Page 62 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
Everyone, everywhere justhadto talk about Zandyr, ruining perfectly good conversations. Maybe he was just so important that nobody could go five bloody minutes without thinking of him. Even I had days when I did just that. Perhaps he’d cursed us all with his slick smirks.
“Where’s he gone? To crash another wedding?” I asked.
“To hunt down those who helped smuggle a razorback snake into Phoenix Peak.”
“Oh.”Oh. If I hadn’t felt his annoyance at my very existence back at the wedding or heard him announce he wouldn’t ever touch me in front of his parents, I would’ve thought he actually cared.
“It’s a grave crime,” Adara said.
Of course. He was the future leader, he had to sew the seeds of law whenever necessary. The fact that I’d been attacked probably didn’t matter all that much in the grand scheme of Zandyr’s mighty plans. Which he obviously didn’t want to share with me.
“Wait, he’s not going to kill them, is he?” I asked quickly.
Adara hesitated. A bad sign. “Razorback venom is highly prized in spells. If they thought they were selling it for the venom, they might evade death.”
If their bellies had been empty enough to risk catching a dangerous creature like that…
It was the kind of ethical conundrum I’d have to learn to deal with. As queen, I would enact the law as well. Perhaps even create it.
“You think too much,” Adara said.
I shook my head. “Excuse me?”
“Your face.” She pointed the tip of the spear at my forehead. “That kind of thinking only leads to problems.”
“You can read minds, too?” I asked, laughing nervously. One could never know with Blood Brotherhood.
“We have not exchanged blood the right way, in a ritual. It is impossible.”
Reading thoughts. Exchanging blood. In therightway, which meant it was possible. That was nightmare fuel waiting to fester. “Whatritual?”
“The kind all parties involved have to wish for, Blue Queen,” she said with finality. “Talk to your groom, he will tell you.”
I ignored whatever the underworld Blue Queen meant. Either a dig or a praise at me being Protectorate blue at heart, and not Blood Brotherhood red. “I plan on doing just that. My thoughts are my own.”
The last thing I wanted was someone else in the whirlwind of my mind–in which a devious thought popped up.
“Since the prince isn’t here…” I stepped closer to Adara, like we were sharing a great big secret. We kind of were. Zandyr was gone, who knew when I’d get another chance like this. From the way Adara watched me carefully, she suspected I was up to no good.
And she was right. “I have a plan.”
Chapter
Nineteen
EVIE
Adara did not like my plan.
She hadn’t said a word, but I noticed the way her jaw had been clenched these past few days.
“Come on, it’ll be fun,” I whispered, drawing Goose’s gray hood over my head. He’d almost had a seizure when I told him I’d asked for his normal clothes towearthem.
I’d had to roll his black pants up seven times to not trip every other step. My leg still stung whenever I flexed my knee, but I’d had worse scrapes from when I slipped on ice while foraging for berries.
“Getting attacked is not fun,” Adara muttered back as we snuck out of the house in the dead of night, keeping to the shadows and the walls.
“Exactly.” Which is why I wanted to sneak outside without an entire army behind me and scour the surroundings at my own pace and on my own terms, to detect any vantage points an assassin might take advantage of.
