Naveed dropped into the seat beside me.Is something wrong?he signed.Have we been discovered?
I shook my head, sighing as I ran a hand through my hair. I couldn’t tell him. It wasn’t my secret. Even the fact that I would consider keeping it made me furious. It’d been hours since we’d spoke, but my anger hadn’t faded.
Arie had a Gift.
All this time, I’d thought the secret written across her face was her noble heritage, only to find it was a different heritage altogether: Jinni blood.
“Let’s focus on framing Prince Dev,” I answered finally. “Any ideas?”
When my friend shook his head, I rubbed a hand across my face. “We’re almost out of time.”
He clapped a hand on my back.
What would I do if this failed? I’d lived every waking hour of these last few years focused on finding justice. Everything hinged on this plan succeeding. But there was less than an hour left before Gideon’s time with us ended.
And Prince Dev was so drunk he’d fallen asleep in his chair.
I raised my head to check on him.
No change.
My eyes landed on Arie. Despite my best efforts to ignore her, I couldn’t look away. She was slumped in an extremely un-lady-like posture, staring at a spot on the floor.
Bosh appeared at my side. “Boss, I’m gonna take Arie back to the inn, okay? She says she’s not feeling good, but she doesn’t know the way back.”
Shame washed over me. I’d been so angry, I hadn’t even considered that she was stranded here because of me. I nodded and Bosh scurried back to her. When she stood to leave, I tried to catch her eye, but she didn’t look back.
The Gifted can’t be trusted,I reminded myself. Standing in a huff, I strode to the corner where Gideon still lounged on the gold sofas.
Prince Dev might be sleeping sitting up, but he was still all the way across the room. I should’ve expected a Jinni to side with his own kind. “You look like you’ve definitely found something,” I goaded him, dropping onto the sofa beside him.
“I’m beginning to think this is a waste of time,” Gideon replied. “The Prince-ling does not display any signs of misusing his Gift.” Those blue eyes flickered as he added in a dangerously soft tone, “Have you ever considered that perhaps the Gift isn’t the problem, but rather, the person who wields it?”
How dare he judge me? “Whatever the outcome, it’s the agreed upon payment,” I snapped. Taking a deep breath, I added in a calmer tone, “We still have until the end of the day.” Which, of course, ended in a handful of minutes.
The prince roused enough to call for another drink, leaning into the women around him, whispering in their ears. They giggled and batted their eyes at him.
A serving woman pushed through the crowds, causing a wave of annoyance as she strode toward the dais and the royals. Her thick, roped hair reached her knees and marked her as a foreigner from Chimigi. When she spoke, the torrent of foreign words confirmed it. She wailed and carried on in a language that meant nothing to me, tears streaking down her face, as she pointed at the prince.
“I believe this poor woman is requesting you to translate,” the king said to his son in a bored tone.
Prince Dev had shoved the other women off his arms, and while he pretended casual attention, the blush of wine in his pale cheeks seemed to have faded.Was he nervous?
“Of course,” he said with a grand smile that he cast out to everyone except the woman in distress. When he faced her, his tone turned sharp. We waited, glancing back and forth between them, listening to the babble.
The king’s foot tapped impatiently after a few moments. “What does she want?” he cut in when the prince didn’t seem inclined to share.
“Ah, well,” Prince Dev paused their discussion, turning from the woman to his father.
I watched his thoat bob and my suspicions grew. What if this was the moment I needed, finally, but none of us knew it? I clenched my teeth. Glancing over at Gideon, I hoped against hope that he might speak this foreign tongue, but he remained as expressionless as the rest of us, waiting for the translation.
“She does indeed want me to translate for her,” the prince began slowly. “Apparently, some scoundrel has taken advantage of her. Now she’s pregnant.”
Gasps sounded across the room as all eyes turned to the woman, lowering to her stomach. She placed her hands over her belly as only a mother does, all the while glaring murderous daggers at the prince. She lifted a finger, no longer weeping, but pointing directly at him and declaring something no one understood.
“She, ah,” Prince Dev cleared his throat and raised his voice to speak to the whole room. “She has asked me to help find the father.” He replied to her in her native tongue. His tone sounded dismissive, and the pregnant woman sneered.
When she spoke again, he didn’t bother to translate, calling instead for one of the castle serving women. “Help this poor woman to a spare room so she can rest. We will begin the search in earnest in the morning!” He waved them away.
