And yet I feel a chill in the air that has nothing to do with the weather. A weight I can’t shake, like the castle itself is keeping secrets.
Because yesterday I saw something I think I wasn’t supposed to see.
Leon, slipping quietly through the side gates to talk to someone waiting outside them. From my view at a second-floor window, I paused to watch him speaking with a villager—a middle-aged man in a worn wool cap who shifted nervously from foot to foot as they talked.
Doubt began to gnaw at me later that day when I took my usual walk in the castle gardens, through the long afternoon hours when Eva disappears into her study to conduct whatever dark business keeps the Novak empire running.
From what little I know of the Novaks, they don’t conduct their business out in the open like Leon was doing, where they might run the risk of being overseen or overheard. And although Leon doesn’tknowI saw him, I did.
What was so vital for him to communicate that he took a risk like that?
My phone vibrates just as I’m settling back into the library with a book, although I can’t help thinking about Eva pressing me down on the settee by the window and toying with me until I told her I belonged to her. Adrian’s name flashing up on the screen chases those thoughts away, and I answer quickly, desperate for a dose of normality.
“Hey,” Adrian says, but there’s an edge to his voice that makes my stomach drop at once. “I don’t want to worry you, but…there’s someone watching the house.”
The book slides off my lap as I sit up straighter. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Black car parked across the street for hours yesterday and again today. Tinted windows. And the same license plate. Maybe it’s nothing, but…” He trails off, but I can hear the concern he’s trying to hide, and I don’t want to dismiss his concern, especially since I insisted he tell me about anything that caught his attention while I was away.
“Is everyone okay?” I ask, gripping the phone tight.
“We’re fine. And I’m probably just paranoid, you know? But I thought you should know.”
After I hang up, I sit in the library’s silence, wondering if I should be afraid. Someone is watching my family. The question is whether they’re there to protect or to threaten.
I know exactly who to ask.
I find Eva in her study, lounging in a leather armchair in front of the fireplace and staring into the flames. So much for the work she always claims to be doing in here. She raises an eyebrow as I burst through the door without knocking, but her expression remains maddeningly calm.
“There’s someone watching my family,” I say without preamble.
Eva nods slowly, utterly unbothered. “Yes. That would be the protection I arranged for them while you’re here.”
“Are you sure? It’s not—someone else?”
“Why would anyone else be watching your siblings?” Eva’s tone is perfectly reasonable, as though I’m being hysterical. I’m not. I’m just worried. “They’re being kept safe,” she sighs, when she sees the expression on my face. “I told you I would protect them, and I am.”
“But what if it’s not your people?” My voice rises despite my efforts to stay calm. “Adrian hasn’t noticed anyone before, so?—”
“Perhaps he’s had other things on his mind,” Eva interrupts, her amber eyes finally getting that dangerous glint they get when I’m being “disobedient.” Her voice drops to that silky tone that always makes my skin prickle. “Do you want me to remove them? I can make a call right now. Have them pulled off.”
“No,” I snap. “I just want to besure.”
Eva sighs again and goes to her desk, where she takes up her phone and taps out an instruction to someone. “Tell him to look again,” she says.
I message Adrian, who replies that the car has moved further down the street.
“As instructed,” Eva says. “Do you believe me now?”
“All I wanted was reassurance,” I tell her, my tone just as cool as hers. I turn on my heel to leave, but her voice stops me.
“Robin.”
I turn back and see she’s taken a seat at her desk again. “Come here. Sit on the floor next to my chair.”
Uneasily, and half expecting another impromptu ravishing, I do as she’s asked. But she doesn’t undress me or order me to strip. She doesn’t kiss me or even glance at me. The most she does isrun a hand through my hair now and then as she reads reports and sends emails. I keep my eyes down, leaning against her leg with closed eyes as a sense of peace settles over me.
And Eva seems peaceful as well.
