AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I can’t read her anymore. Can’t wrap my head around it. None of it matches. My father was not lying, yet Alia didn’t seem to be either. She’s never lied to me before, except at the end. I would swear no servants were anywhere nearby to have overheard our conversation. Yet she knew the precise words and phrases he’d spit at me.
Both things cannot be true. Someone must be fabricating events, and fey can’t lie.
Teeth gritted, I rehash the exact responses my father gave. And the exact comments Alia leveled at me. Then I go through it again. And again.
Yet still, I arrive at nothing. Nothing but the same gnawing conclusion that something doesn’t fit, and I have no ideawhat. The thought of what I must do to find the truth curdles in my stomach like spoiled meat. But not knowing might be worse. I can’t let myself consider the fact that there are no answers at all.
I have to know. Either way.
With a strangled growl, I shove up from my bed and cross to the door. Though I didn’t ask for it, two guards stand outside. Whether it’s to keep me safe or keep me in, I’m unsure. Probably depends on whether Zeccar or my father ordered it.
Both jump as I wrench the door open and peek out. They instantly jerk to attention.
“Prince Kirran? Is everything all right, sir?” Harran blinks at me and frowns. His saffron eyes sweep over me. One hand lingers near his sword.
Leave it to Harran to worry, even here. I shake my head. “I’m fine.”
Both soldiers relax, though Harran’s frown deepens.
I brace myself and force out the words. “I need one of you to do something for me.”
ChapterSix
ALIA
Asoft, hollow knock rouses me from my tangled sheets. I stare at the door for a moment to make sure I’m not hearing things.
The knock repeats — three taps. Then a low voice.
“Milady Alia?”
Fear tightens my muscles, but I push myself up, grab a shawl, and wrap it around myself as I crack the door open.
A soldier looms in the hall. His yellow eyes mirror the fire from the lantern he carries.
Captain Harran, still in his dark brown and red uniform, his armor glistening with gold. The gruff-seeming but kind soldier I last saw leading Reena away to a more private area of the ballroom. Reena, who I left without finding and who didn’t stop by my quarters to let me know she had returned.
My heart leaps into my throat, and I grip the doorframe with my free hand. “What’s wrong? Is Reena all right?”
“Yes, of course.” Captain Harran blinks at me and shakes his head. “Nothing’s wrong, milady. You have been summoned.”
A shiver washes over me. Surely, if I’m in trouble for attending the ball, they’d wait till morning to punish me. “By who?”
“Prince Kirran, milady.”
My blood chills to ice. I dig my fingernails into the wood frame. “Why?”
“He…” Captain Harran blinks and cracks a faint, self-conscious smirk. “I apologize, Miss Alia. He did not say, and I did not ask.”
I don’t move.
His smirk shifts into more of a smile. He tips his head toward the dark corridor beyond him. “If you would, milady.”
I squeeze the shawl tighter around myself. Clutching my mother’s necklace for courage, I force a nod. “Of course, sir.”
With a deep breath, I step out into the hall.
I am no stranger to sneaking out after hours — at least, at one time, I wasn’t. But even though my nighttime excursions were to see the same man, this walk is different. My heart won’t relax. Hurrying to our clandestine meetings once felt like dancing on air. Tonight, every step I take down the dim halls feels like trudging through waist-deep water. Or how I imagine seaweed to be.
