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But to my annoyance and borderline rage, my despicable cousin was the only one who entered the bleak hall. Her gait was unhurried, haughty, until finally she stopped in front of my cell. She looked far too satisfied, as if she was ready to laugh because she thought she had finally won the best suitor.

“Comfortable?” she asked, batting her lashes at me.

“No guards?” I retorted, unable to keep in my disgust. “I thought you were the queen.”

“I don’t need protection from you, cousin.” She shook her head at me, as if I was just a foolish child. “Besides, I do plan on letting you out of here, after the fuss dies down. You are necessary, after all, to the king and his battle with The Dark. But I had to make a show of power, first. To prove to everyone I deserve to be here.”

“By putting the king’s knight, not to mention his most important wife, in prison?”

“Most important?” she scoffed. “I’m the queen.”

“You don’t understand anything,” I growled, gripping the bars of my cell, wishing instead I was grabbing her hair to rip out. “Not the purpose of the king’s wives, not the mess you’ve gotten us all into—much less yourself.”

“Instead of being jealous, you could be happy for me. I mean, didn’t we both get what we want?”

I bit my tongue, to hold back saying something vindictive. As much as I wanted to give her a thrashing, that wasn’t the way to get what I needed from her.

“Anyway,” said Anise, “I didn’t come down here to gloat. The king summoned me, and he—” She suddenly looked disturbed, as if she had forgotten something until that moment. “Well, he was … bleeding. I didn’t think that could happen to Deus Rex.”

“Welcome to the inner sanctum,” I said, bitterly.

“He asked for you—to stop the bleeding, I presume. I thought I’d bring you myself, just to keep his good graces.”

“Get somebody else to do it. Or do it yourself—you’re a knight, aren’t you?”

Anise looked appalled. “And demote myself? Are you insane?”

“How did you meet the king, anyway?” I asked. “There’s no way you convinced him to make you queen in the span of one picnic.”

Anise was beaming as she leaned closer. “You know, the miraculous thing is, I actually did.” She chuckled, enjoying her own amusement. “He seemed charmed by me in the receiving line at your reception, and then the picnic presented the opportunity to connect. But I’ll admit, it was really the angel that did it.”

I paused, narrowing my eyes. “Angel?”

“In The Dark,” she said, and I froze at her words. “I had the duke in the palm of my hand at the time, but why settle for a duke when you can have the king? That’s what the angel told me, so I took a gamble and wished for it. And now look at me. Beric was clearly trying to block our blessings when he told us not to listen to it.”

My hands trembled against the bars. “Do you not realize the king killed the queen so you could take her place?”

“The king executes a lot of people,” she replied. “She clearly deserved it.”

Instead of telling her she was a heartless, selfish creature—she would never listen, anyway—I whistled the few notes necessary to erect a shield behind her, shoving her forward. She stumbled, knocking her forehead against the metal bars, her startled, pained yelp the only satisfying thing about this entire exchange.

She gasped, gaping as she pressed her hands to her forehead. Almost immediately, she was back to the same wicked, selfish scowl I’d grown up with. “You know, I was going to let you out, but perhaps a few more hours down here will make you see reason.”

She turned on her heel and hurried down the hall, her hand still pressed to what I hoped would be a massive bruise.

I was glad for her to leave me alone so I could think. Now I knew with assurance that there was no way I could let the king rule in this cruel way another day. Whatever was in The Dark, it was no angel—and there was only one way to destroy it.

But first, I had to find some way to meet Beric.

I tugged on the bars, testing their strength. The joints seemed not quite as firm as they ought. I was certain these cells hadn’t been used in ages, and had suffered from damp conditions and neglect. So perhaps I could break them with magic. But even if I did, how would I get out of the palace?

I took a breath and looked to the window instead—a narrow rectangle with metal bars. This would be trickier, since there were no joints to break. I would literally have to cut away the bars to get through. And I wasn’t entirely sure my skirt would fit.

But if my magic could slice through the bones of a giant demon, it could certainly make a window in stone accessible. I would have to do it unamplified, but this wasn’t the time to doubt my strength.

I was the Knight of the God King, after all.

I moved the small, flimsy cot over, standing on it to peer out the window. There was no one near the building—after all, prisoners were no longer kept here, so there was no point in having anyone patrol. A relief, because there was no telling how long this was going to take.