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One that asked her to stay quiet.In such a short time, she could read those glances as though their connection went far beyond pretend.
“The queen, the princess, me,” Mykata said.“And whoever killed the king.Everyone else is dead.”
Perry nodded.“If that’s our suspect pool, we know who did it.It’s a matter of finding this other royal that Jura described.”
Their killer.The one who had followed them through the goblin glass.
“It’s not possible,” the captain said softly.“Those markings she described.They sounded just like—”
“Our killer is here.”Artanya walked into the room, her scarlet dress standing out in all the wrong ways in the sea of silver-and-gold blood spattered on the furniture, the floor, the walls, the ceiling.“I was in the throne room.Mykata was with her squadron.Leaving the princess alone unaccounted for at the time of the murder.”Her bitter words held no hint of sadness for her dead husband.“Guards, take her.”
Vori’s face burned.The murder scene spun, and the few bites she’d eaten threatened to revolt.The cuff with the amethysts went icy cold on her wrist, and she wished slipping skins hadn’t torn the sleeve covering it.
Perry rushed to defend her.“Vori has no blood on her hands, on her clothes.She couldn’t have done this.”
“Says her consort.”Artanya almost laughed.“How loyal.”
Vori’s throat closed around the truth that might save her.That she couldn’t have attacked her uncle.That she couldn’t risk fighting anyone, or she might lose control forever.
But her husband, the attorney who’d defended so many accused, wasn’t finished.“My older sister.A demon and her cult murdered her, and that scene looked a lot like this one, so I get the need to blame someone.But Vori and I left the throne room after Mykata, which means we didn’t have time to get to the king, let alone commit this atrocity.”
Artanya shook her head.“Goblin speed.Everyone knows the princess is the fastest of us.She could’ve reached the suite before my guard, could’ve cleaned herself before showing up here again.”
“The king was strangled,” Perry said.“Before he was torn apart.”
“Butchered, you mean.And how would you know that, witch, unless you saw her do it?”
“The chain,” he said.“It’s wrapped around his neck and broken.Your killer used it to strangle him.She took the amethyst.”
“The one to match the amethysts your princess wears around her wrist.”Artanya stared at Vori’s cuff.“Nice touch, though, with the package at the feast, to send yourself the hand you’d taken one of those pretty rocks from.Such cunning calculation.”
“No.”It was all Vori could say.
“The other royal,” Perry said.“She’s the killer.”
“The one your princess and the fae maid created?”Artanya sneered, the scar ridges deepening.“Don’t worry.I’ll make sure that servant suffers the same fate as the princess for conspiring to kill the king.”
Vori’s mind raced.“No, Jura can only tell the truth.”Finally, she could speak.If not in her own defense, then for her mother’s best friend.
Artanya glared at her.“Then next time you create a fictional killer, make sure she doesn’t have the same markings as my dead sister.The one your father murdered on the night you disappeared.The one I tried to save when your dad gave me these.”She jabbed a finger toward the scars that twisted across her face.
“No.”The killer was their little sister.Vori couldn’t win.Artanya would make sure of it.
“Phaedra,” Perry said.“Was that your sister’s name?She’s alive, and she’s been killing humans for those amethysts.She’s here now.She murdered the king.”
Mykata’s gaze locked on her older sister.“Could Phaedra have survived?”Her voice thickened with anger or betrayal.
A split second of silence stretched heavy and meaningful between the sisters.Then rage filled the queen consort’s face.“The princess is just like her father—manipulative, calculating, cruel enough to kill anyone who stands between her and the throne.Golden-borns.”She said the last like it was a curse.“She’s been here less than twenty-four hours, and already, she has killed the king.Which of us will she come for next?Look at those amethysts on her wrist.She’s here to seize the throne, to recreate the blood crown.”
Vori forced words past the knot that felt as if she’d swallowed one of the amethysts.“I want nothing of your throne.”
“Don’t say any more, my love,” Perry said.Her heart stuttered on the endearment, a sliver of hope piercing this awfulness.Until she remembered it was as false as Artanya’s accusations.He moved closer, his steadiness the only good thing in this nightmare.“She won’t listen to you, and she’ll twist whatever you give her.”
“But it’s the truth.I don’t want their doomed crown.I came here for the same reason that I collected the amethysts.Because of the blood vow.”
He closed his eyes.She’d said too much.
“Was that all of your blood vow?”Artanya asked.“Or was there more?”
