Jade didn’t know what to do with that possibility, but she couldn’t sort it out now. If the assassin was here, she needed to be on guard.
Knowing that someone had managed to scale the wall and slip in through the morning room window changed her strategy. Jade had to put her search for evidence on hold and find who was here with her.
If it was Theo, he could be outside the room trying to locate Jade. Perhaps he’d even gone into the library from the hallway door.
To eliminate that theory, Jade returned to the door leading to the morning room from the hallway, opening it slowly and peeking out. Withnothing other than the same distant clock cutting through the deep silence, Jade dared to stick her head out of the doorway.
The hallway was empty, seeming thoroughly undisturbed. Jade pulled back and closed the door without a sound, traversing to the door connecting the morning room to the library and repeating her sequence. The library was just as she had left it.
A heavy pit formed in Jade’s stomach. If the intruder was the assassin, it didn’t seem he was here for her. He was probably already making his way to his target.
It didn’t make sense. The assassin tended to use poison that had to be consumed through food or drink, but it was the middle of the night. Neither Arabella nor Reynauld would be eating anything until the morning, and adding the poison to something now wouldn’t guarantee that it would end up with the intended victim.
But the death at the opera had changed things. If the assassin was a sorcerer, as Jade believed, he didn’t need to employ poison to kill his victims. All he needed was the influence of his magic. He could rouse his victim from sleep and convince them to fall out their bedroom window, or worse.
And Jade was fortunate enough to be here. She could stop this. She was in the right place at the right time to save Arabella, or possibly Prince Reynauld. She would resume her search in the library when she was certain the father and daughter were safe.
Jade sprang into action, slipping into the hallway once again. Arabella’s bedroom was down the suite across the hall, which not only made her closer and easier to reach—it made her the assassin’s likely target, considering his entry point. Jade found the door to the sitting room that connected both sisters’ bedrooms and started there.
The aroma of fresh florals filled the sitting room. Curtains had been left open, allowing the smattering of light from outside to guide Jade through to Arabella’s dressing room. Memories of the last time she had been in this sitting room returned to her, weeks ago when she’d spied on the Fellsrinsisters choosing outfits for the masquerade ball. How long ago that felt, back before she had personally met either of them. When things were not so dire and their biggest concern was what dress to wear.
The door to Arabella’s dressing room stood ajar, and Jade took it as an invitation. Nothing seemed amiss, but the real question lay beyond Arabella’s bedroom door. Going into this night, she knew investigating Arabella’s room as she slept wasn’t outside the realm of possibility, but she never imagined she’d be sneaking in under these circumstances.
Jade laid her hand on the doorknob and sucked in a deep breath before letting it out in a slow stream. Her pulse raged, but she ignored it, needing complete access to all her faculties.
She pushed the door open. The room was bathed in shadow. Closed curtains and an empty fireplace made the room more akin to a tomb than a bedchamber.
Without closing the door, Jade crept inside one slow footstep at a time, straining in the blackness to make out the features of the room. The broad, four-poster bed sat against the opposite wall, the easiest part of the room to make out. Jade tiptoed to it, her body hunched halfway to the ground in case she needed to drop quickly. A long lump crested under the covers in the middle of the bed, with a mass of dark hair splayed across the pillow.
Arabella.
The soft sound of her breathing filled the quiet space, in tune with the rise and fall of her back under the blanket, and some of the tension knotting Jade’s stomach eased. Arabella was alive … for now, at least.
In what Jade could tell of the room, no one else occupied it. No creeping sensation of being watched cooled her blood. The assassin wasn’t here.
Since Arabella was unscathed and apparently alone, Jade assumed that she was not the killer’s target. Not yet.
Which meant he was on his way to Reynauld’s chambers, if he wasn’t there already.
Panic seized Jade’s heart. For all her failings, she wouldn’t fail at this. She wouldn’t let the assassin kill Prince Reynauld.
Jade slunk out of the room as quietly as she had entered, leaving the sitting room and making a dash for Prince Reynauld’s suite, using the staff staircase again. It wasn’t far, and her intimate knowledge of the home’s floor plan guided her down corridors and through passageways. A dull glow gleamed in the unlit hallways, growing brighter as she approached the prince’s quarters. When she reached the final corner, she skidded to a halt at the sound of a man clearing his throat.
Jade’s heart raced as she crouched and pulled a small mirror out of her belt pouch. She held it in front of her, angling it to show her the view down the hallway and careful not to catch the light of the sconces illuminating the passage.
Two men in military uniforms with insignia marking them as members of prince’s personal guard stood outside the gilded double doors that led to the heir’s quarters in the family wing. For a moment, Jade considered approaching them and telling them about her suspicions. She wore no insignia on her espionage uniform, but they might know her name.
But mentally disarming them, convincing them that she was who she claimed, and getting them inside the prince’s chambers would not happen quickly, if it happened at all. She needed an alternative.
Not to mention, she wasn’t authorized to be here.
Jade turned and sprinted back the way she came, her soft-soled boots barely tapping on the wooden steps as she descended in a flurry. She took a beat to scan the bottom opening of the stairs and found it clear. Then she became a shadow and flew through the back of the workrooms until she returned to the staff yard outside.
Not far from her, a sloped set of wooden doors extending from the wall to the ground led to the cellar, where the prince’s escape route from his chambers let out, a route known only by royal family members close to Reynauld and the military. Keeping her ears alert to any unusual sound, Jadekneeled at the doors and unlocked them with her picks. The left door squealed as she opened it. Jade tensed. Anyone nearby would have heard that. She rushed down the steps and eased the door down behind her, not squeaking as badly going in the opposite direction, and she hoped no guard was patrolling close by at the moment.
Now she had another reason to hurry.
Jade passed the rows of wine bottles and approached a rather ordinary-looking cabinet covered in a layer of dust. She opened it and pushed the false back, revealing a narrow, pitch-black tunnel beyond.
