Terror coursed through my veins.
“That won’t happen.” Tallis kneeled in front of me. His voice was steady and sure, but his gaze darted toward the door. We only had minutes and we both knew it.
“How can you be sure?”
He took my hands in his. "It's your word against theirs. An accusation against a royal needs inexplicable proof. Stephani does not want to leave the castle and she knows she can’t openly accuse you of murder, especially when all the sisters were afflicted with your illusions.”
There was a roar outside and Tallis ran to the window. “He knows.”
I looked at my hand, at the blood that wasn’t mine.
The animalistic fury sounded all throughout the castle.
Tallis guided me into the bath chamber where he grabbed a towel and began cleaning my hands. He put the cloth into the water and vigorously rubbed my fingers. When the blood was gone, he dumped the dirty water into the tub and pulled the lever to refill the basin.
“You have to go,” I said.
“And leave you alone?” He gawked at me. “Not happening.”
“You can’t be in here,” I said, my whole body shivering. Even though I didn’t want him to leave.
“There are spots on your dress. The scent will leave a trail.” Tallis wiped the wet cloth across my stomach. “Take this off and burn it.”
“Get me a dress out of there.” I pointed to my wardrobe.
He went and rifled through my clothes.
After undoing the loop around my neck, I pulled the string of my dress in the back, but since I had requested Olivia to tie my corset extra tight—I wanted to be as uncomfortable as possible so that I could feel something other than sadness—it was difficult to fit my fingers through.
“I can’t do this without help,” I said, turning my back to Tallis.
His eyes widened and his cheeks flushed red, but he nodded and rushed forward. Quickly, he undid the top knots, his fingers releasing all the tension in my back. “Can you . . . do,” he stuttered his words and stepped away. “Can you do the rest?”
I held the front of my dress up as I turned around to face him.
His flustered expression deepened to something else, his eyes going from wide to nearly slits. The way his heated gaze studied me filled my stomach with a strange flutter, and I gripped the gown tighter with one hand and held out the other. This castle was making us all mad.
“The nightgown,” I said.
“Right.” He swiped it off the floor and handed it to me. “Do you need any more help?”
Unable to speak, I shook my head.
He turned, moving toward the open window. “He’s not there anymore. It looks like they moved the body. I’ll need to go down there and explain what happened. I’ll say Bianca grabbed one of your blades and stabbed herself, thinking she was hitting a snake from your illusion.”
“I hate those witches. Everything started happening when they arrived at the castle,” I said, slipping into the emerald green night dress.
I walked over to the window and looked outside at the fire that bloomed in the distance. In all my years of being queen, I’d never made decisions based out of anger or fear, yet since Laoise passed, everything I had learned to be a just ruler unraveled.
My head pounded and I hugged Tallis’ waist. He tensed at first, before relaxing and draping an arm around my shoulders.
“We’re going to get through this,” he murmured. “We will find a way—”
A tremor shook the castle and we swayed on our feet.
“What’s happening?” I asked as loud groaning gears drowned out my question and the entire castle moved. “Tallis!”
He gripped me tighter, before leaning over and glancing outside the window, his eyes going wide. “He’s raising the keep.”
