Page 124 of House of Crimson Cloak and Silver Teeth

She pushes off the door and walks further into the room. “The guild has already written off this contract. We’re alone in this.”

The room goes silent except for the distant sounds of the city preparing for the night festivities of Merafall. Festival music drifts up from the main square. Somewhere a bell chimes the hour.

It will be sunset in two hours. The Queen’s deadline at noon tomorrow. Perhaps she will come tonight and Garrett will be nothing but ash and memory. His house will be struck from every record, his name forbidden to speak.

I make the decision quickly. “We will kill the Queen first.”

Kitty’s head snaps up. “What? You can’t be serious.”

“We kill her before she can choose Damnation.” I turn to look at her directly, letting her see that I mean every word. “Can it be done?”

For a long moment she just stares at me. Then the shock breaks apart and reveals the assassin underneath.

“The Wiolant compound has twenty-seven Grimsbane on rotation protecting the royal family,” she says slowly. “Plus their regular guard complement. Some of them are veterans from the border wars with Darvan.”

“Twenty-seven,” I repeat numbly.

Twenty-seven of my own guild members, protecting the person I need dead.

“Suicide odds,” Kitty agrees. But she hasn’t said no. She’s still calculating and thinking it through. “But I know their rotation schedule from my conversations with Shade.”

My eyebrows raise slightly. “Shade told you the Queen’s security rotation?”

“Not directly. But he complains about the work constantly. The third watch is short-handed, he said. They rotate positions near sundown and there’s always a gap in coverage.” She moves to my desk. “There’s a narrow window, maybe fifteen minutes, where the coverage thins while they switch positions. The regular guards are easy enough to slip past if you know what you’re doing.”

“Show me the entry points,” I say.

Kitty nods then reaches inside her jacket and produces a folded piece of parchment. She spreads it across my desk, smoothing out the creases carefully.

The Wiolant compound, sketched in meticulous detail. Guard posts marked in red ink dot the perimeter, while patrol routes traced in blue wind through the gardens and courtyards.

“The moment I heard about the Archon challenge, I knew it might come to this.” Her finger traces along the eastern wall. “Here. The garden entrance. Two regular guards stationed at the gate, replaced during shift change at sunset. We go over the wall just north of their position, through the tree line. The Queen walks the gardens most evenings around this time. Shade mentioned she’s predictable about it.”

I study the map, memorizing every detail and the entry point over the eastern wall. The target location marked with a small X near an ornamental fountain. Three different escape routes marked in green ink leading to different parts of the city.

“You’ve thought this through,” I observe.

“I always think things through.” She rolls her shoulders, working out tension. “The question is whether you’re actually willing to do this. Killing a queen might start a war.”

To save Garrett’s life?

I don’t hesitate. “Yes, I’m certain.”

“It won’t just be his life you’re saving. You’ll be putting him on the throne.” She watches me carefully. “King Garrett. Is that what you want?”

I think about Garrett’s face when his father announced the challenge. The exhaustion hidden beneath his calm. His dreams of running away from all of this.

“What I want doesn’t matter.” I shake my head. “Keeping him alive matters.”

Kitty studies me for another long moment, then nods.

“Weapons?” I ask.

“Daggers only. We can’t afford noise or anything that might alert the other Grimsbane stationed nearby.” She begins rolling up the map. “Poison on the blades. Something fast-acting so the Queen dies quickly.”

“What about Shade?” The question has been sitting in my throat since she started explaining the plan. “He’s protecting her. He might be close.”

Kitty's hands go still on the map. “I know.”