AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Romantic.”
“When you know someone that well…” She glanced lovingly at Zander. “We’ve loved each other since we were kids.”
“But you were engaged to Ren,” I said.
“Yes, yes. That was all part of the plan. To kill King Arnott—which Zander managed incredibly well.” She held out her hand to him again, and Zander came closer. She took his hand and pressed it to her lips. He looked proud to be at her side, but she was in control. Did he know he was a puppet? Did he prefer it that way?
“After Ren and I got married, the idea was for Zander to kill him, too. That would put me on the throne, the sad little widow that inherited a kingdom. Zander would join me, then.”
I shook my head. How could someone who’d pretended to love Ren do that to him? I remembered all the times she’d called him ‘my love.’
“Zander is a Conjurite,” I said. “How were you planning to keep him on the throne?”
“I am a master of disguise,” Lucia said. “My magic can make anyone take on any form. I hid him all these years, and I can do it again.”
I gasped. I’d been turned into Zander and accused of murdering King Arnott. And an assassin had been made to look like Bessie, to kill me.
“It was you?” I asked. “You changed me to look like him? And you…you tried to kill me.”
Lucia laughed with glee. “Yes! You figured it out. Oh, it was so hard not to have anyone understand how perfect my plan was, and how well it was working. That was…until you came along.”
She glared at me.
“You’re the one that put me there,” I pointed out. “Why me?”
“It was supposed to be simple. You’re the one born with the light.” My ears rang when she said those words—the same words Nylah had spoken before Zander had taken me. The start of the prophecy. “Turning you into Zander would have hidden him and taken care of you. But then you slayed the beast, and then Ren tookpityon you. Poor. Little. Human.” She spat the last words like they were poison.
“Something still doesn’t add up,” I said.
“What?” She looked irritated.
“Why not disguise Zander before he killed King Arnott?”
Lucia’s irritation only increased when she glared at Zander. He offered her a stony expression.
“Ifsomeonewasn’t overeager, I might have had a chance.”
“It was in the moment,” Zander grumbled.
“If you had waited for me…” She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “It’s fine. It’s done.”
I shook my head. “You wanted to kill Ren to take the throne, but wouldn’t someone from his bloodline inherit the kingdom?”
“You’ve been doing your reading,” Lucia said. “But you forget he has no children. Ren is the last in his line. My family is the next most powerful family in Jasfin. If he died, my family would naturally be next in line to the throne. And, if I were already the widow of the King…nobody would stop me.”
Her plan was diabolical. I had to give her that. And to think that she’d been the one to disguise me, to make me look like Zander…
It was hard to wrap my mind around.
“It took a lot of planning, a lot of time putting it all in place. But then you came along and ruined it all. Your bond with Ren is unnatural, Ellie.”
“How do you know about that?” I hadn’t even known about a bond with him until we’d slept together, and that had been long after Lucia had left.
“Do you think I’m a fool?” she asked bitterly. “I saw it that first day he came to train you. Ifeltit. It was stronger than anything should be between Fae and a human.”
I thought back to that first day, when Ren had almost kissed me. We’d connected then, too. But I’d thought it was just me. I’d felt a lot of emotion from him, a connection that had been so much more than anything I’d experienced before. But I hadn’t thought too much about it until it had become permanent.
“You tried to kill me after that,” I said.
