Chapter Thirty-Two
Analleia
Desmond and Nadiyah nearly lost their minds when they saw the massive bloodstain on the carpet before they saw me, only calming down after I explained I was fine.
The pain in my side was bearable, but nothing more.
The Enchantress hadn’t thought it necessary to heal me completely, only enough that I wouldn’t die.
She wanted this wound to be a reminder that whatever else happened would be far worse if I failed her.
“You need to drop this, Analleia,” Nadiyah advised. “You almost blew our covers and died in the process. Are you here to steal a trinket or to take the life of the king?”
I grimaced, sitting up on the couch. “I don’t have a choice. If I don’t get her that ring I won’t make it to the finale.”
“You should have told us you were going and brought us with you.” Anger filled Desmond’s voice.
I shook my head. “I don’t know if we could have beat him, even with all three of us. He’s too smart. They know there’s three of us here. They would have figured it out, and he would have recognized you, Nadiyah. Taking the two of you with me would have made it worse.”
They both stared at me as if I were incapable of seeing reason.
“You’re going to try to get the ring again, aren’t you?” Now Nadiyah’s voice was angry too. “Why is this so important to you?”
I gritted my teeth. “If I don’t get it for her, she’ll revoke the enchantment on my face. Everyone will remember who I am. They’ll have warrants out before I can leave the city. I won’t be able to enter the seventh ball, and I’ll never get a shot at the king.”
Nadiyah lifted her chin, a scheme forming behind her eyes. “What if we don’t take him out at the seventh ball?” She paused. “What if we take him out at the sixth?”
The idea caught my attention. Maybe I could get out of this situation altogether.
“The king doesn’t attend the sixth ball,” Desmond said. “At least not until the end when the winners are chosen. Since the guests are dispersed throughout the palace, he’s secured in a safe room. That’s the last possible night you or any of us would be able to get near him.”
Desmond was right. The sixth ball was the puzzle ball.
We wouldn’t have a fighting chance that night.
Not to mention the point of picking the finale was that it created the greatest spectacle, the best way to air what he had done to us to the world.
Even if we tried to strike before then, we would be setting up for failure.
No one knew the king’s schedule during the balls.
Not even his guards. I had tried to learn, but the pattern was constantly changing.
I’d heard he might not even sleep in the same room every night. And besides that—
“I can’t. I have to get the ring. It’s about more than the bargain.”
The Enchantress’s words flashed through my mind.
If you want to keep your friends safe from death.
She had known where to find me. How to get to me. If I killed the king and ran off without delivering that ring to her, she would hunt me down. She would kill both my brother and my best friend, then force me to work for her. To kill for her. I shivered.
“She’s powerful,” I explained. “She threatened more than the enchantment, so for all of our safety, the ring is our main objective before the finale.”
They didn’t argue. They knew that what was happening was beyond their control.
A knock came at the door, and we exchanged worried glances. We shouldn’t have any visitors.
I looked down, still able to see the bandage through my shirt.
I grabbed my robe and threw it around my shoulders.
Desmond had already cleaned up the blood on the carpet, but it was still wet.
Nadiyah pulled a rug over it, double checking that the windowsill was free of blood as well.
The rain last night had washed away any traces on the outer stones that might have remained.
Desmond slipped into one of the bedrooms. Valeris hadn’t seen his face yet, and I didn’t want him to be able to pick him out in a crowd.
Pain ripped through me as I hobbled over to the door, opening it.
Valeris stood outside wearing a strange expression.
He took in my hair, a ratty mess, then the dressing robe I wore.
He met my eyes briefly, and I couldn’t help but think of last night, when we had danced together in the city streets pretending like we were friends without a care in the world.
He seemed to be recalling the same thing.
“May I come in?” he asked.
My lips twitched.
A worry creased his brow.
Something wasn’t right.
I opened the door wider, forcing myself to move as if I were uninjured, which made every movement agony. Sweat coated my back.
“Can I help you, Your Highness?”
His eyes snapped to me at the formal address, taking note before he surveyed the rest of the room. Nothing escaped him. His gaze lingered on the rug by the window before it landed on Nadiyah.
“There was an incident at the palace last night,” he said. “I’m afraid your friend Nadiyah was named a suspect, and I must investigate to verify her innocence.”
My head spun, and I grasped the door for support.
He thinks she’s involved with the attack on his uncle.
Did he suspect me too?
Nadiyah eyed him. “What kind of incident?”
Valeris’s jaw set as he stared at her, taking her in and ignoring the question. “Where were you last night, after midnight?”
She kept her attention on him, and I knew she had to forcibly keep herself from glancing at me.
She had been at the ball last night. That wouldn’t help our situation at all.
Even if she could prove innocence in last night’s attack, Valeris could decide to remove her since she’d already been charged guilty with one crime, and now there had been another, that would only complicate her already difficult mission of locating her family’s killer.
Nadiyah pretended to think. “After the fireworks? I was in the gambling dens at that time. I’m sorry, I didn’t think the gambling dens were excluded from me.”
If anyone could talk their way out of this, it was Nadiyah.
“Can anyone verify your presence in the gambling dens at that time?” he asked.
“Anyone at the table I’d joined or in the den would be able to verify that.”
“Then we’ll make sure they do,” he snapped. “The perpetrator was stabbed in abdomen, on the right side. I need to verify it wasn’t you.”
“Stabbed?” I asked, feigning innocence.
Valeris ignored me, his focus intense on Nadiyah, who remained frozen. She undid the belt on her robe, untucking her shirt and lifting it until the entire right side of her abdomen was exposed. She had scars, every assassin did, but no open wounds.
Valeris frowned, stepping forward as if it were a trick and we were deceiving him.
Nadiyah lifted an eyebrow. “Satisfied?”
He turned away, catching my eye. My legs shook from the exertion of holding myself upright. I needed to lie down, but if I moved, I didn’t think I could hide the pain.
“I’ll be in touch,” he said.
I nodded, and he left. I shut the door, falling into it as I released my breath in one long stream.
Nadiyah threw me a worried glance. I didn’t know what his definition of soon was, but if I didn’t have a few days to let the wound heal, he’d figure out in a heartbeat the attacker he was looking for was me.