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I had never seen her act like she did. Even when I was trying to kill her.

She was unrestrained. Panicking. Upset.

Something told me it wasn’t just the bird that had made her like that, but maybe it was her breaking point.

Just another thing I shouldn’t be doing.

I shouldn’t have wandered up to her room to check on her. I should have been plotting how to kill her. Maybe that had been the plan at first, but when I heard her voice through the door, how angry and pained it sounded…something switched in me.

As days—no, hours—passed at Princess Aurelia’s side, the voice that reminded me to kill her became more like a whisper and the one that had me pitying her—it was like a siren.

“You did well.” An all-too-familiar voice came from my right.

With a sigh, I turned to face Cedar. Her back was against the far wall, her eyes watching the door to her right. Her arms were crossed over her chest, but there was something about the tenseness of her face that told me she was less relaxed than she’d like to show.

“Meaning we kept her from dying?” I asked and held the feather carefully in my palm.

Cedar’s eyes cut to mine, a small smirk playing at her lips.I hate that smirk.

“All you, friend,” she said. “But it’s not over.”

“And you know that how?” I asked and walked toward her. When I reached her, I looked out the open door and down the hallway. Not a soul in sight.

“Can’t tell you. But what I can tell you is that if you let this marriage happen, she’s going to die,” she said.

The seriousness of her threat caught me off guard, but there was another chill that ran through me when I thought about the possibility that the princess waiting up alone in her room would cease to exist.

“The prince doesn’t treat her well, but he would be stupid to kill her,” I muttered under my breath.

My heart sped up and panic had my chest tightening. Imagining the princess lying on the ground, cold, and covered in blood shouldn’t have been as hard as it was.

Fuck. Damn it…What’s wrong with me?

“The prince isn’t capable of killing her,” she said. “It’s closer to her than that.”

Slowly, I turned to face her.Witches are dangerous.I’d known that the entire time I worked with them…but never met one with as much power as she seemed to have.

“If you won’t tell me how you know, then at least tell me what,” I said.

Her eyes shot to the side, apprehension flashing across her features.

“He wasn’t smart enough to come up with the idea to off her, but there are people beside her who were. People who hate her. And because of them, she will be blamed for something the prince will do. He will use her as a scapegoat.”

Was that why he was meeting with her…stepsister?I wouldn’t put it past them, but eventhatseemed cruel of them.

“You’re a seer,” I said. “That’s how you know all this.”

She rolled her eyes and let out a huff.

“Okay, I get it, you don’twantto save the princess,” she said, her tone annoyed. “But you will regret it if you don’t.”

“How do I even know you’re telling the truth?” I asked, shifting closer to her. “What if this is you just trying to get me killed so you’re the one who can off her yourself?”

She shook her head and gave me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. Heat raced through me and up my neck. I hissed and sent her a glare.

Fuck her and her fucking magic.If I ever got back to my washed-up town, the first stop would be the bar to ask about why the hell Cedar’s magic was as painful and potent as it was.

“Don’t want the princess getting a look at that before it’s time,” she said before pausing, a contemplative look crossing her face. “She was never my job, Vesper.”