Page 53 of Sinless Demons
Three men file into the room with smiles on their faces for their weekly meeting. Those smiles fall one by one as they each take sight of me sitting in my father’s chair at the far end of the table. I also note the way their attention rakes over the four men standing behind me.
“Good morning,” I say loudly, chin angling up to meet each of their gawking stares.
“Where is King Gravier?” Johnn asks, taking the seat on my right-hand side.
Johnn, my new right-hand man.
Just the man, I know, who can help all of the pieces fall into place.
“He told me last week he advised you that I would be filling a few of his less urgent rolls within the castle, Sir Johnn,” I say with a tilt of my head.
“I—he—I don’t recall that conversation. I’ll have to reassess my notes, I suppose,” Johnn says with flawless recovery. Very well done for a man who wanted to put the blame on his king, which we all know, that is not a thing in these castle walls.
And that is why it’ll make my plan so easy to shove into place.
“The King told us you’d run off somewhere during the last six days.” The older gentleman, Waltry, at the end of the table, narrows his eyes on me.
He’s the oldest of the three men. He’s so old, he was Hyval’s advisor when she was Queen. He’ll either be the hardest to break, or the easiest.
Depending on how much he fears his mortality. Because he’s seen all of this once before. During my grandmother’s reign.
Will he stand to see it all again?
I, too, send him a questioning stare right back as I shake my head slowly.
“No. I’m sorry. Please allow me to apologize on my father’s behalf. He sent me to ask the King’s Mother about the technique of memory stones. I’m not sure how he wants us to use them, but they are indeed very interesting sources of magic,” I say with forced enthusiasm dripping from my smiling lips.
Waltry’s gray eyebrows lift as he stares at me as if he’s seen a ghost.
“Memory stones,” Waltry whispers.
I nod with a smile.
“Surely, he’s told you. It would be odd of my father not to have a very informed group of advisors advising him.” I cock my head and wait for someone to dare say the King never mentioned it.
I can lead a horse to water, but I can’t make him say shit against his King, now, can I?
Johnn is the only man in the room with the brain to stall the conversation. “I’m sure it’s in my notes, Princess Aries.” His smile is kind as he looks my way and begins pulling a paper from his folder.
Pen steps quietly into the room. Her gaze watchful, but her mouth sealed tightly shut.
“There is an urgent matter for the... royal house to decide on.” Johnn’s dark eyes scan his papers.
“The King. It’s for the King to decide on, Sir Johnn,” the man to my left, the one with the stern features, cuts in before Johnn can hand the wafting white page to me.
I don’t know this one. He’s old, with only a few gray hairs left on his balding head, but he wasn’t here when I was here years ago.
My fingers remain clamped with tension in my knuckles to keep me from ripping the page from the poor man’s hand.
“The King requested Aries handle today’s meeting. I apologize if it slipped his mind,’ Pen says without blinking at the men staring at her.
She’s confident. Perfectly confident.
Even for a liar.
“The King... is out at the moment. It couldn’t hurt for Princess Aries to step in. As the King said she would,” Johnn says carefully.
The guy with the stick up his ass shakes his head hard. His lips purse even more, and I swear, he must have licked a lemon right out of someone’s asshole before he got here.
