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The wide berth of mail grew on the counter, and I tried to hide the wariness of leaving the place how we left it. Right now, we had to work.
A door shut in the corridor and Nicole froze, grabbing my arm as she did. We waited, barely breathing and not moving as we heard keys jangling.
I turned and met Nicole’s gaze, which was filled with the same nervousness I was sure mine was.
Once the keys stopped, the footsteps walked away. We stayed still, unmoving statues in the mail room with the dim oil light thankfully far enough away from the door that it hadn’t caused anyone to peek in and see what was going on in here.
“I think we’re good,” Nicole said, placing two letters with Vanessa’s name on the edge of the table. “I’m going to start here, you keep looking.”
I nodded, continuing to rummage through the stack of wax-sealed letters. The whole idea was elegant. Romantic even, that handwritten letters were a thing in Faerie. I wondered if they used their magic to communicate when they had it or if the little things like this remained.
I refocused my attention to the task at hand. No matter how much there was still to know about Faerie, I wouldn’t be able to do that in the comfort of the Unseelie castle if I didn’t find out who was helping Vanessa and come up with a way to out her, and fast.
“Here’s one!” I said excitedly as I put it on top of Nicole’s other letters.
She was focused on sliding the kitchen knife carefully under the wax seal and simply let out a tiny mmm in acknowledgement.
I was on the last pile of letters and found one additional letter addressed to Vanessa. Four in all. Come on luck, be on our side.
Nicole stood, opening the first letter and scanning it.
“Well?” I asked, my heartbeat pattering at the thought of being so close to having something.
She shook her head and showed me the letter. Some ridiculous fae from home complaining about some designer dress and asking if the prince is as gorgeous in person as she thinks.
I crinkled my nose, moving instead to stack everything as neatly as it had been when we arrived while Nicole refolded the letter and got to work with her special tacky substance, resealing letter number one.
“And it’s good as new.” She grinned, placing it in the middle of one of the stacks I’d sorted and stood up.
I was shocked at how easy she made it look. “You are good, I’ll admit it.”
Nicole scanned the next letter, which was perhaps for the best since she seemed more levelheaded about everything than I did.
“Uhm …” She kept reading. “Same stupid gossip kind of stuff. It does say, ‘Did you get the prince to fall in love with you yet?’ at the end.” She shrugged, folding and grabbing the vial she had to close the second one up.
I drummed my fingers on the table, wanting to actually punch something, but maintained enough composure to remind myself that we needed to remain focused and finish this up. No use in making more noise that could risk us getting caught.
The amount of sneaking I’d done today alone felt like more than I’d done in a very long time, if ever.
I sighed, impatiently waiting for Nicole to attack the third letter. She stared at it for a while until I couldn’t take it anymore.
“What’s that one?” I peered around her shoulder.
“It’s from her dad. Most of it sounds like a concerned father, but there are some strange parts.” She pointed halfway down the page. “He wants to know about her progress.”
“That’s it. We should take this to the queen with all the other information.”
Nicole gingerly took the letter from my hand and laid it on the table. “This doesn’t say anything. Yes, it makes me think the family must be in on it, but we don’t technically have evidence. If you take this to the queen or Noah, they won’t believe you.”
I leaned against the sorting table, tired and restless with this whole charade already. “Now what?”
Nicole was focused on resealing the letter and putting it on another stack of letters. Then she paused. “The mail hasn’t gone to her yet,” Nicole said before she resealed the current letter. “What if we write something to Vanessa from her father. Asking for a progress update on taking the throne, because there’s unrest from the Seelie war at home.”
My eyes widened. “Forging letters from dukes now?”
“Do you have a better idea? Then we’d have her either admitting to a scheme to overthrow the throne or not, but we’d have an answer. And proof in her own handwriting.”
I knew Nicole was right, it was smart and would get us what we needed faster than anything else. And result in less sneaking around and waiting for her to slip up somehow. Which was always a good thing.
