I knew I was right to hate him.
I sprinted across the lawn, running for the mansion.
I passed a perplexed Eventide, and Indigo—who was carrying a breakfast tray for me.
I would have stopped to talk to Indigo, but something pushed me on. I thundered up a set of stairs, dodged a maid, and skidded to a stop in front of Rigel’s room.
“Rigel?” I opened the door—my heart rising.
Maybe he’s finally back?
I stepped inside, and my hopes collapsed.
Nope. The room looks the same as it did when I woke up yesterday morning.
I closed the door behind me and sagged against it as I stupidly looked again.
Nope. Even the giant white feather I’d found on the middle of the bed was still sitting on the chest of weapons that I’d set it on.
I sighed and slumped my way across his room, aiming for the door between our rooms.
I furrowed my eyebrows as I rested my hand on the door knob and felt a familiar, wispy sensation.
Is that fae magic?
I pushed the door open, and the sensation of magic flashed stronger.
That was when the dagger bit into my shoulder.
I shouted with pain as I fell into my bedroom, almost tumbling on top of a second dagger that had fallen to the ground.
My palms sweated, and I tried to look back in my pain to see who had hurt me, but I was alone. No one was there.
The back of my throat burned, and blood dripped down my arm.
“Leila?” Indigo opened my bedroom door. Still holding my breakfast on a tray, she took a few steps in, but dropped it with the crack of shattering dishes when she saw me. “Chase!” she screamed. “Chase!”
My body trembled, and I tried to nod at Indigo. But in my mind, the truth had already dawned on me.
That was a trap, set with fae magic. A trap that sprang when I opened the door.
* * *
“It was riggedwith magic so it would trigger when the door was opened,” Chase explained to me about an hour later. “It is fortunate you were going from Consort Rigel’s room to your own, or you would have been struck in a way that could have killed you.”
I was seated at my desk in my study. My shoulder barely ached. My staff had it bandaged with cloth that had been soaked in such a strong healing potion, I could taste its floral scent.
Lord Linus stood with Chase—I had no idea why he decided it was necessary to come. I wanted to see the fae lord about as much as I wanted to see Rigel at that moment.
I looked from Chase to the weapon that was used in the trap.
In the moment I’d thought it was a pair of daggers, but since Chase had set the weapons on my desk, I recognized the thicker blades and their eye-catching metal hand guard.
Rigel had told me himself, they were Chinese butterfly swords—the very same ones from his collection.
“Do you recognize the swords, my Sovereign?” Chase asked.
I ignored the question. “Rigel didn’t set the trap.”
