“Will you be with him?” I’m almost afraid of the answer. If he is, it’s more opportunity to see each other, but it’s also harder to resist him.
“I suspect I will.”
“That’s good.” I try to keep my voice flat, devoid of emotion, but it breaks nonetheless.
Ahead, light spills from a glass door at the end. The ladies stop, and turn, gesturing for me to join them. I walk away from Brevan without a backward glance. I hate myself. Everything I touch, I destroy. And when I let myself hope, it crumbles.
Charlotte links her arm through mine. “You should see the greenhouse. It’s stunning.”
Nate pushes the door open and we step onto a shoveled pathway. There’s a thin layer of fresh snow covering it and flakes gently fall from the sky, catching on our clothing and hair. A few cling to my eyelashes and I brush them away.
Brevan stays behind us, completing the facade of us having protection when we both know the greater threat comes from the man we both serve.
Nate opens another door, this one the entry to a building of fogged glass. We step inside and I’m hit with a rush of heat. The entire space is green and thriving. Fragrant flowers and heavy fruit trees line a path that leads right down the middle.
I brush my fingertips over a pear. So this is how they have fresh fruit in the winter.
“They told us the emperor built this place for the late empress,” Genevieve supplies. “She chose every plant but passed before she could see it.”
I look around with fresh eyes, wondering what this might have looked like after she turned everything in here a deep shade of black. Was she aware of that in her planning or did she just choose her favorite plants?
I notice a lemon tree dotted with bright fruit. What would it have looked like if all the color was drained from them? It wouldn’t be an oasis. It would be a place of terror.
I wonder if the queen ever got over that aspect of her magic. For someone who loved plants to lose the ability to see the various shades of green in the leaves and stems along with the seemingly endless colors of flowers and fruit. Did it break her heart? Did she resent the emperor for making her go into the temple?
Continuing down the path, I study the plants, finding many that I recognize from the books in my old room. It’s warm and damp in here despite the snow beyond the glass. I wonder if it’s just the glass that traps the heat or if magic is used somehow to keep the space feeling like summer.
Something catches my eye, in the back corner, well off the path. You’d have to traipse through so many other plants to reach it, but there in all its proud, poisonous glory is a patch of elm’s breath and tied to one of the stems is a black lace ribbon.
Twenty
Sabina
“I’ll be right there,” I assure my ladies as they leave the greenhouse. Nate leads them back to the winter estate.
“What did you need to show me?” Brevan asks.
I guide him toward the end of the path, then point to the corner. He must see it immediately because he tenses. “Is it the same plant?”
“Yes.” My chest feels tight.
“Do you think it came from here? Could it survive for a few days?”
“Maybe? I’m not sure. I just know what it is from those books in my old rooms at the castle. The ones left behind there,” I admit.
“There were books about plants?”
“You didn’t know that?” I ask.
“I saw a couple of books, I never checked them.”
“There’s more.” I toy with the fabric of my sleeve, unsure of how to start this. He’s going to be upset either way. “I didn’ttell you about something I found in the tunnels under the castle. After you caught me, I figured it didn’t matter. None of us would be able to get down there. But there’s a garden underground. The plants are thriving. There’s no sun, no water. I don’t know how it’s there or how they’re alive. It was overgrown, like it had been there a long time.”
His jaw tenses. “I wish you’d have told me before we had that caved in.”
“I know. And it probably isn’t connected, but the plants growing there were all poisonous. Someone didn’t want anyone to find out they were growing those.”
“That is incredibly concerning. I’ll see if I can find any other entrances to the tunnels. Have them investigated,” he says.
