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Her gaze drifted over my shoulder, and she blinked. “There’s a letter for you.”
It sat on the balcony beneath a chunk of ore, bearing the black parchment of Bash’s messages. “Remind me I have something to tell you.” A soft breeze caressed me as I opened the balcony doors. “I think it’ll make you happy.”
I lifted the lip of the envelope and pulled out the note to find Bash’s words.
Don’t speak of our conversation to anyone. You never know where alliances lie.
I highly doubted Odette or Talen held a secret alliance with the silver-haired ambassador, but I glanced at Odette all the same. She’d gone back to sorting through the dresses. Her eyes went to the note but darted away when she caught me looking.
Don’t speak of the plan to anyone. Odette wouldn’t betray me. She was in my House alliance, so she couldn’t. No, I reminded myself. She can’t trick me. But she could betray me. I was certain there was a difference.
She’d find out soon enough, and then we’d celebrate in style. My lips would remain sealed for eight months until I became a fae.
“What is it?”
I crumpled the note into my pocket. “Just a kind note from Bash.”
She flashed a sly grin. “Intriguing. But what was it you wanted to tell me?”
I closed the balcony doors behind me. “I was thinking we should invite Gaia to join us. I believe she’s lonely.”
Odette waved a hand. “She gets invitations to three dinners every night and more gifts sent to her door than any queen before her, so her loneliness is of her own choosing. But do what you like.” She chortled. “I’d be the luckiest girl in the realm to have two Mortal Queens as my companions for the night.”
“I’ll go fetch her.” I hurried down the stairs to the grand throne room, where my three stars shone as bright as the chandelier. Woven baskets of plump, vibrant oranges sat on the two thrones with a note atop each, and I immediately went to them.
“The fae are especially generous this week,” I mumbled, plucking an orange from the top. Would they be as giving when I was not a Mortal Queen but a fae one?
I dug a nail into the thick skin and the citrus scent sprayed out. I crossed the bridge as I carefully peeled back the outer layer. Gaia couldn’t say no to the oranges and the dresses, and perhaps after a few drops of Odette’s wine, she’d divulge what she’d been up to on Illusion Point.
I wound up the stairs on the east side and knocked on her door. Then I opened it.
The orange fell from my hand. Gaia’s room was a mess. Three bags sat in the center, while everything else had been torn from its place and bundled against the wall or a chair until nothing was left as it should be, not even the bed. Blankets hung from the canopy, and Gaia sat between them.
Head between her legs, shoulders shaking.
The breath left my body.
Odette and I had been laughing and trying on dresses while Gaia had been like this.
Guilt further gnawed at me as I realized my fae plan for salvation didn’t include her. I caught a breath. It could though. She could steal some other ambassador’s power, and we’d rule as fae queens together.
“Gaia.”
At my voice, her head sprang up to reveal bloodshot eyes. “What are you doing here?” Her braided hair stuck out in every direction, and the circles under her eyes were as dark as her pupils. Her olive-green dress was damp and one fist was clenched.
“I live here,” I said calmly. “And I’m going to do much better about coming to visit you in the future.” I stepped through the mess on the floor to get to her. “What happened?”
She shivered. “I have no use for this room anymore.”
Again, speaking nonsense. I sat beside her and touched her leg. “I found a way for us to live.”
She began to shake her head, then she looked at me. Something in my expression must have convinced her and her eyes widened. “How?”
I glanced to the door and whispered. “We become fae.”
Now she did shake her head vigorously. “No. I don’t want to stay here. I don’t want to live here. We both have to leave.”
“Why?” I asked her. “Life is good here. What is waiting for us back home but stubborn fathers, families who have moved on, and no purpose? We are queens here, and the fae love us. There is nothing in that realm that rivals what this realm has.”
