Midas gilded the dining table—it was the first time I saw it with my own eyes. He also gold-touched this entire ballroom for tonight’s celebration. Two perfect spectacles.
Yet, tonight, his gold behaved as if he wasn’t in control of it at all. Because he wasn’t.
The gold-touch power was real, there’s no doubt about that. And he’s never gold-touched another living person, other than Auren.
This must be why.
I thought her greatest secret was that she was sleeping with an enemy army commander. I thought the gold-touched favored was just that—a favorite royal saddle for him to ride.
I was wrong on both counts.
Idetestbeing wrong.
Midas made her into something ostentatious, a gaudy prize to flaunt. Men always have their fixations, especially when it comes to women. Their enthusiasm for their obsessions always straddles the line between infatuation and hate. One simple move, and the master will turn on their pretty pet.
But perhaps in this case...the pet was the one to turn on her master.
The fear in my mind digs down into my belly. If she can truly thieve powers, then what if she tried to steal mine? What if shesucceeded?
My teeth click and grind. Instead of falling into panic, I need to figure out how I can weave things to my own advantage. Because if Lady Auren tried to steal what is mine, I willruinher.
Seeing the hardened metal is what solidifies my own spinning thoughts. Midas is encased in gold like he’s been cast in a mold, ready to be plucked out and sharpened by a blacksmith.
I thought he was useless to me dead, but perhaps not. Perhaps all I have to do is use what he’s been forged into.
A weapon.
“When he gold-touched her, some of his power must’ve transferred to her,” I say quietly. “He wouldn’t have wanted anyone to ever know that.”
Midas was secretive abouteverything, but this? This is an entirely different layer of dangerous secrets. Is that why he kept her around? Because he trained her to take on the powers of others to use to his advantage?
“This isn’t good,” Keon says.
“Kaila,” my brother begins. “What if it wasn’t a fluke? What if that’shermagic? Being able to take on the magic of others if they use it on her? Did you…?”
“I did,” I say with a sharp nod, fresh anger budding through me.
“What if she stealsyourpower?”
I don’t like hearing my own worry spoken aloud. My knees lock together, tongue pressing against clenched teeth. My gaze on Midas shifts to my blotted reflection shining from his gilded chest.
This wasn’t how tonight was supposed to go. I wasn’t supposed to be in danger of someone taking my power and using it against me.
“How are we going to use this?” Manu says, because like me, he’s grown up learning how to always spin every instance to our own political advantage. Tonight is no different.
I glance around the ballroom, but we’re still alone other than a blubbering Mist, who’s sobbing into her hands. “We tell people the truth,” I say. “That Midas’s favored turned on him. That she had an affair with King Rot to make him jealous. That she was jealous of my engagement with Midas.”
“Make sure everyone knows she’s the villain.”
I nod. “All of Orea will hate her.”
“But what about Sixth Kingdom?” Manu asks. “Now, there obviously won’t be a marriage.”
“But we publicly announced our engagement,” I reply. “It will be difficult, but if I play it right, I can still push for control.”
“The people there are still rioting,” Keon says. “Plus, theymurderedtheir old queen. What makes you think they’ll accept you with Midas dead and no marriage ceremony?”
I shoot him a smile. “Because I’m not the Cold Queen. I’m the warm, charismatic, beautiful Kaila Ioana. I’ll make them love me as my own people in Third love me.”
