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Andrezza then adds, “We have to get you ready. You’re leaving with him right away.”
Nothing makes sense. “Now?”
“Otavio asked for an hour, like you heard.”
I’m trembling and speechless.
Andrezza gives me a kind look. “It will be fine. You were trained for this. It will be an alliance, and if you find out his secrets, we’ll be able to use them to our advantage.” The worry in her voice contradicts her calming words. She continues, as if trying to convince herself, “It’s even better that you won’t have to pretend to be the princess. I know it’s sudden, but I think you’ll do fine.”
Otavio then turns to Andrezza. “Can you keep the commander busy? Go out there, explain I’m getting her ready? I need to change her hair color.”
She looks at both of us, then nods and leaves.
“Sit.” He points to a chair, his voice the gruffiest I’ve ever heard.
“Here?” Usually I color my own hair, but when he does it, which is about once a month, it’s in a room with special chairs and basins.
“We’ll have to be fast.”
He pulls a cloth from a cupboard, ties it around my neck, then picks a bottle with a black liquid, puts on gloves, and applies it to my hair. “This won’t last, but it’s good for now.”
Before I even realize what he’s doing, he removes the cloth and says, “Follow me.”
I pull a strand of hair to check, and it’s indeed black, but not like the usual liquid we put on, but something that stains my fingers.
He pulls part of a bookshelf, revealing a hidden door. I thought I knew this study so well, and yet I never considered it could have a secret passage. We cross it and I find myself following him, descending narrow steps.
No. Wait. This doesn’t make sense.
I stop. “Where are you taking me?”
“Where? You have to run, Astra.”
“Run where?” He’s always told me I’d find no shelter, no respite, that if I were to run away, there would be nowhere to go. “And why?”
He points back, in the direction of the study. “I did not raise you for this.”
Technically, he did. The thought has always terrified me, and yet running away terrifies me more. “You raised me for what, then?”
“For something better.” There’s a mad glint in his eyes. “Now it’s all ruined. All because you had to go out and… I don’t even know what you did, Astra. You learned seduction, but it was not to bring a disgraced prince here, willing to have you at any cost.”
“I… Didn’t do anything. You can ask Ziven.” I don’t know why I’m trusting him so much, but what else can I say?
“It’s over now. We can’t undo what happened, but I’m not giving you to that monster.”
I appreciate the feeling, and yet… “But then what am I going to do with my life? Wasn’t I raised to protect Krastel? To use my talents in a marriage alliance? I secured an alliance! Let me prove what I can do!”
“Not like that. Not with a prince who has nothing,” he roars. “I’ll find a place for you to hide. We’ll improvise. We’ll find a way.”
And yet none of that feels comforting. I don’t want this strange marriage to Marlak, and yet I don’t want to be a fugitive, to be nothing. And if the prince wants me even though he knows I’m a substitute, this is my chance to stop pretending, to be someone, to be myself.
It takes all my courage, and yet I manage to speak my mind. “No. I’m not a coward, and I have honor.”
I turn and run up three steps, but then he catches me and holds my waist—not tight enough, though. I was expecting it, so I pull a dagger, turn, and point it at his throat. Otavio is a master beautician, a brilliant apothecary, but he’s no fighter.
“Don’t get in the way of my duty,” I say.
He raises his hands and laughs. “That is not your duty.”
