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Chapter14
The figure moved forward and I debated running back to the guards’ area, but what good would that do me? Allow me to be caught and captured without anyone barely having to raise a finger?
“I said what are you doing? Are you crazy?”
“Nicole?” I said, recognizing the voice as relief washed over me. I fell down on my knees. “Oh for heaven’s sake, what are you doing in here?”
I picked myself up and ran toward the light, shuffling out of the passageway while Nicole let me through and stared at me like I was the most idiotic person alive.
“Anyone could have seen you come into Vanessa’s room, Cora. You’d be in so much trouble. And what the hell is this thing?” She waved her hand toward the passage.
I rubbed my face, feeling like I needed to get the creepy dampness off of me. “There’s a lot we need to talk about.”
“I’d say so,” Nicole muttered.
I looked at her, dropping my hands. “What are you doing here, really?”
Nicole grabbed me by my shoulders. “Taking you to training, because if you miss one more session Aron will have your head, no matter what Duchess Sassy Pants wants.” She helped me close the mirror and I pressed as hard as I could, not wanting Vanessa to suspect someone had been snooping. “Since you only get to take care of Vanessa now, I figured I’d start here. There are two hours until the garden tour ends, and you’ll have plenty of time to come back. On the way, you’re going to start talking, and fast.”
“I don’t even know if I can stay awake the whole day, let alone do a training session,” I said. “I didn’t sleep at all last night.”
“Well, you need to figure it out because your days of skipping are over, I think.”
We snuck out of Vanessa’s room, thankfully not running into anyone. “See, no one around,” I said triumphantly, though my voice quivered slightly.
Nicole glared at me. “Vanessa has eyes and ears everywhere. Trust me when I say she’s found out some things about the other staff that have them terrified. You of all people have got to be careful.”
I snorted. “Not sure how else she could humiliate me.”
Nicole stopped walking, touching my arm. “Listen, about that night—"
“There was nothing you could have done. Nothing anyone could have done.” I shook my head and stepped away from Nicole.
She was always good at reading people, and she didn’t disappoint me this time. She changed the subject and I was grateful.
“Well, how about you tell me what was worth risking more of her wrath then.”
I launched into what I knew. The vial, the note, the muffled voices, everything I had wanted to tell Nicole and work through with her. I even added in the details I’d desperately needed to share, like her lingerie obsession when Noah was coming, the way the two of them were, and finally, the passageway.
“It leads to the guards’ quarters,” I finished.
There it was. Hearing it all come out of me in the way I’d described made it sound bad. Really bad. I waited for Nicole’s subsequent freak-out like I was about to burst into. But Nicole didn’t look surprised.
“Hello?” I said. “Did you hear all of that?”
Nicole kept walking, eyes darting around. “I heard you. She’s here for a power play at the throne. When you’ve been around royals long enough, a few attempts at usurping the throne are bound to happen.”
“And that makes it okay?”
“Of course not, I didn’t say that. But Vanessa is straight-up evil. I'd be surprised if she wasn’t trying to take the throne at this point.”
We weren’t far from the training tower, and I was thankful we wouldn’t be outside. Though the outdoor grounds were large, I could see Vanessa trying to get close to where Noah would be training if she could.
“If the guards are in on it, Vanessa has access and connections inside the palace already, though,” I said.
Nicole nodded. “She’d have to. Something like this would take years to plan, especially to work her way onto a list of eligible maidens so the queen would notice her. The man on the inside, though, is always the pawn. Never the mastermind. It has to have started far above her head, with the head of her family. And no one could know that, especially if she failed. Hence the vial. For all we know it’s for her to take herself.”
“So how is she keeping the others updated?” I asked.
