I had to force my legs to keep walking. An animalistic instinct to survive gnashed at my muscles, telling me to run away. But I didn’t stop until I reached the dais. Renwell stood between me and Asher.
We bowed.
Father tilted his head, his gaze scraping over me like the sharp edge of a knife.
“Katerina, Your Majesty,” Renwell said.
Asher’s head whipped toward us, peering around Renwell with wide eyes. “N-no. That can’t be her. She’s one of Melaena’s dancers. A sweet girl who couldn’t have?—”
“Take off your hood and mask,” Father barked at me.
I obeyed.
Asher paled, swaying a little on his feet. “You . . . you . . . you’re?—”
“Yes, yes,” Father said with a nasty smile. “From princess to spy to thief and seductress. Emilia, Kiera, Katerina—you can’t make up your gods-damned mind, can you, girl?”
I flinched. Asher continued to stare at me, his mouth opening and closing like a fish.
“Renwell informed me of your little heist this afternoon,” Father continued. “What in the deep, dark, wandering hell possessed you to go through with such afoolish, treasonous plan?” he roared the last three words.
Even though he remained seated, his fury rose to fill every corner of the room. Every flame seemed to gutter under its weight.
I could barely breathe past my tightened throat, as if a fistful of the stolen coins was wedged there. Why hadn’t Renwell told him about the heist earlier, after we spoke atThe Crescent Moon?
“It was the only way,” I whispered. I cleared my throat and spoke louder. “I offered it as a ruse to discover the... the criminals’ intentions.”
“See? She knows where it is,” Asher babbled. “We can?—”
“Silence!” Father snarled. “Or I’ll cut out your tongue and feed it to your kin—the sewer rats.”
Asher’s throat bobbed with a hard swallow, but he stayed quiet.
Father’s eyes cut back to me. I hated those eyes. I hated that they were a mirror of mine. But most of all, I hated the disgust and contempt in them when he looked at me.
“Tell me how you did it,” he said, his ringed fingers clawing into his gold armrests. “Every. Detail. Do you understand?”
I nodded, fear crawling over me like a thousand ants. What had Asher told them? Already my mind tried to cut out the memories that weren’t too damning, to offer the pieces that might save my own skin.
Haltingly, I told him about the dance, about getting close to Asher and stealing the key, about remembering which lock to open. I forced Aiden’s and Maz’s names from my lips, told Father of their disguises and their plan to get the barrels out. But I refused to tell him of the kiss. I would die with that memory locked in my soul.
My words came faster after Aiden’s and Maz’s roles were over. I tried to lessen Asher’s gullibility and my fumbling, but by the end, Father was nearly apoplectic with rage.
“You,” he spat, jabbing a finger at Asher. “You call yourself my High Treasurer. A position your father held for my entire reign before you. And you let agirlsteal my fucking gold!”
Asher stumbled back a few steps, gasping. Renwell matched pace with him as if to keep him from running, but he didn’t reach for the crumbling noble.
“P-please, Your Highness, Merciful Majesty. I didn’t know—I’ll get it all back—I would never?—”
“Are you telling me you know where it is?” Father asked.
“No!” Asher’s wide eyes rolled, like a panicked horse’s. “But she does! Ask her!” He fell to his knees before me. “Please,” he whispered. “Tell him.”
Tears stung my eyes. My body shook uncontrollably. “I-I’m sorry. I don’t know?—”
Asher’s face slackened.
“No one fails me twice,” Father said. He jerked his head at Renwell.
