Tedric glanced at it, folded it once, and tucked it into his coat without comment.
He also agreed, without protest, to let her see Princess Adelise. Her stomach dipped. Was it too easy? She brushed off the doubt and pressed on, keeping her expression smooth as a guard led her up the slope to the second floor.
The cell door loomed ahead, a slab of iron and bolts. The guard unlocked and pushed it open. The princess, still in her rumpled green velvet riding dress, rose from a narrow pallet along the far wall. The woman’s eyes met hers, and that recognition from earlier was still there.
“Leave us,” Adelise told the guard.
He didn’t move. The black mask hid all reactions, though his silence felt deliberate. Adelise’s scowl deepened. The guard took one step back, not out the door, but to stand like a shadow beside it—still listening, still watching.
The princess approached and slipped her arm under JingYi’s. Together, they turned their backs on the guard and stepped toward the pallet.
Adelise shocked her when she whispered—not in Isseric, or even in Tremesi, but in Xûengua, “You are Princess JingYi, Lady Wulfbane, are you not?”
JingYi’s breath caught. Princess Adelise had studied their language. Was it to prepare for the Xûen court? How long had she known about the betrothal?
Still, the familiar syllables were a balm and a danger. She glanced at the silent guard by the door, his masked face giving nothing away. Could he understand? Tedric’s operations were sophisticated. She would have to be careful, even in her mother tongue.
But Tedric’s earlier slip—‘your betrothed’—now echoed with sinister precision. He hadn’t guessed. Heknewthe secret pact between ShunLi and King Ferdinand, a pact that traded her life for Adelise’s future. Knowledge that should’ve been locked in the minds of a king and a crown prince.
How? What else did he know?
She placed her hand over the woman’s and dipped into a small curtsy. “Your Highness, are you well? Did they hurt you?”
“Hurtme? Only my dignity,” Adelise replied, her grin quick and irreverent. “And my wrist. But that’s what I got for trying to wring one of the guard’s neck through the bars.” Her tone dipped. “They tried to shove limyerite powder up my nose, but I snapped my head back so hard the fool nearly poked himself in the eye. Still got a whiff, but . . .” She wrinkled her nose. “It didn’t seem to stick. Guess I’m too stubborn for poisoning.”
JingYi’s grip firmed. “King Ferdinand has been searching for you. He tore Niewberg apart in his fury, and my husband rode under his command to bring you home. We’re not alone in this.”
For a heartbeat, Adelise stared, something sharp and bright flickering behind those grey eyes before she let out a soft laugh. “Well. Thatdoestake the edge off.”
“Do you know where this place is?”
Adelise bit her lower lip. “A fumed cloth knocked me unconscious. I was already inside this cell when I roused. You?”
JingYi shook her head slowly. “Tedric struck me from behind. When I regained consciousness, we were deep in unfamiliar woods. I glimpsed stone ruins—moss-covered, with a layout I didn’t recognize.” She hesitated, the admission leaving her lips softly. “But I cannot tell you more than that.”
She thought of Alexander. If Conrad had made it back to Niewberg–please, please let the boy reach safety–her husband would know by now. Despite all their troubles, she couldn’t imagine he’d stop looking.
She squeezed the princess’s hand again. “I am glad you’re well. Others, I’m afraid, aren’t so fortunate.”
Adelise’s smile thinned. “The others, JingYi—may I call you JingYi? There were more when I arrived. Twenty, maybe. Or twenty-five? There was a healer, too, though you wouldn’t call someone who hurts others a ‘healer,’ would you? He was a quack. Did horrid things to the women. Jabbing them with a needle attached to a tube full of purple limyerite dissolved in spirits. Said it’ll ‘stabilize’ them, whatever that means. But I’ve seen what it does. It makes them feverish, their skin like ash, eyes glassy. And that’s before the tremors start.”
“Where are they now?”
“Shortly after I arrived, the guards gathered the healthier Omegas and the healer, and moved them elsewhere. I haven’t seen them since.”
JingYi glanced beyond the bars. “So, that means, everyone left behind?—”
“Are sick,” Adelise concluded grimly. “Terribly so.”
“Then I need to tend to them. If I can start treatment, we may slow the damage.”
She met Adelise’s gaze, but her mind was churning. Twenty-five Omegas, moved elsewhere with a man posing as a healer, gradually poisoning them. This wasn’t just a prison; it was a testing ground. And if there was one, there could be others.
The scale of it threatened to overwhelm her, so she focused on the only part she could fight: the seven souls left in this stone pit.
She said, “I can’t do it alone. I’ll need someone to help with water, with holding them steady . . . with keeping the guards from interfering.”
A spark lit behind Adelise’s eyes—reckless, almost relieved to be given a task. “Oh, say it’ll beme.I’ve been dying to do something about all this. No one’s ever accused me of beingquiet, but I can make myself useful. Point me where you need me, and I’ll be there.”
