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My gaze remains fixed on the crimson stain spreading across the once immaculate marble. “Could a noble have done this?” The idea that a spurned woman could harbor such malice twists my insides with doubt and fear. “Someone visiting the palace?”

I provoked them. Is this my fault?

I will melt the flesh from their faces if it was one of them.

“We’ll find out, Lady Lark.” Donovan’s voice is gentle as he gives my arm a comforting squeeze, but it’s hard to hear him over the roaring in my ears. “But look at the wound. It’s precise. Chillingly familiar.”

I follow his gaze. Yes, the slashed and crimson throat is too similar to the fatal wounds left by the drachen, creatures of nightmare who feast on terror before blood. But it can’t have been a drachen. The palace would have trembled with collective dread had the beasts been near. A warning, maybe? But from whom?

The roaring in my ears grows louder, practically reverberating against my skin. My mother may not have given birth to me. Her blood may not run in my veins. But she still cared for me like I was her own. I remember her tending to every cut and scratch I incurred over the years, and the countless nights she’d let me sit at her vanity, brushing my hair. She always reassured me that my straighter hair was just as pretty as her and Leesa’s curly locks.

Urgent, uneven footsteps echo down the corridor.

Leesa emerges from her room, her brow creased in confusion. “What’s happening? Lark?”

Leesa. Don’t look.

I’m too slow. Too shocked. Too silent.

Leesa looks.

And sees what I will never be able to unsee.

Her knees buckle, and her face crumples. “Mother…she was just with me. She came over because of my headache. Said she’d fetch some powders from the royal healer. How?—”

“I don’t know. Did she say anything else?” I push gently, even as my own heart threatens to shatter anew.

Leesa shakes her head, tears streaming down her face. “Only that she loved me…lovedus.”

Amid the chaos, the simplicity of her final message is a knife to my already bleeding heart. Pushing myself up, I scramble toward my sister, dodging the pool of blood. I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight.

My big sister. She always protected me. And I couldn’t even save her from seeing this. What good are my strengths if they can’t even do this?

Leesa’s hand grips mine, her knuckles white as bone china. We huddle together on the cold marble floor, our tears a silent river between us.

Soft, warm hands rest against my back. “Come away, Lady Lark.” Rhiann’s voice eventually breaks through, stern yet not unkind.

But I can’t leave Mother. Not yet. I linger a moment longer, memorizing every detail of her face, burning each feature into my memory next to the love she gave so freely.

“She’s only in Tirene because she wanted to keep me safe.” I lift my gaze to Rhiann, willing her to understand.

Tears glimmer in the older woman’s eyes. “I know, Lark. And she did. You’re safe. That’s all a mother wants for her children. And she was able to do that. Your mother was a strong woman.”

“She was.” I nod, clinging to Leesa, who sobs in my arms. I thought I was strong too. But this…do I have enough strength to go on without my mother?

“Lark!” Sterling’s voice snaps me out of my spiraling thoughts as he races down the hall. “Are you all right?”

Rhiann shifts away when he reaches me and starts to rub Leesa’s back, which only elicits more sobbing.

“I’m fine. But my mother?—”

“I know, love. A guard just told me.” Sterling’s arms wrap around me, lifting me to his chest. “I’ve got you now.” With me still in his arms, Sterling starts walking away, stopping only to address a guard. “Find Bastian and bring Blair and Agnar from the training fields.”

“Bastian is there too,” I mutter, shivering in his arms. I’m cold. So very cold.

“You heard her. And close down this wing. Everyone is to be kept in their rooms until I say otherwise. I want whoever did this caught. Question everyone.” Sterling’s orders pass through the men.

Mother’s dead. Her killer is probably hiding in the king’s wing.Those two thoughts keep swirling in my head.