Deneya leaned against the table, arms folded. Vi was at her side. Taavin and Lorn inspected the damage to the record vaults at the back of the room.
“You—” Deneya started, giving Eira a hard look.
“Arwin came to me,” Eira said quickly. “I wasn’t going to come. I didn’t want to. I mean, I did. I didn’t know what else to do. But Arwin said the Court needed to be warned and she entrusted me with the key and…” She hung her head. “I wasn’t fast enough.”
“No,weweren’t smart enough.” The crown princess looked to the table. Eira had seen Vi Solaris a handful of times, but never like this. She wore the clothes of a warrior in the color of night. Her hair was pulled into a simple braid and pinned at the back of her head in a bun. The crown princess had always exuded power. But this was a different sort. The deadly confidence was more like a queen or empress than the princess Eira had seen from afar. “They outmaneuvered you.”
“Obviously.” Deneya cursed under her breath. “The question is, how?”
“I will not rest until I find the answer,” Lorn declared.
Eira resisted confirming if Ducot had told them all the details of her theories. She didn’t want the inquiry to be interpreted as gloating. It didn’t matter now that she was right.
“With what manpower?” Deneya looked beyond Eira, Cullen, and Noelle, down the hall and toward the cavern. “There’s only twenty-two of us now.”
“How many do you have topside?” Vi asked.
“Perhaps another ten to twenty.”
Vi shook her head and picked through the papers on the table. “It’s not enough to keep operating underground. And after this…” She motioned around the war room. “If we don’t take decisive action, they’re going to keep cutting us off at the knees, working their way up until slicing our throats is all too easy.”
“You said the dagger was taken,” Eira interjected boldly. “When you were…” she couldn’t bring herself to saydying. “Incapacitated.”
“It seems to be the only thing they took.” Lorn returned to the center table, Taavin at his side. “All my records are still there.”
“They’re toying with us.” Vi shook her head grimly. “They want us to have the information because they’re so confident we won’t put their plans together.”
Deneya looked to Eira. “Did you hear anything else during your time with the Pillars that might be of use?”
Vi straightened from the table quickly, spinning to stare down at Eira. She’d never felt so small as she did underneath the princess’s gaze. “You…you were the one who was taken to the Pillars’ stronghold?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me everything.”
Deneya sighed at the princess, a bold move that spoke volumes of their closeness. “I already told—”
“I want to hear it from her.” Vi motioned to Eira. “Speak.”
Eira did as she was commanded and recounted the tale of her time with the Pillars. The words took her out of her body. She stood adjacent to the woman, recounting everything that had happened to her. That wasn’t her. Not really. She had moved past those matters. She was stronger now. Yet Eira was relieved when she could shift the topic finally to her theory on the dagger and manor.
When she was finished, the crown princess had fire in her eyes and crackling around her knuckles. She took a deep breath and dismissed the power that raged right at the edge of her control.
Vi turned her eyes to Deneya. “The ball it is, then.”
“That’s been the plan.” Deneya nodded. “But we must decide if these relics are going to come into play before then.”
“It doesn’t matter; it won’t change anything.” The crown princess skewered Eira with her stare. “I have something to ask of you. Though you might fairly hate me for doing so.”
“I doubt I’d hate you, Your Highness.” Though the princess’s concern filled her with dread.
“You have done so much, but there is one more thing we’re going to need of you. We’re going to need you to be the bait at the ball.”
“What?” Cullen stepped forward. “Your Highness—”
Vi ignored him, continuing to speak right to Eira alone. “Ferro is clearly obsessed with you. If you’re there,hecertainly will be. If we put you out on the dance floor, dancing with others, laughing, carrying on without him, it’ll surely drive him mad. Men like that can’t stand when they’re not in control.”
“I didn’t think I had a choice in being at the ball,” Eira said, weaker than she would’ve liked. The night was catching up with her, hitting her all at once. She was exhausted.
