“All clear,” Dum announced. “I hear music coming from down the hall. I think the pre-dinner socializing has already started.”
“Good. Then we can slip in unnoticed.” I turned to the pixies. “Remember to remain unseen, high above. Be our eyes and ears. If we need you, you’ll know it. Everyone else, if I get the chance, I’m using poison. I’ll tap three times on my glass or bodice, whichever is more natural, to tell you when. If I do that, create a distraction.”
Wordlessly, everyone slipped out the door. Hatter and I went first, me on his arm, while the other men staggered behind us. As Dum had said, music was playing—a harp, if I wasn’t mistaken. We followed the gentle tune to a large, open room bursting with fae.
I took in Heartfire Hall, getting the lay of the land. Streaming in from the entrance, a wide open space for socializing and dancing split the room in half. The ceiling soared at least fifty feet high. On either side of the divide, tables were laid for ten. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling, illuminating the darkened room. Tapestries decorated every wall—each one depicting the queen or her chosen symbol, a large, red heart.
But most attention-grabbing of all was the head table. It faced the door, so those who sat there could watch guests enter. Candles and red roses flooded the royal table. Two thrones, one larger than the other, but both sprouting a gold heart off their tall backs, were positioned so that three chairs flanked them.
“It looks almost the same as when I last saw it,” Hatter whispered. “Except for all the hearts . . . and the name, of course. It used to simply be called ‘the Grand Hall’.”
I snorted. “She had to erase every remnant of my parents. But seriously,Heartfire?” My tone was barely a whisper, it was so low. “What a ridiculous name.”
Henri let out a laugh. “I have to agree. You ready?”
I nodded, and we swept into the crowd.
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long to find my aunt. A group of fae surrounded the Red Queen. All of them were chatting, trying to monopolize her attention.I watched her carefully, trying to ignore the way the hair on the nape of my neck lifted at the sight of her. If we were to succeed, I needed to remain as level-headed as possible.
For her part, the Red Queen seemed rather unimpressed, her eyes narrowed as she stared down her long, aquiline nose at her subjects.
Save for the ruby-encrusted gold crown on her head, she looked almost the same as the version of her I’d seen in my vision in the Enchanted Forest. Tall and severe, with inky hair falling in heavy curtains around her face. Her skin was porcelain white, much like my own. Like many faeries and elves, my aunt seemed to have suspended her age—stopping it at thirty.
In the human world, she could have been a supermodel. Her features were just strange enough, and yet still pleasing, in a hardened sort of way.
I leaned close to Hatter as the queen wrinkled her nose at something a subject said. “Does she even like her guests?”
“She doesn’t have friends,” Henri whispered. “She allows a few duchesses in her inner circle to be her ladies-in-waiting. Other than them, only her soldiers and the king consort escort her.”
“Shocker.” I tore my eyes away from my aunt and scanned the table again.
All the places were already set, and there was even a goblet of wine sitting in front of the queen’s seat, waiting for her. Unfortunately, six guards with hearts emblazoned on their uniforms, to mark them as the most elite of the Red Queen’s soldiers, stood behind the table, watching.
“If I can get over there and distract those soldiers, I might be able to deposit poison into her cup.”
Hatter gripped my arm closer to his body, as if he was afraid I’d dart off. “Perhaps a better time would be when she calls for the feast to begin. Lots of movement.”
As if his words had made it happen, the queen clapped, and everyone in the room fell silent. “I’ve received word that dinner is ready.” She waved her hand toward the tables. “Please take a seat.”
Everyone ran to the sides of the room, distracting me from capitalizing on the moment. The guests claimed their spots, and seats filled to the point where there weren’t more than two openings at each table.
This posed a problem. Our group wanted to stick together.
“I see that you four are the lucky last ones standing.”
My eyes snapped to my aunt, already seated at the head table, and watching us with amusement before shifting her gaze a few feet away to Sansu and Alran, who were looking as confused as I felt.
“Pardon us, My Queen,” Henri said, his tone careful and level. “We don’t understand.”
The Red Queen’s lips lifted in a hard smile, and her vibrant, green eyes, which I’d been too far away to notice before, glowed. “This must be your first event at Heart Castle. As you are the last standing, you get the pleasure of dining with me.”
Pleasure? Her guests hadsprintedto their seats. They might have wanted to impress her and earn her favor, but no one was bold enough to sit with her.
She was either blind or delusional. I suspected the latter. And now we were expected to break bread with her—the woman who murdered my parents.
My jaw clenched.
Hatter gripped my arm tight, likely sensing the tension that vibrated from me. “My Queen, we’re not worthy of such an honor.”
