Chapter 33
Iwake up disoriented. I was having the strangest dream.
I try to hold on to the fading images, reluctant to let them dissolve completely. For just a moment longer, I want to linger in that other world, where nothing hurts and everything makes sense.
Somehow, my eyes open anyway, and awareness returns full force.
I’m lying on an unfamiliar plush bed in a room I don’t recognize. I force my eyes open wider, and blink against golden light streaming through gauzy curtains I’ve never seen before.
“Don’t sit up too fast.” A voice hovers somewhere above me, high-pitched with worry. “Be careful.”
My own face swims into view above me, and I recoil in alarm. For a split second, I think I’m still dreaming, only now it’s turned into a nightmare.
“It’s just me,” Silvia says, her eyebrows pinched together, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. “You must be confused. Take a moment to remember.”
My tongue feels like sandpaper against the roof of my mouth. “What... happened?” The words scrape my throat.
“I’m so sorry,” Silvia whispers, frantically twisting her rings around her fingers. “The wine—” She swallows hard. “I keep telling everyone about the assassination attempts, but nobody believes me. My private cellar... I never thought... I should have checked...”
My mouth feels like cotton as I form the words. “Where’s Fox?”
“Still unconscious,” she says quickly. “He must have drunk more than you did. I can take you to check on him in a minute.”
I frown, my foggy brain trying to piece together what she’s saying. We were poisoned, and Fox is still unconscious? That doesn’t seem likely.
I push myself up onto my elbows again. The room tilts.
“Please, lie back!” Silvia’s hands flutter to my shoulders. “Oh Gods, we’ve barely exchanged ten words and now you probably hate me. I’m so sorry, I never wanted anything like this to happen.”
“Where are my things?” I croak.
“The things you arrived with? They’re all here. I had them moved in here in case you wanted anything when you woke up.”
I look past her, and indeed I see my satchel and potions belt resting on a nearby chair. Leaning against the chair is Fox’s sword. My brow furrows.
“My satchel,” I croak, pointing. “Please, can you hand it to me?”
For a second, I think Silvia is going to refuse to give it to me, but I’m wrong. She rushes to retrieve my satchel, and shoves it into my shaking hands.
I fumble with the clasp, and I dig around the bottom of the satchel, before finally closing around a small vial of silver white potion. It’s halfway gone, but better than nothing.
I bring the vial to my lips and drink the last of the healing potion I made from the troll hairs I collected two years ago.
The liquid is so cold it burns all the way down my throat, settling like a block of ice in my stomach.
I take a deep breath, and wait. It doesn’t take long before I feel stronger. The fog lifts from my mind, the pain and fatigue clearing from my body.
“Remarkable,” Silvia whispers, leaning closer to examine my face. “Your eyes—they’re clearing already. Would you consider sharing how you—”
“Fox,” I interrupt, my voice steadier now. “Where is he?”
Silvia’s lips tremble as she meets my gaze. “He hasn’t stirred once. I’ve had healers with him this entire time but...” Her voice trails off.
My heart pangs and a bolt of fear hits me, only then, it’s overtaken by suspicion.
Wait. Something doesn’t add up. Fox’s metabolism burns twice as fast as mine. Any poison that didn’t kill me should hardly affect him.
“Take me to him.” I swing my legs over the side of the bed.
“But you need to rest!”
“I’m fine. I want to go see him. Now.”
“Of course.” Silvia tugs a velvet cord by the bedpost.
Barely ten seconds later, a servant appears in the doorway behind her. “Your majesty?”
“Has there been any change with the shifter?”
The servant’s eyes flick to me, then away. “Still with the healer, your majesty. They’re... doing everything possible.”
I narrow my eyes at the servant. “Did Fox agree to magical healing?”
“He couldn’t, my lady.” The servant’s gaze skitters away from mine like a startled mouse. “He was unconscious, so we sought the other wolf’s permission instead. The one with the burned face.”
My heart stutters. The lie lands between us like a physical thing. Kai would sooner cut off his own hand than allow strange magic near Fox while he was unconscious. A creeping intuition prods at the back of my mind.
I force my face to relax and my voice to steady. “Of course,” I murmur, nodding as if this makes perfect sense. “How... thoughtful. Is Jett helping to heal him then?”
“Who?” Silvia asks.
“Our friend who arrived first. I assume you told him what happened, right? So if he isn’t here with me, is he helping to heal Fox?”
Silvia looks to her servant again, seeming unsure, and the servant jumps in. “Yes, m’lady. Your friend and our healer are working together.”
Again, my intuition prods at me. I have always said that I’m not a real seer, but my gut feelings do tend to be right…and at the moment, my gut is telling me something is very wrong.
Jett doesn’t use magic, Kai wouldn’t agree to it, and Fox absolutely should not have been so affected by any poison. So, where are they? And secondly, if Silvia was the target of the poison, why did it only affect Fox and I?
Silvia smiles and I force myself to return it. I need to play along until I can find out what’s going on here.
“I hope you don’t blame me for this,” Silvia says dejectedly.
“Of course not,” I gush. “But who would do this?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I’m determined to find out. As the Queen, I have so many enemies. I suspect it might have been those animals you arrived with—not that I blame you of course. You couldn’t have known how hateful they are toward me.”
“The shifters?” I clarify. “You think they tried to poison you?”
“It seems possible. I’ve tried my best to give them everything, but they’re still ungrateful. I know they resent me. Again, not that I blame you. It’s not your fault you ended up bonded to one.”
I try to force myself to smile, but I’m sure it comes out more of a grimace.
“Oh, are you still in pain?” Silvia asks, jumping to her feet. “Would you like some water?”
“Yes,” I say, “Thank you, I do still feel a bit weak.”
I don’t really, but I do need a moment alone to think.
I need to find Fox and the others, and the longer I sit here, the more my intuition is screaming at me.
Silvia put the poison in our wine herself.
Possibly, she meant only to get Fox with it, not knowing that he wouldn’t have been affected, or meant to poison both of us so that she could “save” me. Either way, she’s dangerous.
Unfortunately, Silvia doesn’t leave me alone for a second. She pulls her velvet rope again and a servant appears with a glass of water. He hands it to me and I pretend to take a sip. I don’t think she would go to the trouble of poisoning me a second time, but I’m not willing to take the gamble.
“Since we didn’t get to have our talk as planned,” I say, keeping my voice light despite the fear clawing at my throat, “perhaps we could do that now? While we wait for Fox to...” I let my voice trail off, unable to finish the sentence.
Silvia’s face brightens instantly, her eyes gleaming with an eagerness that seems out of place given the circumstances. “Oh, I would love that,” she breathes, leaning forward. “Are you feeling well enough to stand? I wanted to show you my workshop.”
“Yes, of course,” I reply, getting to my feet. “Is it close by?”
“Oh yes, just through this door.”
She points across the room to another door, and I finally get the chance to really take in the room.
It’s her bedroom, I think. It looks similar to the guest room Fox and I stayed in, but much larger and more lived in.
There are bookshelves lining the walls, a wardrobe the size of my entire sleeping loft at home, and a large telescope facing the window, its eye pointed toward the sky.
Silvia has walked across the room to another door, which she pulls open, revealing the base of what appears to be a spiral staircase.
My intuition pounds at the back of my skull, and I sit back down on the bed. “On second thought, I’m still feeling a bit unwell. Could we stay here?”
Annoyance flashes across her face, but she covers it quickly. “Of course. We have all the time in the world for you to see the workshop. Maybe we can even work together.”
“I’d like that,” I lie. “Does that mean that magic is permitted in Thermia after all?”
“Well, for us it is,” she says, as if this is obvious.
“It was so unfortunate that I had to outlaw magic for the rest of the kingdom, but it was just too dangerous. Too many people were getting hurt. I couldn’t bear to see another child suffer because of unchecked power.
” She looks down at her hands. “Sometimes, to protect people, you have to make hard choices. That’s why it’s so difficult to be the queen. ”
“How did you become Queen of Thermia?” I ask, keeping my tone conversational. “You never got a chance to tell me before this happened.”
“The last Queen of Thermia raised me as her daughter,” she says, solemnly. “It wasn’t until I was thirteen years old that I discovered the truth, that my real mother had been under my nose the entire time.”
My eyes widen. “She was?”
Silvia nods, her nose wrinkling. “She’s been one of my nannies and magic tutors. I confronted her about it, and something... broke in her. She was angry and unstable. She cast the curse on Vernallis too, you know.”
“Yes, I knew that,” I say slowly.
Silvia gestures with both hands as if to say: “Well, there you go.”