All the ladies make the sign of the goddess of health by tapping two fingers to their chest. I quickly copy the gesture. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I was so hoping to meet him. I’ve heard such wonderful things.”
“I understand,” Marian says. “But you should know, it’s not wise to bring him up. Even in here, it’s a risk. While I would like to think that every woman in your service is loyal to you, the first thing we learn in this court is that it’s a court of eyes and ears. A court that is always watching. Always listening.”
Everyone looks serious, and all thoughts of eating are abandoned.
“Thank you for the warning.” I am honestly grateful because I was feeling too comfortable with these women. They seem nice and friendly. But they wouldn’t bat an eye at watching theiremperor or his Night Legion level a town. They weren’t selling the heavy jewels they wore to buy bread to help feed the starving or offering to take in an orphan child. They were not my friends. They never could be.
I catch movement and see Brevan walking toward us. The women gasp and rush to smooth the wrinkled fabric of their dresses, pinch their cheeks, or adjust their hair. All of them watch him with hopeful expressions.
None of them said they were in court to find a husband, but I have a feeling that is their primary objective. But not for Marian. She didn’t even flinch when she noticed the legionnaire approach.
“Ladies,” Brevan says as he lowers his head in a slight bow. “Your Highness.” He drops the bow lower when he turns toward me.
“What a pleasant surprise, Enforcer,” Marian says.
Enforcer? Brevan is the emperor’s enforcer? He isn’t just a legionnaire. He is a hunter. An assassin. He is the one who finds fragments from the ancient temples and other relics that could be used to create magic, then destroys them.
Brevan is the man who ordered them to torch all the buildings in the Point. He burned my home to the ground. They burned with people still inside them until they were nothing more than rubble.
He was responsible for a hundred deaths in one night, but he’d only killed two personally.
Those two were my brothers.
The man who murdered the last of my family slept in my room last night. My hands ball into fists, and bile climbs up my throat. I glare at him with newfound hatred.
His orders and his power come from the emperor, but the stories say he is the one who chooses where to go and who to kill.
I open one hand and wrap my fingers around the knife at my place setting. It would be so easy. He wouldn’t suspect a thing. I could probably get to him in time. Just jam the knife into his throat where there’s no armor. His pride would probably let me get up close before he even attempted to protect himself.
“…wouldn’t you, Your Highness?” Marian is staring at me, then her eyes dart down to where I’m holding the knife.
I release the cutlery—it probably isn’t sharp enough anyway—and turn to her with a false smile on my lips.
“Is that a yes?” she prods.
“Um, yes, of course,” I say.
“Alright. If you are ready, we can go now,” Brevan, the enforcer, says.
Go. Fuck. What did I agree to?
“Are you finished?” Marian asks.
“Yes.” I push my chair back and rise. All the ladies do the same. I smile at them. “Thank you for the lovely conversation.”
“We’ll be here when you return,” Marian says. “Now, let me get you a cloak. It’s chilly outside.”
Outside. I’m going outside. With the man who murdered my brothers.
Six
Once we walkthrough the front doors, I look back, taking in the castle from the outside for the first time. Living in the city meant seeing the spires above the ominous black hedges and wondering what the rest of the building looked like.
It is just as dominating and impressive as I always imagined. Sweeping buttresses extend from turrets and arches. Glass windows dot the upper floors, but the lower levels are solid gray stone. Sculptures adorn each ledge and terrace. Closer to the ground, human figures with wings extend out of the stone, like they are flying. Angels weathered over time, making them look beaten and sorrowful instead of proud and inspiring.
The floors above them have more human figures, but without wings. The features are worn and difficult to make out, but I think they’re the gods and goddesses. In the center of a row of statues is a huge stained-glass window. I can’t make out the scene it depicts, but I am intrigued enough to want to find it when I’m back in the castle.
The other terraces and rooftops are graced with creatures. Each of them different, a varied collection of animal features. Some with wings, some without. Snouts and claws, fangs andtails. Some are more monster than animal, but all are ominous and unsettling.
