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“Mostly stacks and stacks of magazines. No one had been there in a long time. A neighbor saw us and called the cops.”
“The snitch. That busybody ruined your career as a professional cat burglar.”
“Alas,” Lenore said dryly. “Anyway, the cop took us all to the station, let us sit in a cell for an hour to put the fear of God in us, and it worked. I’ve been a law-abiding citizen ever since.”
“You’re so square.” Lydia yawned, her eyes fluttering closed. Within minutes, she was asleep.
Unable to move, Lenore waited. She suspected that Lydia’s drink had been spiked. A drug was the only thing that explained Lydia’s rapid change in behavior. She needed to collect a sample, but she couldn’t do that on her own. Until a medic showed up, all she could do was wait.
And think. From what she saw, Lydia tripped, either over someone’s foot or her own. From Trouble’s vantage, she was pushed.
This was bad.
Lydia’s blunder—accidental or not—was a scandal in the making. No one would care if Lydia’s drink had been spiked. She destroyed a priceless work of art, and Lenore was right there, caught on camera with her delinquent friend. Lenore groaned, realizing that she totally had a friend type. Fun and reckless. She made the same bad decisions now that she made when she was nine. She learned nothing from her stint in the clink.
Lenore might have laughed at the absurdity of the situation, but she knew Raelle would use this as leverage to keep her away from Baris. Even if it was an accident, she was right there next to Lydia. Her unsavory connections would reflect poorly on the crown, and Lenore brought more trouble than she was worth.
Maybe she had a point.
Finally, a guard passed by the cell. “We need a medic,” she called out.
A guard ambled closer. She didn’t recognize the man. “Are you in medical distress?”
“She’s been drugged,” Lenore said. Lydia still slept on her shoulder.
“She’s drunk.”
“Drugged,” Lenore repeated, “and we need to collect a blood sample.”
The guard snorted, clearly unmoved. “Is she in medical distress?”
Lenore felt so tempted to pull the do you know who I am card. She’d be an absolute asshole if she did, but it might work. Or name drop. Kenth could take care of this if Lenore asked. Being friendly with the captain of the royal guards had some benefits.
Or it might make the situation worse. The guard scanned her ID chip, so he knew who she was. Obviously, he didn’t care. Also, there was no way Kenth didn’t know she was being detained. The fact that the captain hadn’t shown up spoke to the seriousness of the situation. Lydia vandalized a priceless piece of art.
Fear tactics it was.
“She could have an allergic reaction to whatever was in her drink,” Lenore said. “Do you know what happens to humans when we have an allergic reaction? It’s not pretty. Our throats swell closed. We turn red and then purple and we die. Horribly. Clawing at our throats. Are you going to explain to Kenth that a human prisoner died under your care because you wouldn’t call for a damn medic?”
The guard rolled all his eyes as he left, and Lenore had no idea if her gambit worked.
BARIS
Silence had fallen over the crowd. Guards escorted Lenore and her friend out of the ballroom. Everything in Baris demanded that he wrap her in his wings and shield her from critical eyes, but he had to deal with the cause of the problem.
The culprit had not been subtle. Baris would have spotted the pattern earlier, but his illness prevented him from thinking clearly and piecing it together.
“Find Des. We need to speak. Bring Lady Nia along as well,” Baris said to Kenth. He wasn’t sure how involved Nia was, but he wouldn’t be surprised.
“Go with her,” he said to his karu. Then, to Raelle, he said, “We should discuss this elsewhere.”
Noise returned. Guards cleared a space, pushing back curious onlookers. Music covered the murmurs of the crowd. The curator of the royal collection arrived to clean up the broken sculpture. Hopefully, it could be salvaged.
Outside the ballroom, Baris found a quiet receiving room.
“Have a seat. This may take some time,” he said, escorting Raelle to a chair. They did not have to wait long before Kenth returned with the Frostwing siblings, Des and Nia, his karu, and a compliment of guards. Des wore an expression of confusion and Nia simply looked annoyed.
“I don’t understand what is happening,” Raelle said.
