I took a breath, smoothing my expression. “I hope you will have more faith in the crown, Patrick,” I said quietly, “once we set everything right.”
He merely stared, his brows furrowed. I pushed past him and hoped with all my heart that I hadn’t made a false promise.
Outside the opera house, Giselle stood at the bottom of the steps with Maddox. She set the iridescent bottle onto the sparse grass. The night was still and the stars illuminated just enough. I ran down to join them, a chilled breeze raking through my clothing.
“You might want to stand back,” Giselle shouted.
Maddox and I obliged, tucking ourselves behind a tall white pillar. Giselle whipped out a slip of paper, not unlike the one she had put on Dominic. She took a deep breath and made a complicated motion with her hands, too fast to decipher.
The bottle shuddered, teetering on the bumpy ground, then shattered into a million shimmering pieces. A mound of iridescent sand pooled at Giselle’s feet.
“Huh,” she said, regarding it. “I thought it would be more dramatic.”
A whoosh of something blew past me, tickling my cheeks and tousling my hair. It was not wind, neither cold nor hot. I knew it from the moment it touched me that it was magic. Pure magic.
***
WE FOUND LORD FREDERICKdozing off in a dim parlor on the third floor. His gray eyes widened when I explained everything to him, from Dominic’s stunt double to Celeste’s plan. His face softened when I told him of King Maximus’s decision to separate me from Bennett.
“What do you need me to do, milady?” Lord Frederick said. I was immensely grateful for him in that moment.
“Help us escort Celeste back to Delibera,” I said.
He nodded. “Anything else? As His Majesty’s former advisor I believe I can convince him to change his mind about—”
I shook my head. I knew what he was going to say, but I couldn’t bring myself to hope.
We waited until the end of Celeste’s show to return to the auditorium. It seemed the singer hadn’t noticed any change until the moment she saw us backstage. Maddox and another guard seized her upon arrival.
“What are you doing?” Celeste spat, still dressed in her sparkling robes.
“You can’t steal magic and expect no one to notice,Cecelia.” Giselle crossed her arms, arching a brow when the singer’s face twisted from surprise to malice.
“Giselle?” she screeched. “You b—”
Maddox yanked her arms back and tied them with a length of rope.
Celeste glared. “You don’t have any proof! You can’t incriminate me without solid evidence.”
“Oh we have evidence, alright,” Giselle said, dangling Celeste’s throat spray in front of her face. She looked like she was enjoying herself immensely. “Andwe have someone who will attest to your crimes.”
The singer narrowed her eyes, just noticing my presence. “Dominic,” she said with a hiss. She turned to Giselle. “I’m surprised they haven’t arrested you too. My magic isn’t half as bad as yours.”
Giselle’s expression grew dark. Before she could retort, Lord Frederick approached Lady Ruan who had rushed in from the back hallway, mouth gaping at the sight of her star soprano bound up. He explained everything to her. The poor woman looked heartbroken as Maddox and the other guards led Celeste away.
“None of this is your fault,” I assured Lady Ruan as I passed.
She merely blew her nose into her handkerchief.
The witches filed out of the opera house. If anyone noticed their magic almost being taken away, they were impressed enough with the show to brush it off as their imagination.
Witches were a passive people, after all.
