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Ann scoffed. “Don’t worry, Cali—when the king next summons you, I’ll know exactly where to find you.”
The guard took me by the arm—gently, as if still acknowledging my rank.
“Now go find me Beric. I’d like to have a word with him,” I heard Anise say, and my stomach dropped to my toes. If they somehow figured out how to navigate the labyrinth and my sweet Beric was still sleeping …
I looked to the top of the stairs, wondering once more where Eliza had gone, relieved that she, at least, had gotten away unseen.
And I prayed to God she had a better plan than I did.
CHAPTER41BERIC
I awoke two hours later, not very rested and full of anxiety. Even if I had wanted to sleep longer, nothing in me would allow it. Everything within me missed Cali.
But I was always anxious when things weren’t as they should be.
I dressed quickly, checked to make sure the king was still sleeping, and rushed into the hall. Halted. It was too soon for Eliza to have rearranged the labyrinth—she certainly never did it during daylight. And yet the hall was different.
I navigated it to the stairs, where there were two guards at the bottom waiting. This all felt like a lucid dream. The hall changed, guards at nonexistent posts.
What was going on?
Still I pretended like it was all routine as I made my way down the stairs.
“Lord Beric,” said a guard, “the queen requests your presence.”
“The queen?” I asked harshly, internally panicking. Kat was dead. Had he replaced her so quickly? How had he replaced her so quickly?
“Yes, my lord. So if you’ll just follow—”
“I know where the queen’s office is,” I said, shoving by them and storming forward to get some distance between us.
Guards attempting to escort me, the king replacing the queen, the hall switched ahead of schedule … I drew my sword without another thought. I wasn’t sure what I would find in Kat’s office, but it was more likely to be an ambush than a queen.
I found the door half open but shoved it so it slammed against the wall of the office, just to make sure there were no traps behind it. And then I stormed in, sword first. Kat had never seen a need for guards in her small office, but today it looked as if a grand meeting was taking place, six guards taking up far too much space for my comfort. But that wasn’t what halted my steps before reaching the desk.
It was the woman who sat there, her self-satisfied smirk making me want to kill her more than ever.
How Anise came to be queen at such short notice, when I’d only seen her speak with the king at the picnic, was a question that would have to plague me later. There was no time for conversation with a woman who had it in her to enact the worst kind of treachery.
I should’ve thrown her out of the palace on day one.
But there was no time to regret my decisions either.
“Where is Lady Cali?” I demanded.
“Oh, would you like to see her?” Anise gestured to no one in particular. “Guards, escort this traitor to the dungeons.”
“Don’t touch me,” I warned, and the guards obeyed. She might have been the queen in title—somehow, by some treachery—but everyone knew me. Any way this pretender thought she could punish their disobedience, they knew I could do far worse.
And Anise seemed to be rattled by that fact, because her eyes widened the slightest bit. She’d expected to have ultimate power, I suppose, like some sort of fairy tale. That was to my advantage.
“You have far too much power for a squire,” she said. She pulled the rope in the corner of the room, calling for more guards, as if six weren’t excessive. “I see now that keeping you alive would be a liability.”
“You watched me strike down a demon in The Dark. Do you truly think mortal men stand a chance against me?”
She fumbled for words, more annoyed than ever, even as she knew I was right. “Your arrogance will be your undoing.”
“Bernard.” I turned to a guard—it was clear this insufferable woman was just as useless as ever, despite her position of power. “Lady Cali is invaluable to the crown. You know this. You will forget whatever nonsense this woman told you and return her, unharmed, to me. Now.”
