Shaking her head, she crossed her arms over her chest. “Nothing.”
Something niggled at the back of my mind, telling me not to let the subject drop. “Royal. It’s fine. You can talk to me.”
“I just…” she sighed, dropping her gaze. “I just don’t get it.”
“Get what?” I tilted my head as if I needed to hear her more clearly.
“I was promised…” she said, covering her face with her hands. “I was promised to be rewarded for my loyalty to the crown.”
An icy breeze swept over me, my arms growing heavy. “Royal, what are you talking about?”
“The king…” she started, refusing to make eye contact. “He promised me higher status if I acted as his eyes.”
The world began to slow, spinning at a glacial pace as immediate theories began to form in my mind. “What did you do?” I asked, my voice low, working to keep the threat out of it.
Royal opened and closed her mouth. “It just makes me sick that the sad excuse of a princess gets to be heir to the throne when she is literally the most hated person amongst her people. Like, why shouldn’t I capitalize on that?”
Pushing aside my anger at the blatant disrespect to the princess, I clenched my jaw. “For the love of the gods, Royal. What did you do?”
“I spied for the king,” she rushed out, finally meeting my gaze. And despite how much she tried to force guilt in her eyes, I saw through it. She didn’t regret it for a single second.
“Say that one more time?” I asked, weirdly surprised by her treachery.
“The rooftop meetings. And learning that Chrome was going to the prisons to find the Endarkened…”
The air in my throat choked me. Of course, Onyx had told Royal about his plan to accompany Chrome to the prisons for the Endarkened. “What did you tell the king, Royal?” My voice could barely be heard over the chaos around us.
With a shrug, she said, “Just what Onyx had told me and what I’d overheard.” I pinned her with a blank stare, spurring her on. “The king had been wanting to know if there were any secrets that Chrome had been keeping from him. When I showed up at the rooftop for your little secret get-together on Friday the thirteenth, I gathered that the king didn’t know much about that, so I relayed that fun bit to him.”
I leaned my head back to face the ceiling, forcing out a hard breath. “For fucks sake…” I whispered to myself, pinching the bridge of my nose.
“And then, when Onyx told me about this super top-secret mission he was set to go on with Chrome, I knew something was up. He is only a guard. Not even a full-fledged guard yet,” she said, as if Onyx hadn’t just become the King’s Guard this week. “So, why would he go on missions with the legendary Chrome Freyr? You know? That raised some questions for me. So, I played it smart.” A smirk twitched at one side of her face as if she were proud of her deduction skills.
Fucking Onyx. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
“Basically, Onyx had said it required going down to the prisons. And when pressed why, he wouldn’t elaborate. So, I followed him one day and listened in on a conversation between him and you.” The smile that spread across her face was sinful. I wanted nothing more than to slap it off.
My nostrils flared, but I nodded. “Well played, Royal,” I conceded. “Just know this. When Chrome finds out, because he will, he will very much enjoy killing you slowly.” I leaned forward until my breath brushed against the shell of her earlobe. “And if he doesn’t, then I fucking will.” She deserved a slow justice where she lived in paranoia, waiting for karma to come out of nowhere. I reigned in my anger.
Stepping back, I crossed my arms, looking at her with pure disgust. “So, what is your goal then? Remove all competition blocking you from being in the king’s favor?”
Royal giggled. “Yeah, brilliant, right?”
I rolled my eyes. “How original. Good luck with that. Also, enjoy staying alive with the Elementals swarming the building. It’s a bloodbath, from what I hear.” I winked before backing away and left her there with fearful eyes. Just before I turned around, I gifted her the middle finger. “See ya around, Okrafor. May the strongest survive.”
I spun on my heel, taking off into a sprint toward the stairwell once more. Hazel should be in the family suite, and Dad would probably be gathering with the other Warriors, most likely wondering where the hell I was.
I trekked against the tide of Kinetics in the stairwell, processing Royal’s duplicity. I wondered if she’d only been using Onyx to spy on Chrome the entire time. But a large part of me believed her true target was the princess.
I breathed a sigh of relief. It didn’t seem Royal knew anything about the insurgency. Still, I had no way of questioning her about it without piquing her interest.
Putting Royal aside to be an issue to resolve another day, I focused on the current plan to find Hazel, then my father. I’d get my orders from there. Surely, he knew the truth of what was happening.
Reaching my family’s ensuite, I punched in the code before ramming my shoulder against the door multiple times in my impatience.As soon as it swung open with a click, I hollered, “Hazel!” as I rushed through the foyer. “Hazel, you here?”
“Slate!” Hazel appeared from the hallway to my left. “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know. But it’s something to do with Chrome. They’re not telling anyone anything,” I exhaled. “Where’s Dad?”
