“ButwhyAlanna?” Jade’s throat constricted and her eyes stung. “Alanna wasn’t involved. She had no stake in the conflict.”
“But she might have known who the killer is.”
Theo’s soft words stopped Jade in her tracks, bringing her to Alanna’s last moments in the parlor. Alanna said she didn’t think Marchand was behind the murders. She’d recognized a man at Marguerite’s ball and made a connection to someone who might be responsible. But was he the assassin or the mastermind?
Theo got only a few steps ahead before he noticed Jade had halted, and he turned back around to her. “We can come back in a few days and question Arabella once things have settled a little,” Theo suggested.
“No.” Jade dropped her face to the floor, shaking her head. “We don’t have that long. If the killer is still out there, we can’t delay. Prince Reynauld may be targeted...or Arabella. We can’t...Ican’t let them die.”
Jade didn’t try to hide the desperation in her voice. She’d failed too many times. The killer had bested her again and again, but no more. She would end this.
“So what do we do? We don’t have any more leads.”
Leads. Jade knew where she could always get a fresh lead. He always managed to be one step ahead of her.
She swallowed as she tilted her face up to Theo. He wasn’t going to like this idea, but it was their best course of action. Jade would just have to convince him.
“I have to go to Nicolas.”
A breath left Theo’s lips in a disbelieving huff, as though even the thought of her suggesting such a thing was criminal. “Absolutely not.”
“It’s our best chance.” Jade’s voice lowered, heavy and earnest. “He will know something. I’m sure of it.”
Her eyes locked onto his, pleading with Theo to agree. A muscle ticked in Theo’s jaw as he lifted his gaze.
“All right, we can get a unit for backup—”
“We don’t have the luxury of that much time, Theo. Gathering a unit in this mess won’t be quick, and it will take even longer traveling with agroup. The farmhouse is four hours away as it is.” Jade lifted her hand to Theo’s face, resting gentle fingers on his jawline and angling his face down to her. “I need to do this. Now. Before someone else dies.”
Theo’s jaw worked again before he shoved his free hand through his hair. “All right. But I’m coming with you.”
Jade nodded quickly, thankful she’d at least gotten him to agree. “Of course.”
Theo took Jade’s fingers from where they rested against his face and squeezed them. Jade felt the message in the squeeze.
I hope you know what you’re doing.
As the two turned to continue down the winding hallways, Grand General Devereaux came around the corner, stopping the minute she saw them. Jade and Theo saluted in an instant.
“Grand General—”
Devereaux raised a hand to cut Jade off. “I heard. I’m on my way there now.”
Jade nodded and moved a foot to go on, but stopped as a new thought passed through her mind. “Grand General...”
Devereaux’s gaze pierced Jade. “Yes, Captain?”
“The informant we discussed previously, Nicolas Camarata...Did you know him as a personal guard to King Mervyn? He was a private hire, not associated with the military.”
Jade had to ask; she had to know. So far, no one had been able to verify Nicolas’s claims, but as closely as Devereaux had worked with the king for so long, she surely had to know of him.
The question seemed to catch Devereaux off guard. She turned her body toward Jade, her eyes slightly widening as her head tilted. “Yes. Yes, I did.”
Something akin to relief flooded through Jade’s system, as though the confirmation from Devereaux was all she needed, regardless of the confession she was about to make. “He only ever provided me solid leadsand always had the most up-to-date information. Since the killer is apparently still active, I think it would be beneficial to go back to him and see what he knows. If I have your approval.” Jade said nothing about the grand general being wrong about Marchand, but the implication hung in the air between them.
A curious expression stole over Devereaux’s face as she glanced between Jade and Theo. Her eyes landed again on Jade as an assessment of the captain settled onto her features. “Go. You are not needed here.” Devereaux slightly tipped her chin up and straightened out the angle of her head. “See what you can learn.”
Jade set a brisk pace, keeping their horses at a canter for most of the ride to the farmhouse. With the sun often behind big, billowy clouds and a touch of coolness in the breeze as they rode, Jade shivered with the sweat that rolled down her neck. It matched the unease in her gut that hadn’t abated since Alanna had fallen to the floor.
