Page 81 of Gilded Curses

Her words kept him from choking her, and though he still pulled her back against his chest, he didn’t completely cut off her air supply. She went to her toes a little to keep from being strangled as she leaned against him.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded.

“I’m Sheree’s night maid on the weekends,” Alda whispered. “I help her get ready for bed… or I did, anyway.”

“You’re one of the servants who told Sahira about the stones.”

“Yes.”

“Were you telling her the truth?”

“Yes. The stones exist… somewhere. None of us know where they are, and we’ve all lived in this realm for centuries; some of us have been here for millennia.”

He wasn’t sure if he believed her, but her answer would do… for now.

“I can get you out of this room,” she whispered as if she were reading his mind. “You can’t do it alone without alerting the guards. Many of the servants are on your side, especially me. These monsters fed my brother, my last living relative, to the dogs for entertainment. They’d already killed my parents and my sister, and they’ll turn on me one day too. No one wants them dead more than me.”

The fire in her words and the vehemence of her voice led him to believe she was telling the truth, but he still didn’t trust any of these things.

“I doubt that,” Orin growled.

She rested her hand over the claw marks Sheree had inflicted on his arm. “The servants are on your side. We want out of this realm too.”

He couldn’t deny they probably were as eager to break free of this place as him and his friends. “How do you plan to get me out of this room?”

“How did you plan to get out of here?”

He hadn’t thought that far ahead when he followed Sheree into the room; he’d been too determined to get at her to think about the consequences of it. He’d assumed her quarters wouldn’t be as monitored as theirs, but he’d been wrong, as the guards had taken a position in the hall and would notice if he opened the door cloaked in shadows.

“They have guards stationed everywhere tonight,” Alda continued. “They’re all along the garden outside of this room too. I can walk out of here and into Desmond’s rooms. That’s where I’m supposed to go next.”

“Why?”

Her head bowed a little, and a small tremor ran through her. “Because that’s what’s expected of me after leaving here.”

“So you’re his lover?”

“NO!”

When she shouted the word, he bore down on her throat, cutting her off. He held her completely still as he listened for the door crashing against the wall as the guards rushed in.

Her shout had sounded loud to him, but it must not have carried beyond this room as no one came to kill them. He eased his grip on her throat.

“Careful,” he warned as he pressed the tip of the bloody blade under her chin. “If they come in here, I’ll kill you first.”

She gulped. “I didn’t mean to be so loud. It’s just… no, Desmond is not my lover. I hate him. I hate him so much. The things he does, that he forces us to do… he’s… he’s… a monster.”

Orin didn’t require any further details. “Sahira said you told her that Sheree was the real evil here.”

“He’s the monster, and she’s his puppeteer. Without her, there is no him. Just because she’s not with him tonight doesn’t mean she’s not there at other times.”

“Well, she’s dead, so there’s that.”

“And even with a knife against my flesh, I’ve never been happier. They expect me to leave here and go to Desmond’s room; they won’t question it when I do. We’ll have to wait a little longer, but not much, before it’s about the time I would normally leave. Sheree never liked anyone staying in her rooms with her, so she never had a maid stay the night. Probably because, and she was right, one of us would try to kill her in her sleep.”

“Didn’t she think you might try to kill her while she was awake?”

“She was stronger than me and would have taken me down if I tried. More than that, she always has guards nearby. All she’d have to do is scream, and they’d all be in here to save her. As much as I hate her and this realm, I don’t have a death wish. I can leave this room in half an hour, and no one will think anything of it. I can take you with me when I go.”