“I wouldn’t. But Dommik would.”
“Dommik wouldn’t,” I countered.
“Dommik has.” Rhazien, descendant of Lorana, regent of the Southern Hive, looked as though he’d just bested me in a game of chess. “Who do you think killed your husband, Reyva?”
Checkmate.
Realization seized my breath. The mysterious bottle in my apothecary, the knowledge about my family, the offer, all of it. It had all been planned from the start.
Rhazien stood to his full height over me and inspected his now healed knuckles as he explained what would happen next. But I only took in a handful of his words. The ringing between my ears was too loud to focus.
What I did hear was fragmented. “New attendants…sleep in my quarters…keep up appearances.”
My nails dug into my palms. Trying to let in a new breath was like trying to exist within a wildfire.
Rhazien was explaining how he and Gorvin would need to rearrange the day’s schedule to make time to deal with the traces Dommik left all over my body when he noticed my struggle.
“Shh, shh, shh.” He reached down and stroked my back, but the contact did little to ease me. “Come now. You’ve been to the Northern Hive. You know there are worse fates than this, Reyva.”
Solstice was composed of three nights of events. Initially, there was to be a reception line to greet court members and traveling guests but—as Gorvin put it—due to my indiscretions,adjustments needed to be made.
Rhazien decided to lean into the narrative that this event could and should be different due to its rarity.
“A spectacle wouldn’t be questioned,” Gorvin had assured his regent.
Hours later, I sat completely naked as my newly appointed attendants painted me with a shining golden resin.
They generously applied the liquid to cover every inch of me before my new Alba—who refused to tell me her name—presented me with a black box. I slowly peeled away the satin bow. Not that I could move quickly, the golden applicant was beginning to tighten on my skin. Almost like a mud mask I’d tried once with the ladies of Illica.
I gasped when I tipped the lid of the box back and I sensed the ladies behind me still in their tasks, daring to sneak a glance.
Twinkling back up at me was lingerie made of black diamonds—the same style of gems I wore as a collar during my welcome ball. Back when my life at the Hive seemed promising. Now, these stones, stunning as they were, felt mocking. And I contemplated their intended meaning.
Was this a sincere gift? Something he thought I would enjoy? He couldn’t be that daft.
“You’re meant to wear these tonight,” not-Alba said.
I lifted my brows. “In front of the guests?”
Not-Alba nodded.
“Surely, you must be mistaken,” I scoffed.
“It’s no mistake, Lady Reyva.” Gorvin had entered at some point during the exchange. The steward donned his finest clothes I’d seen to date and dwarfed all of the ladies in the room.
“So, I’m to be paraded around like a whore?” I seethed at him and I was sure I heard one of the ladies gasp at my question from beneath her gray robes.
Gorvin tsked and looked down his pointed nose at me. “No. You’re to be celebrated as the treasure you are to all of us. To what you symbolize.”
Treasure. Symbol. Rhazien’s jewel.
A sickening, sour flavor spread across my tongue.
“I can barely move, Gorvin.” My skin began to tighten and itch beneath the applied golden concoction.
“Correct. Messy business, this particular substance. It can be quite uncomfortable. But that’s the price we pay.”
“The price we pay for what?”
