Chapter 26
Islip into my room and lunge to my bed, yanking out the dagger I keep stashed beneath the mattress. Kressa follows through the doorway, and as she presses the door shut, I slam her against it. I angle my arm across her chest, dagger poised at her throat.
“Who are you?”
She swallows, and a chuckle rumbles from her throat. “You know, we could have a normal conversation for once.”
“But I don’t trust you.”
“And I don’t trust you.”
I press the blade higher, just below the white scar spanning her jawline. “Caelus said you’re from the Earth Court. Is that true?”
“And you’re from the Sea Court.”
I falter.
“I thought so.” She smirks, as if completely at ease with my weapon to her skin. “What’re you doing so far from home?”
I even my breaths. It isn’t possible for her to know who I am. If she did, she’d have me bound in chains, crossing my name off her list.
“Is Briar Rielle even your real name?” She lets out a low hum. “It really rolls off the tongue nicely, doesn’t it? Perhaps a little too nice?”
I tighten my grip on the dagger. “I’m the one asking questions.”
“And an hour ago, you were telling me to be a good girl. Does that ring a bell?”
“It was a lapse in judgement.”
Her mouth tilts into a knowing smile. “I’m sure it was.”
My mind swarms with a labyrinth of questions about the kiss and why it woke my power, but I shove them aside. Unless Kressa can somehow release me from the curse, that information isn’t useful.
“Elias has power,” I say, not so much a question as a statement. An accusation.
“A lot of it.”
“I’m risking my life to help you find your lover, and you didn’t have the decency to mention he’s a mind reader?”
My voice comes out unsteady, and my knuckles blanch against the hilt.
“Would it be so upsetting to you, Briar,”—she leans into my blade—“if I did have a lover?”
My nostrils flare, and I lower my voice to a growl. “I pity anyone who willingly frequents your presence.”
She scoffs and leans her head back against the door. Firelight dances in her eyes, catching on the golden flecks. “I believe Elias would say the same, considering he’s my brother.”
The blade falters. “Brother?”
“Yes.”
I weld my lips together. Then, quietly, as if the flames would betray us, say, “How is he—a mind reader—still alive?”
She sighs, and the amusement fades from her eyes. “Lower the blade and I’ll answer your questions.”
I raise a brow. “Truthfully?”
“Not that you’d know otherwise, but yes.”
I search her eyes and dig for any hint of deceit, but find none. Slowly lowering my blade, I step away and point my dagger at the armchair. “Sit. I’ll be right back. If you get up, or try to leave this room, I’ll kill you.”
She rubs at her throat. “Where are you going?”
“To get out of this fucking dress.”
She turns her back to me and strides to the chair without so much as keeping an eye on the dagger. So confident I wouldn’t bury it in her back.
Fool.
I hang the stolen cloak and stalk to the dressing room, barely shutting the door before I rip off the dress and toss it to the floor in a heap. It’ll be nothing but rags in a few moments anyway. I cross to the armoire and rip open a drawer, pulling out leggings and a long sleeve tunic.
My pirate clothes peek out from the back—a bleak reminder that I discovered nothing about tomorrow’s trial. Perhaps I’ll find an excuse to talk to Caelus in the morning. I pull on my clothes and sling the dress over my arm on the way out.
Kressa says nothing as I settle on the floor in front of the fireplace and gather the dress onto my lap. I angle my dagger in my hand and slide the blade beneath a diamond, cutting it free from the gauzy fabric. Placing it on the floor, I move to the next.
“What are you doing?”
I add another gem to the pile. “I’m sure you’re aware people are betting on the competition?”
“I am.”
“Caelus is taxing the bets and used that money to get this dress made. The sheer number of diamonds on this dress—I can’t imagine how much it cost.” I rip another diamond free. “It’s one thing to bet on us, but I refuse to benefit from the innocent deaths.”
A pause. “Us?”
My hand falters, disturbing the pile of diamonds. Flames lick at my back, scorching straight into my bones. I mask my racing heart with a shrug. “I meant you and Harriet.” I brush my hand along the floor, gathering the scattered diamonds. “Anyway, you promised to answer my questions.”
She lowers herself to the ground and pulls the switchblade from her pocket.
I flinch back. “What are you doing?”
Her ankle brushes mine as she gathers the train of the dress into her lap. “You’ll be here all night if you do this alone.”
My lips part. I watch her slip the short knife beneath the threads and pull a diamond free. She leans over the dress, fingers skimming my leg as she sets it onto the pile.
“These diamonds were funded with my life on the line,” she says. “And Harriet’s. She spared me in the first trial, so it’s the least I can do. But what’s in it for you? She was a pirate who was hunting people from the Earth Court. Why are you helping her in the competition?”
I grimace. That’s why Harriet was on her list. And if Kressa thinks I let Harriet borrow my dagger, she likely assumes I shared the information about the kraken prior to the trials, too. I blow out a long breath and look at her from under my lashes. “A truth for a truth?”
She leans over me again and adds to the pile. Pausing, her face inches from mine, she nods. “By all means.”
A knot in my chest loosens—one that has been comfortably tight for years. My eyes slide to the dressing room, where the pirate clothes lie wrinkled and shoved in a drawer. Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I turn over the truth and spin it into something that isn’t quite a lie.
“If she wins,” I whisper, rubbing the lace between my fingers, “she promised to give me a ship to captain. So I can go far, far away from here. So I can be free.”
She keeps her head down, working along the dress. “Ah, right. Sea Court.” Her hands pause. “Have you even captained a ship before?”
I’m toeing a dangerously thin line. If she is a spy, how much of this will be relayed to whoever is ruling the Earth Court now? I worry my lip. To lie would be a betrayal to my past, so I settle on the truth. “Yes, before I became a courtesan.”
“What happened to your ship?”
I suck in a deep breath. “It was stolen.”
“By who—”
“It’s your turn now.”
She leans over, and a chuckle teases the air against my face as she sets down another diamond. “Ask away.”
My power lurches toward her, but I avert my gaze and swallow down the heat rising up my throat. “What did you feel when we kissed?”
“Other than your hands all over me?”
My lip curls, and I yank another gem free. “Yes. Other than that.”
She pauses, teeth dragging over her lower lip. She twirls a diamond between her fingers and lifts a knee, resting her forearm on it. “It was like I was lit on fire from the inside.”
I furrow my brows. I thought perhaps my power would surge into her, or she’d at least feel it somehow. A cresting of waves, salt air in her lungs.
“It only lasted for a second though,” she continues. “Then all I felt was your tongue against mine.”
A diamond slips from my fingers and bounces across the floor. She retrieves it and places it in my palm, touch sparking my skin.
She tilts her head. “Why? What did you feel when we kissed?”
I pull the final stone free and set my dagger to the side. I could tell the truth—that her kiss unraveled the tether on my power. I could reveal myself as the Princess of the Sea. Perhaps tell her I’m Harriet, and I entered the competition to break the curse.
But I can’t trust her. She blames me for the war that tore her kingdom apart, rightly so. She’d arrest me immediately.
I hold her gaze and shrug. “I didn’t feel much of anything.”
She examines my face longer than necessary, and I swallow. Hard. Anything to keep from crawling into her lap and pressing my lips to hers—if only to bask in the sweet taste of my power for another moment.
Her gaze slides to the fireplace and she leans against the legs of the armchair. “I’m not like Caelus, you know. I’d never force you to do anything you didn’t want to.”
She sucks in a cheek and drags her attention back to me. A shadow passes over her eyes—something I can’t quite discern, or a history I have no business wondering about.
“I know.”
A long pause passes between us—the air taut, pressurized. What else is there to say? We know enough damning secrets about each other to earn a trip to the gallows. But if one mutters a word, we’d both go down.
I stand and tug at the hem of my tunic. Stepping to my dresser, I pull a small drawstring bag from the top drawer and scoop the diamonds in. The smallest ones are no bigger than a grain of sand, yet even those would be enough to buy someone out of the slums.
Kressa digs her hand into her pocket and pulls out the diamond bracelet, adding it to the top of the bag. I secure the drawstrings and strap my sheath around my thigh, threading the leather through the bag’s cords.
“Where are you going?”
I sheathe my dagger. “Out.”
Crossing the room, I grab the cloak and drape it over my shoulders. I glance at the clock and press my lips together. Hopefully it’s not too late for a visit.
“I’m coming with you.”
“No.” I braid my hair back and button the cloak around my neck before throwing the hood up. “If you get caught leaving the castle at night, you’ll be killed.”
I cross to the servant’s door, my footsteps silent on the stone.
“I won’t get caught. What if you run into trouble?”
“I’ll take care of it. Myself.”
She sidesteps in front of me.
“If you follow me,” I hiss, “I’ll scream until every guard comes running. I’ll tell them you were trying to take me out of the castle.”
She narrows her eyes. “You wouldn’t.”
I give her a wicked smile. “Would you like to find out? I’m a woman of my word, Kressa.”
“I don’t doubt it.”
“Good. I trust you remember how to get back to your room?”
She gives me a curt nod.
“Splendid.” I step around her and pull open the servant’s door, looking over my shoulder. “Good luck at the trial tomorrow.”