by Kaylin Lee
“No, no, it’s fine,” I heard myself say. I forced myself to step forward. Better here, in this madhouse full of guards, than alone with my own paranoia. Right? “I’m ready to eat now.”
Cole nodded, looking doubtful, his eyes crinkling as I moved to stand beside him. The dining hall grew quiet as the guards closest to us noticed our arrival. I scanned the room, my shoulders growing tense. Their faces didn’t seem to hold surprise or censure. Merely … curiosity. And perhaps a bit of amusement.
I fought to keep my expression neutral as Cole placed a hand on my back and pushed me gently through the tables, toward a long, wide window at the edge of the dining hall that seemed to be connected to a small, bright kitchen.
“Food is this way.” Cole glowered at the guards openly watching us with fascinated expressions as we walked past their tables to the window. “Don’t mind them. They’re not used to— Well, you know.”
“Not used to what?” I glanced at the guards around us one more time, then returned my gaze to Cole. It was too overwhelming to look anywhere else.
Cole’s cheeks reddened. “Never mind. Here’s the food.”
Cole had just loaded a plate for me with stew, bread, and dessert, when a feminine voice called, “Belle!”
Ella rushed across the dining hall toward me. “Ella,” I replied, smiling for the first time all day at the sight of her familiar, concerned face and messy, falling-down hair bun. “What are you doing here?”
Ella reached me and pulled me into an embrace. “I heard what happened.” She squeezed me tighter for a moment, then released me and pulled back. “I’m so glad you’re well.” Her gaze swept over me, and she frowned. “Are you well?”
I glanced around the dining hall. Most people had resumed eating, but several guards continued to watch. Cole hovered beside me, looking uncertain. “Well enough. I think. The prince asked me to remain here, with the Sentinels, until it’s safe to leave. I even have a room down the hall.”
Ella grinned. “He asked, did he? Doesn’t sound like our prince.”
“Fine. He required me to stay.” I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. “Regardless, I’m staying here. And,” I gestured to the plate Cole held beside me, “eating dinner. This is Cole, by the way. Cole, this is my friend Ella.”
Ella waved to Cole. “I know Cole. I’m staying here too! And so are Zel and my sisters.” She glanced over her shoulder, and I followed her gaze to see the tall blonde woman and two teenage girls slowly making their way across the room toward us. “It’s still not safe for them in the Mage Division,” Ella said softly. “Not since the article came out. And since I helped with the new mage regulations, I’ve … well, things have gotten worse for me in the Common Quarter, too. We’re all staying here until it all blows over.”
My heart twisted at the sight of Ella’s slumped shoulders. “I’m sure it will get better soon,” I offered. She half-smiled, and I nudged her arm. “Either that, or the city will fall apart completely.”
Ella let out a short laugh and introduced me to her family. Zel was kind and warm, but reticent. Her twins looked nothing alike. Briar Rose—“It’s Bri, Mom!”—was tall, with golden hair and skin like her mother, while Alba was short and pale, with dark hair and round, dimpled cheeks that made her look girlish and young. The thirteen-year-old twins stuck close together, watching the noisy guards around us with wary, wide-eyed fascination.
“Will you and Cole join us for dinner, Belle?” Ella’s stepmother offered me a kind smile. “If we’re all finding refuge here, we should stick together, don’t you think?”
I nodded. “I’d love to. Thank you.”
We sat at a table near the door. Cole took the seat between me and the nearest table full of guards, and I didn’t miss the glare he sent their way as they blatantly watched us.
After several minutes of silent chewing, Zel spoke up. “Did anyone read the Herald yet today?”
I shook my head, and so did Bri and Alba.
“I did,” Ella said, her voice barely above a murmur and her eyes on her plate. “It’s horrible, isn’t it?”
Zel nodded.
“What?” Alba looked between the two of them, her dark brow furrowed and lips pursed. “What’s horrible? Tell us already!”
“There was a surge in aurae deaths last night,” Ella answered after getting a subtle nod from Zel. “Over two hundred people were killed from overuse.”
Bri looked up from fiddling with her roll, which she’d been tearing into small shreds above her empty soup bowl. “Overuse? Why would anyone do that?”
Ella shrugged. “I don’t know, Bri. Why would anyone use the essence in the first place? Perhaps they find it so compelling, they lose the desire or ability to stop using before it becomes … lethal.”
I frowned. I’d been skimming past aurae headlines for months, but they rarely mentioned death by overuse. “But aurae is expensive, isn’t it? How many commoners can possibly afford to purchase enough aurae to die from overuse, anyway?”
“That’s just it.” Zel leaned forward, her face tight. “This morning’s article said the price dropped suddenly, yesterday. Someone’s flooding the city with new aurae, and with so much supply, the price crashed. Commoners who’d only ever been able to purchase tiny amounts suddenly got ahold of far more, and … Well, you can imagine the result.”
Alba shivered. “Only commoners? Were they all in the River Quarter?”
“Mostly,” Ella said. “Nearly fifty bodies were found in an old warehouse in the River Quarter. The combined glow from their halos was so strong, passersby saw it through the windows and went in to investigate.”
“Their halos?” I racked my brain but couldn’t remember any mention of the word in the article I’d read months earlier.
Bri cocked her head. “You don’t know?”
Alba elbowed her sister. “Bri!” She smiled shyly at me. “The Herald did a major investigation of aurae not long after the attack on your school. You were probably still recovering when the article came out.”
Recovering. Asleep. Brain damaged. “Probably.”
Alba continued, “When someone absorbs the essence, their skin begins to glow silver. The River Quarter commoners started to call the glow ‘aurae’s halo,’ and the name stuck. The Herald discovered that at first, the halo fades as soon as the essence wears off. But the more someone uses the essence, the longer the halo lasts. For those who have absorbed so much aurae that they died from overuse, the halo grows bright and lasts for several days. That’s how they find the bodies.”
I pushed my half-eaten bowl of stew away. “I see,” I managed. A silver glow? I’d seen that before, and not in the alleys of the River Quarter. I kept my eyes on the scuffed table in front of me as dread made my stomach ache. I’d seen that glow in my own villa—in Jade’s bedroom. The night before my arrest, the air in the bedroom had stung with a strange tension, and Jade’s skin had seemed to glow with a strange, pale light. A halo.
At the time, I’d thought they’d been experimenting with a new mage-craft fashion from Jade’s appearance mage. But no—they must have used aurae just that evening. Aurae, of all things!
My eyes burned, and I wanted to be sick. What were they thinking? Didn’t my sisters know aurae would make them its slaves? Didn’t they know it could kill them one day? Perhaps that was my answer. I’d found my own way to fight back against my father, but instead of fighting, they’d chosen to escape.
Cole nudged me. “My lady? Are you well?”
Everyone at the table was watching me. I swallowed back bile and forced my lips into a cool smile. “Fine. I’m fine. Thank you.”
The guard frowned. “I don’t—”
“Just what is going on here?”
I turned my head to see Estevan, tall, dark, and furious, standing in the entryway to the dining hall and glaring at Cole. The room went silent, and then there was a rush of rustling fabric as every guard stood and then knelt on the floor in deference to the prince.
<
br /> I managed a small curtsy. “As you were,” Estevan said dismissively. He strode to our table, still glaring at Cole, as the rest of the room resumed eating and a quiet hum of voices and clanking spoons resumed.
Cole kept his head bowed. “Your Highness—”
“What are you doing here? I left you to guard Lady Belle, not drag her along for your evening meal.” Estevan’s voice was as cold and lethal as ice.
Poor Cole’s cheeks were red, and his broad shoulders were hunched. “I apologize, Your—”
“It’s my fault. Um, Your Highness.” I really had to stop forgetting his title in front of the guards. I stepped in front of Cole as I cut him off. My lips were still in that frozen smile. But all I wanted was to run away from the dining hall, so no one would see me fall apart over my sisters. I stepped closer to Estevan and lowered my voice as he frowned. “I couldn’t stand to be alone in that room any longer. Besides, I was hungry. I asked Cole to bring me to the dining hall with him for the evening meal.”
Estevan’s gaze softened. “I planned to dine with you, Belle, as usual, but I know I made you wait far too long. Still—” He shot another glare around me, toward Cole. “It’s a bit too soon to go disappearing from your room without a word to anyone, understood? I thought …” He didn’t finish the sentence, but from the tension in his shoulders, I had a feeling I knew what he meant. He thought my father had attacked me yet again.
Was he concerned about me? I shook my head, attempting to lose the strange sensation in my chest. “May I speak with you alone, Your Highness?”
A heartbeat later, I was out in the hall with Estevan, his hand on my lower back as he propelled me down the hall toward his office. I pulled away to stop in the hallway. “Here is fine.”
“Is it, now?” Estevan’s voice was a low, annoyed growl.
“I must return to the dining hall. I haven’t finished my dinner.” He looked about to interject, so I rushed forward. “I won’t be dining with you anymore, Estevan. I cannot. Not after …”
How could I explain that I couldn’t endure another moment of heartbreak at his hands? I took a deep breath. “After the words we exchanged this morning, it has become quite clear to me that we are not courting, and we never will be. You know it, and so do I.”
Estevan was silent for a long moment, his expression indecipherable. “We do not need to be courting to dine together in the evening,” he finally said. “And didn’t you promise to be my— What did you call it? My ally?” A ghost of a smile hovered across his lips.
I forced myself to keep my voice even. “Yes. Your ally. I will gladly join you in the morning to discuss the many ways in which my insights may be of assistance. But I won’t be dining with you in the evenings anymore. It isn’t necessary.”
Estevan searched my face with his gaze, his eyes narrowing as though he sought to discern some meaning behind my words. I froze my lips in that calm smile until he finally stepped back.
“Fine. Was that all you wanted to tell me?”
I shook my head. “I’ve learned something … something about my family.” My voice caught, and Estevan frowned. “I didn’t realize it until now, or I would have told you sooner, because it’s possible—I don’t know what it means, but it might—ugh!” I pressed my fingers to my temples.
Estevan stepped closer and rested a hand on my shoulder. “What is it?”
“My sisters. Kaia and Jade.” I took a deep breath. “I believe they’ve been using aurae.”
Estevan’s eyes widened, and he dropped his hand from my shoulder. “Go on.”
“I didn’t know the signs to watch for until Alba mentioned it tonight, but the night before my arrest, I saw them in Kaia’s room with that glow—aurae’s halo—covering their skin. At the time, I said nothing. I didn’t know what the glow meant. Now …”
I couldn’t meet Estevan’s eyes, so I stared at his shirt, my gaze burning a hole in his top button. “It seems I’ve failed to end my father’s tyranny quickly enough. My sisters have sought their own way out with aurae. Only … Estevan, they used aurae in our villa, right under my father’s nose. Nothing happens in that villa without his knowledge. The servants all spy for him. So …”
Estevan clenched his fists. “So, you think he knows they’re using it,” he finished for me. “He’s allowing them to do it.”
I nodded curtly. “I just don’t understand why. Why would he ever encourage them to do something so dangerous? So devastating?” My voice had crept up, so I cleared my throat and tried to appear calm. “What advantage does it serve him, I wonder?”
Estevan shoved his fists in his pockets and shrugged one shoulder, his expression grim. “I don’t know. But I promise you, we will find out.”
“I’ll find out when I’m back—”
“I will find out, with my investigation. And it will not require you to go spend another moment under your father’s roof.”
I didn’t reply. I hoped he was right. I really did. But I would be a fool to think my father could be destroyed without sacrifice, and Estevan would be just as foolish to think he could spare me.
Chapter 25
I spent the next several days in my horrible, tiny room, worrying about my sisters and racking my brain for ways to advise Estevan when he finally called for me—if he even planned to do so. I had to be as useful as possible. If I upheld my end of the bargain, he would be forced to send me home when the six weeks were up, and I could finally end this for good.
The first evening bell had just rung when Cole knocked on my door. “Lady Belle?” I opened the door so quickly he nearly fell through. He smiled. “You’re ready, I see.”
I smoothed the skirt of the ugly, brown, common dress, then twisted a loose curl back into my sloppy attempt at a twisted bun. “Yes. I am ready.”
“His Highness has requested that you join him in his office.”
I nodded and hoped I didn’t look too eager. “That’s fine.”
Cole smiled again, his tan cheeks dimpling as he stared down at me. He was quite handsome, wasn’t he? But not as tall as Estevan, and his hair was a bit too neat. His jaw was so smooth-shaven. I preferred a bit of stubble, and …
I sighed and smiled back at Cole, who flushed slightly. No one would ever compare to Estevan for me. A lifetime of daydreams had stolen my heart, and I had no idea how to get it back now that I knew how hard-hearted Estevan truly was.
“Right this way, my lady.”
Cole led me through the hallways to Estevan’s office, one hand on the hilt of the knife at his belt the whole time. I shivered at the observation. Did Estevan really expect my father to infiltrate even his own guard’s headquarters?
Estevan’s office door was open, and even from down the hallway, I could hear raised, tense male voices in a heated debate. We drew closer.
“—if you would just respond, Your Highness, then—”
“And what would you have me say? Repeat the word ‘no’ a thousand times each day? What good would that do for the petitioners?”
“I’m only suggesting that petitioners might get greater satisfaction having their petition met with an actual response—”
“You do respond. You’re a good steward, Tolos. Why isn’t that enough for them?”
We approached the door as the man named Tolos heaved a long-suffering sigh. “I know it is frustrating, not having the funds to grant even the smallest of requests or lessen the lowest of taxes. But surely—”
“For the last time, the people don’t need a soft, brotherly prince with a listening ear. They need lower taxes and greater opportunities, which is exactly what the new mage regulations will enable. Until I can give them that, nothing else I offer will change anything or help any of them. And I won’t weaken the throne in their eyes by offering paltry, meaningless comfort in the meantime. Besides—”
I tapped on the doorframe, and when Estevan glanced up from his desk, he stopped mid-sentence as his gaze swept over me. Then he stood, his expression neutral. “Belle. Come i
n.”
He met me at the door and took my hand, then led me into the room. “Belle, this is the palace steward, Tolos. Tolos, this is Lady Belle Argentarius, my new … advisor, for the time being.”
I granted Tolos a small smile as he bowed low.
“My lady,” he said, “you honor us with your presence.”
A man coughed behind me, and I turned to see Cole stepping aside as three young men Estevan’s age filed into the office. Two were of indiscernible heritage, with tan skin, ruddy cheeks, and dark hair. One was obviously Kireth, with pale skin and golden hair. But all three wore suits like my father’s clerks at the bank—well-tailored but simple, of plain, dark, common fabric.
I knew the ministries of government were led by Procus lords and staffed by lesser members of Procus families, but I’d never learned who made up the members of the prince’s own cabinet. From the look of them, the prince had hired commoners—or at least, he paid them like commoners, since they couldn’t even afford mage-craft suits. And yet, who was to say government officials had to be from Procus families? Ella would have made a good one, if she’d ever gotten the chance.
They bowed to the prince, and then to me, and the Kireth one shot me a wink as he rose from his bow.
I raised an eyebrow in response, and beside me, Estevan crossed his arms.
“Belle, meet my cabinet. Some of it, at least.” He gestured to the shortest one with a mob of dark curls. “Andres, head of the Royal Intelligence Division.”
Andres inclined his head.
“Ferris, liaison to the Ministry of Commerce.”
Ferris was taller, with close-cropped hair and square jaw.
“And Damon, liaison to the Mage Division.”
The blond one smiled widely at me. “Lovely to meet you, my lady. You honor us with your presence.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Estevan narrow his eyes. “Yes, well. Have a seat, everyone. Belle doesn’t have time to sit around waiting for you.”