“You could have warned me.” I was angry at how choked my words sounded—how my emotions bled through even when I tried so hard to hold them back. “You could have said something.Anything.”
“I know,” she whispered back. “I’m sorry. But she—she gave me a job, a home, when nobody else would. I owed her a debt. And she knows about my family, things I’ve been searching for my whole life. The answers wereright there. All I had to do was?—”
“Betray me,” I finished for her.
Her shoulders slumped, that wavy red hair swaying across her chest. “She was going to get her way no matter what. I tried to protect you the only way I knew how.”
I didn’t respond. I took a step back and straightened. “I hope it was worth it,” I finally said, forcing ice into my tone. “I hope you got your answers.”
“I think today’s revelation made things a whole lot more complicated.” Devora’s eyes slid behind me to meet Azura’s. “How could you not tell me my parents were Veridian?”
I turned and saw Azura bristle. “I had no idea,” she admitted. “I don’t know who your parents are, Devora. All I know is that you were found on the shores of the North Territory as an infant.”
Devora’s eyes flashed. She jumped forward, and I could have sworn wisps of shadows appeared once again where she stood. “Youliedto me? You promised if I helped you, you’d tell me!”
“And you were desperate enough to show your hand, dear. I knew you’d do anything to get what you wanted, just as I would. We’re not so different, you and I,” Azura remarked.
“I amnothinglike you,” Devora spat, then spun to face me. “Riss—Your Majesty, I’m sorry. I never wanted to hurt you, but I—I made a mistake. So many mistakes.” Her voice hitched. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Start from the beginning.”
She nodded. “I was hired by the Reaux family four years ago. I served as Lady Reaux’s handmaiden, and she grew to trust me. She made up a plan to have me transferred over to the palace’s staff so she could have eyes and ears on the Grimaldi family, although she wouldn’t tell me why. So I…got close to the prince.” She averted her gaze from mine.
“As Lady Reaux knew he would, he eventually brought me to the palace. I worked there for two years, spying on the crown, delivering information back to her. Nine months ago, when King Orion died, things became…different. Galen would disappear for weeks on end. Lady Reaux stopped communicating with me, and everyone was quieter, more secretive. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. But when word came aboutyouarriving”—she gestured toward me—“she reached out again. Told me what she needed me to do, in exchange for information on my family.
“Katrine and I were assigned to be your lady’s maids. She had no idea about any of this, of course—I didn’t want her involved. After we met you, after we heard about what you’d been through over in your empire, the way you were changing things for your people…” Her shoulders fell. “I couldn’t do it. I told Lady Reaux I refused to go along with her plan. I thought she would give up, but then I found out about the attack on the way to the Mid Territory, and Iknewit was her. She was serious. She was willing to do anything to get you out of the way, even kill you. So I went back to her and offered my deal: I’d do what I could to drive you off, if she swore not to hurt you again.
“I’d heard rumors about one of the citizen’s daughters winding up dead in the palace several months ago. I found her father and told him Galen would be at the Harvest Tournament. Then I bribed the guards to let Tovar Printh through with his weapon. I hoped if you saw the kind of man Galen was, you’d be scared away. Orpissed off—it didn’t matter, I just wanted to give you a reason to bolt.”
Devora paused to rub a hand on the back of her neck. Her cheeks paled as she took a deep breath. “When that didn’t work, I—I remembered how upset you’d been about shifting. How the people were scared of you. I thought—I thought if nothing else could convince you to leave,thiswould. So I found the fox.”
I gritted my teeth against the pressure mounting in my chest. She’d seemed unlike herself that night. Almost as if she didn’t want to go to the Harvest Festival. And when I was burned, she dropped everything to take care of me, with an urgency I’d thought was compassion but turned out to be guilt. All the signs were there, but I’d been too blind to see them.
Her eyes swam with silver as she met my stare. “I hate myself for what I did to you.” She swallowed. “But it was better than watching you die.”
“Were you behind the mine collapsing as well?” Thorne asked, stepping to my side.
Devora shook her head. “No, that wasn’t me. I wasn’t the only one working for her. When I didn’t succeed, she turned to other means. She must have paid someone in the South Territory to cause the cave-in.”
Thorne rounded on his mother. “Marigoldwas in those caves, Mother. Have you lost your mind? If anything had happened to her, if asinglehair on her head had been?—”
“I didn’t know she would be there!” Azura cried out. For the first time, she looked desperate. True fear crossed over the hard lines of her face. “She wasn’tsupposedto be there, Thorne. I would have never gone through with it had I known. I made sure she wasn’t caught in the collapse. She wassafe.”
Thorne’s jaw flexed beneath his thick beard. “Then I guess it didn’t matter that your ‘accident’ almost killed me too, as long as it got Clarissa. It’s all collateral damage to you.”
Azura reached forward to cup Thorne’s cheek, but he shoved her hand away. “That was a mistake,” Azura whispered. “Clarissawas supposed to be alone while Galen was distracted by the miner girl. You and your ridiculous heart simply couldn’t stay away from her.”
I turned back to Devora. “The poison, then. Our last night in the South Territory. Who was that?”
“I didn’t find out about that until after,” Devora said. “Lady Reaux spiked the whiskey, thinking you and your friends would have a few drinks after the ball, like you had the other nights.”
I hummed. “Take the Veridians out all at once.”
“But the girl who brought him the whiskey had no idea,” Devora finished.
“Another mistake, I assume?” Thorne snarled at his mother. “Yourmistakesseem to be hurting everyone you claim to care about, Mother.”
Devora glanced between him and me. “She had me spy on you,” she confessed. “One last time. Before the Hunt. I—I told her what you said about Veridians. And about Galen.” She twisted her lips. “I thought it could look like cause for treason, and if Galen found out, he would send you away.”
