I’m not confident I could say no.
But there were no more words shared between us. Not as I opened and shut her bedroom door. And not as I walked down the dark hallway in silence, only for it to be broken by the sound of Aurelia’s frustrated scream and the muted shattering of glass against the wall.