Page 64 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
“Great.” I sent him a smirk of my own. “Then we’ll have plenty of time to talk about blood rituals and reading thoughts. I understand you’re the eminent authority on the subject.”
Zandyr’s face tightened as he slashed a look at Adara.
“I wouldn’t want to intrude,” she said and vanished back over the fence with a high vault that defied the laws of nature.
I watched the fence long after she’d left, suddenly nervous.
I was alone with Zandyr again.
Just the two of us.
The last time we’d done that, I’d been wearing nothing but a bloody corset. Now I was swimming in Goose’s clothes. They’d have to do.
With a small inhale, I turned to Zandyr. A heated stillness settled between us, our breaths mingling in the soft breeze.
“Shall we?” he said. The richness of his voice cut through the silence.
“If we must,” I muttered and followed his lead.
“Why did you want to sneak out tonight?” he asked as we walked side by side, keeping a good few feet between us.
“Maybe I wanted to infiltrate the palace. Steal all the silver you didn’t get a chance to hide.”
He huffed a laugh. “My parents wouldn’t mind. It would give them an excuse to change the cutlery.”
There was a bite to his laughter. Either he really suspected I was a thief underneath all this gray cotton or things were about as complicated in the Blood Brotherhood royal family as in the Protectorate First Family.
I shook my head, glad the hood covered my face. My parents, may the gods look kindly upon their lives, had given their lives for me. I still hadn’t mourned them properly. I still couldn’t.
“Did you find them?” I asked, eager to change the subject. My own death, that I could handle.
“Frayden has disappeared. Left the same day as the attack to visit his family, but he never arrived.”
I sent a silent prayer for him. Perhaps he didn’t deserve it, but if I’d been controlled, maybe he had been to, in some other way.
“But we’ve found the smugglers,” Zandyr said.
I licked my lips, too afraid to ask. “Did you–”
“They’re in jail, awaiting their sentence. They were lied to.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Did they tell you who bought it?”
“They had no idea. They might be connected, though not who I suspect,” he said. “Those people are not from around here, no matter how hard they try to blend in, how much gold they wear, or what high rank they obtain, that’s certain.”
I frowned. Such a weird way to describe whoevertheywere.
His boots crunched the gravel while I fluttered over it soundlessly.
“I was actually going to ask you about the blood ritual.” It had been haunting me since I’d first heard of it.
“It’s required during the wedding ceremony,” was all he said. He walked with his hands behind his back, looking completely at ease. But those eyes of his slashed between the darkest parts, vigilant.
“No, please, I can’t take so much information at once,” I said.
“You had to entertain yourself a lot when you were a child, didn’t you?”
How cruel of him to notice. “That is none of your business. I don’t go around–”
