I frown, pushing my weight against it. “What are you doing? Stop that.”
“Step aside,” he growls. “I’ll make it quick. She won’t feel a thing.”
Holy petunia—he means to kill her.
“That isnothappening!” I whisper-hiss. “She doesn’t need todie.Just … watch the door so I can stuff her somewhere.”
The muscle in his jaw pops, but the sound of booted steps has him glancing over his shoulder. “The guards are coming to collect you. I can buy you another two minutes—tops.”
The door snips shut.
I draw a deep, shuddered breath, surveying the room, trying to work out where to stash my unconscious handmaiden so I won’t be worried about her waking midceremony and busting …everything.
I can’t tie her up and gag her. What if nobody finds her and she perishes? That doesn’t sit well, even with my emotions lumped beneath a stab-proof barrier.
My gaze hones on my dressing room, an idea flaring to life like a lantern’s flame …
I’ll smuggle her down the stairwell and lean a chair against the door. When she wakes, she can leave through the hidden exit that will spit her out amid the jungle—far enough away that I’ll hopefully be long gone by the time she tattles.
Good plan.
I boot the fertility tonic away, wrap my hands around her wrists, and drag her backward, huffing and puffing, straining against her weight. “This is all … for nothing,” I mutter, as if she can hear me. “I’m about … ninety-four percent certain it can’t even kill him. He’ll just have a … nice, big, hopefully really long nap. Not that you can talk. Your … moral compass doesn’t exactly point … true north. What were you even going to say?‘I found the High Master’s … promised using the berries I tried to … poison her with?’Come now. You’re smarter … than that, Izel.”
I lug the secret door open, heave her partway down the stairs, set a lantern beside her so she has protection against the Irilak should she venture into the night, then lean back with my hands on my hips while I catch my breath. “Try not to roll down the stairs in your sleep,” I say on a sigh, then move into the dressing room, close the secret door-mirror behind me, and shove one of the heavy, ornate dressing chairs in front of it.
There.
I dash into my suite, catching sight of a dark shadow perched atop my dining table. My heart leaps up my throat, and I still, the sound of my rushing pulse a roar in my ears.
A massive black krah cocks its head to the side, watching me through inky eyes that seem to reel me in.
Perhaps it’s come to shit on me and stake my death in the soil?
“Not now,” I hiss, striding forward with a flick of my hands. “I’ve got too much to do.Shoo!”
It flaps into the air, swooping leathery-winged circles about the ceiling, then lands atop the pole connecting two of my bedposts, scampering into a sitting position. Staring down on me from its lofty perch with a strange imperial bearing that would put me on edge if I wasn’t so busy stayingoffthe edge.
It turns, curls its lanky tail around the bar, then plummets backward—hanging upside down as it shuffles its wings until they’re tucked around its body like a sooty cocoon. I think it’s settling in for a nap, except it doesn’t close its eyes.
Just continues to watch me.
I sigh, sit on my stool, and use the long brush to blend the liquid bane through the red lip lacquer. “Don’t judge me,” I mutter, glancing at the krah in the mirror before painting my lips with careful strokes that smother the bloody tone, replacing it with a rich, deadly color.
A loud knock almost has me jumping out of my skin, and I fumble with the lacquer, tucking it in my drawer. “Coming!”
I delve my hands into the cramped flush of wildflowers, like splitting a book down the center, revealing the big, white bud sitting an inch above the soil atop a thick stem, all bound up with its secrets tucked away.
I blow on it.
Five petals uncurl, cupping a clutch of milky filaments capped with tiny beads of light, each petal the size and shape of the pad of my thumb.
A smile fills my cheeks, and I draw on the rich, spicy fragrance that makes the back of my nose itch.
“Aren’t you clever,” I whisper, then pluck two petals and tuck them beneath the crown of braids wrapped around my head.
I peek up at the krah again, setting my finger against my poisonous lips as it blinks at me.
“Shh …”
