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"Why are you all here?" she asked. But a split second later, Ciella schooled her expression and lifted her chin. "I still don't know why you keep waiting here."
"Haven't you heard?" Nari asked. "I'm trying to steal Anver away from Tishlie."
Ciella scoffed at that. "Too bad for you, he's currently walking Tishlie here from her last class. Besides, don't you have some new interest that you should be more worried about?"
"What new interest?" I asked, completely confused by this bumbling idiot.
And Ciella's smile turned sly. "Oh, everyone has heard about her new secret admirer. Sounds like he's been leaving you gifts in the hall. Or are you doing that yourself and just trying to start gossip because you're so desperate?"
Gifts. Secret admirer. A woman walking past the dining hall carrying a bottle. Drandir hadn't said a priestess. He'd said that someone had seen a woman - and Ciella didn't have any lace on her body. Zeal had stripped that from her when she tried to push Nari down the stairs, so no one would call her a priestess. In the space of a heartbeat, I put all of the tiny pieces into place and could only come up with one result that made sense.
Ciella had either sent the poisoned alcohol, or knew who did.
"Oh, that one?" I asked, waving it off. "Yeah, we assumed it was some pathetic woman who wanted to get with me. Granted, some pathetic woman could be trying to get with Nari instead, but it wasn't like she was very obvious about whose attention she was trying to catch. Besides, we don't need any cheap alcohol. Talin makes sure to have the good stuff delivered from Sandrest."
"And here I figured some 'pathetic' woman was the best either one of you could hope to get. I mean, Nari couldn't even keep the baron's attention on the Darkest Night," Ciella sneered.
Nari pulled away from Talin and turned to face this annoying little bitch. "I guess that means you didn't get any mail over the weekend, huh?" she asked.
"Of course she didn't," Anver said as he walked up. "We were told they're exclusive invites."
Tishlie was hanging on his arm as if she was weak and helpless, but the moment she heard that, her head whipped around to look at him. "What invite? Where are we going?"
Anver gave her an exhausted look. "We? Nowhere. Me? To Yamina Ranndor's eighteenth birthday party."
"It's in two weeks," I told them. "The invitations were delivered this weekend. Granted, Talin and Nari have to go because they're family, but it seems that Yamina has a fondness for my guardian." I looked over at Anver. "You danced with her at the Fresh Start too, didn't you?"
"Miss Ranndor didn't really give me any option," Anver admitted. "I think I danced with her three times. It could have been more."
"I definitely danced with her more," Wraythe said. "And since it's her birthday, I have a funny feeling that we'll be dancing with her again."
"I wonder if the baron will spend the night drooling over Nari," I said, watching Ciella as the words fell from my mouth.
I didn't honestly want to see Tath. I didn't think there was any prestige in having that dick of a man look at my partner. The only reason I said that was to see if Ciella had any reaction. Was she trying to poison Nari because she was jealous, or because she was doing the High Priest's bidding?
When she rolled her eyes, I knew I had my answer. Zeal had stripped her lace, which legally removed all of her rights as a priestess in this temple. Her only hope for a future was that Kinen kept her on in some capacity. We knew the High Priest was using her as a spy - but he had no idea what a bumbling idiot he'd chosen.
"Well, I don't think anybody else is going to be going to that party," Ciella said, trying to make it sound haughty. "I heard that Maela Ranndor has overstepped her place and her husband's about to put her aside. She should be more worried about producing a spare to the heir than trying to take over her husband's duty."
I stepped closer to Ciella, making no attempt to hide how much I hated her. "And who are you to talk about duty?" I asked. "Your duty was to follow the words of your god, but you failed at that. He took your lace, so you went groveling to someone else? Or were you just lost in some loophole because no one cares about you at all? Without lace, you're even more useless than when you had it. Your beauty peaked before most of us reached puberty, your hair never grew back as beautiful as it was before it was burned away, and now you're starting to get wrinkles. Let's talk about a woman's place. Let's talk about what youshouldbe doing."
With each step I took, Ciella took a step back. She refused to let me get within arm’s reach, and I honestly didn't blame her. The longer I spent with her, the more I felt that darkness rising inside me. I wanted to make this woman hurt, but she didn't even come up to the level of a trinket. She was simply pathetic, disgusting, and truly deserved to die.
Then Wraythe caught my arm, pulling me back. "Ela, you and Nari are supposed to be at your next class."
My eyes immediately jumped over Anver. "I don't want to leave you here."
"It's also not your call," Anver told me, but the look on his face softened a little, and that was enough.
So I reached out for Nari's hand, pulled her against my side, and started walking up the hall. Talin and Wraythe followed the way I knew they would, but I needed to leave before something got out of control - mainly me.
Chapter 44
Anver
Tishlie didn't really bother me anymore. I'd gotten used to her at some point. She still annoyed the hell out of me, but I knew how to ignore her after doing it for so long. Although, after Ela had verbally lashed out at Ciella, the pair couldn't help but rant about it. In doing so, they said too much. It was just a sentence here and a phrase there, spread out over the course of the entire day, yet it was enough to make me pay attention.
Ciella wanted to know where Tishlie had gotten the leaves, which proved that my ward was involved. Both of them were convinced that someone in the suite would have at least tasted what was in the bottle, which proved which leaves they were talking about. Then, Tishlie said something about how the High Priest had promised that it would work. That meant Kinen had been the one to get them the poison, which implied that he was no longer wanting to simply kick Nari out.
