“Have you completed your tasks yet?”
“No, milady, we are trying to gather more support.”
“Hmm.”Ezrielle’s shadow drifted across the floor, followed by the gentle whoosh of a body sinking into a cushioned seat.“You have expressed I’ve obliged them of my support?Of my hope for change?They will need a leader to look to once this is done, after all.And we need to ensure I am the leader they trust.”
The other voice in the room cleared, but I couldn’t identify it.“All of the above, Your Highness.My people are working to ensure it is accomplished.”
Ezrielle sighed.“That is all.You may be on your way.I have other guests to entertain tonight.”
Footsteps traveled across the floor.
“One more thing, Chancellor.”
I screwed my face down in confusion.The chancellor?
“I don’t want my brothers to have any part in this.In the end.”
Silence stretched between them for a few moments.What was going on?
“As you wish, Your Highness.”
A door opened and closed.
I wiggled my way out from behind the plant and over the railing.I had barely made it two feet from the railing when Ezrielle stepped onto the balcony.I held my breath, not daring to move, not daring to make the slightest of sounds.The barest turn of her head, and she would see me.She strolled to the edge of the balcony dressed in a sheer nightgown, the wind tousling her curly brown locks.
I didn’t look directly at her.I watched from the corner of my eye.People could sense when they were being stared at, just like they could sense another’s presence.Fire raced through every muscle in my body, heat and pain flooding the muscles underneath my skin.I bit my lip but it wasn’t great enough to distract from the strain on my body.I couldn’t hold this for long.My fingers slipped, losing their grip on the stone, my hands shaking.
A knock came from the inner door and Ezrielle turned around in a flash of cloth, storming back into the room without noticing me hovering in the shadows.
I reached up, dragging myself farther away, but my fingers were stiff, cramping.Sideways was harder than moving straight up.I needed a break, and I needed a break now.My eyes flitted up to a balcony a little higher than the others.
I hoped his rooms matched the blueprints.
I worked my way upward, trying to tamp down my panic.As soon as I reached the railing, I hauled myself over it and onto the balcony, rolling onto my back.I was a good scaler, but only because I had hated it so much I had forced myself to practice until I could scale a building flawlessly.Desmond was the master among the three of us.
I closed my eyes, drawing in several ragged breaths and questioning my life choices.After training to be an assassin for five years, I wasn’t a very good one.I had vowed to only make one kill, didn’t like to climb, and wasn’t overly skilled with poisons.
But you can give any archer a run for their money.Desmond’s voice echoed in my head.And you’re the most valuable undercover spy anyone could hope to hire.
I pushed myself off the ground.I also could hardly do anything without curling into a ball and panicking if anyone touched me in the wrong way, sending flashbacks flooding through my mind.
Valeris’s balcony doors were closed, but not locked.He might not even be in there.My hands curled around the doorknob, afraid to open it.What if he wasn’t alone?I shooed the thought away.That was no concern of mine.
The door creaked as I pushed it open, and I slipped my head through the crack to survey the layout of his quarters.Hisextravagantquarters.The canopy bed was dripping in what looked like the softest linens in the world, and maps and tapestries covered the walls.I moved farther into the room, silently shutting the door behind me.My feet sank into the plush rug, far nicer than anything I had stepped on in my life.A fire burned in the hearth, indicating someone had occupied the room not long ago, if they weren’t still occupying it.The room branched off into two others, and the outer door lay against the far wall.I hesitated, questioning whether to slip out his door, but guards lined the halls outside the royal apartments.
Valeris strode out of one of the separate rooms, running a towel over his wet hair.We both yelped in surprise, jumping back.He threw the towel at me, and I batted it out of the air.
“Everything okay in there?”
The outer door swung open, and I dove out of sight beside the bed.
I looked up at a stunned Valeris—who was wearing nothing but trousers.
“I’m fine, Howland,” he said, clambering for an excuse.“I just— I stubbed my toe.”
I frowned, hoping it wasn’t a code phrase, but after a moment of deliberation the door shut once again, leaving us alone.
Valeris glared at me.“What are you doing here?”
