“Your door lock is another relic that explodes when anyone enters without your permission. There’s one on the window, too, but I barely managed to disable that one.”
“I was supposed to lock the door?”
Araceli stared at me. Then she went over to the door and opened it. It wasn’t locked.
I rubbed my bedhead sheepishly. “Sorry, my bad. I’m from the countryside. No one locks their house doors, much less their bedroom doors.”
“I can’t believe you ruined my years of planning.” Araceli advanced on me, her expression even more murderous. “The night I finally decide to assassinate you, you stop bothering to protect yourself? Am I a joke to you? Do you have an army of guards in the other room waiting to arrest me?”
I scrambled backward. “Uh, no, no guards. You see … the thing is … I’m not the Blood Duchess.”
Araceli stared harder. I’d figured she wouldn’t believe me. Maybe I should have screamed as soon as the sword moved away from my throat. I had a lot of sympathy for Araceli’s suffering, but I refused to die for someone else’s crimes.
After a moment, Araceli said, “I was starting to suspect as much.” Before I could breathe a sigh of relief, she lunged forward and pinned me to the bed with one hand, the sword resting against my neck. “Where’s the real Duchess Hedri, you body double?”
“I’m not a body double!” I squeaked. “I’m just an ordinary citizen of Arahasnor. The princess accidentally swapped my body with the duchess’s.”
“What?”
“Please don’t kill me! Oh, and please don’t tell anyone. Donya is counting on me to pretend to be the duchess long enough to save Arahasnor. She’ll be very disappointed that I exposed myself in less than a day.”
“Do you mean to tell me that the very night before the revenge I’ve been planning my entire life, a chance magical accident took my enemy from my grasp?” Araceli’s lips pulled back in a snarl. She looked crazed.
“That’s tough,” I said meekly. “Not my fault, so if you’d please sheathe your weapon …”
Araceli’s eyes narrowed. She lowered the sword slightly. “I have to admit, you’re far too useless to be an employee of the Blood Duchess. She doesn’t keep incompetence around for long, with the sole exception of that lover of hers. And while I could see the duchess pulling a fake act to save her life—she’s quite the cunning survivor—I don’t think she could ever successfully pretend to be …this.”
It felt like I’d just been insulted, but I let it slide because I didn’t want to die. “Thanks so much. Now if you’ll kindly leave my bedroom, then we’ll speak no more of this. Good luck finding the real duchess. But please don’t kill my body! I want it back.”
“Not so fast. I haven’t schemed for so long to walk away empty-handed.” While Araceli kept holding the sword a bit away from my skin, her other hand dug into her pocket and pulled out a ring. “This relic binds people to keep their promises, similar to a life-oath. I was going to use it to force the duchess to confess to framing my parents for treason. If you want to live, then you’ll strike a bargain with me. Touch the diamond on this ring and vow that you’re not the real duchess, you don’t work for her and never will, and that you’ll help me find and slay her to avenge my family.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to agree to anything so she wouldn’t kill me. But my big brother Calum always used to tell me that I letpeople push me around too much. That had certainly been happening to me lately, and I was tired of it. I ran my tongue over my lips and summoned my courage. “I have conditions, too. Promise you won’t harm my real body even if you find the duchess in it. Also, promise to tell the other eleven assassins in your organization that I’m not the real Blood Duchess.”
Araceli glared at me. “You don’t get to impose conditions.”
“I think I do. How are you going to find the real Duchess Hedri without me? You don’t have the faintest idea what my original body looks like. If you kill me, your only lead is gone.”
Araceli bit her lip. “The Twelve Avengers don’t work together since we parted ways fearing a traitor … I don’t even know all of their identities … They’d never listen to me.”
I cried, “You took too long to agree to my deal! I have one more condition! I demand that you stay by my side and protect me against your fellow assassins.”
“Fine,” Araceli growled. “But if you want me to risk my skin protecting you, then I’m putting a time limit on it.” She slammed my finger down on the diamond. “For one month, I’ll lend you my sword and protect you from any and all external threats. During that time, you’ll find the real duchess and bring her to me to kill. I promise I won’t harm her until you swap back with her. But if you fail, then when a month ends, you’ll voluntarily place your life into my hands. I bet I could lure the Blood Duchess out of hiding by threatening to kill you.”
I considered it. Magical life-oaths killed anyone who broke one. That last condition had raised the stakes for me. But on the other hand … after the princess woke up, she should be able to swap our bodies again. Worst-case scenario, I could swap back and then run away and leave the duchess to deal with the consequences of my life-oath. It was her body who would be swearing it, after all. I decided to pad the time a little to be on the safe side. “Make it three months, and you have a deal.”
“Two months.”
“Uhhh … two months and a week.”
“Done.” Light blazed forth from the diamond, wrapping around both my finger and Araceli’s.
I felt a pinch in my chest, like chains tightening around my heart. The life-oath had been made. I gasped, sucking in air until the pain faded. My stomach still hurt, too. What an awful night.
“What’s your real name?” Araceli asked me.
“Bora. It’s nice to meet—”
Without waiting for me to reply, Araceli turned and stormed out of the room.
