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“No one plays me for a fool,” he spat. The girls on the bed huddled together, obviously knowing far too well how easily the king could turn.

I was grateful he didn’t direct his anger at me.

“At the gala as well,” I continued. “He was going around, trying to get people on his side. To leave you. In broad daylight, where anyone could hear.”

I wasn’t sure it was true, but after Aurelia told me what the prince’s plan was, her reaction at the gala made much more sense. So did his.

What hadn’t made sense was why the prince was so close to her stepsister.

Until I remembered Cedar’s words:The prince isn’t capable of killing the princess. It’s closer than that.

But even if my suspicions were correct, the king wouldn’t believe his own wife and stepdaughter were in on it.

So the only choice was to pin it all on Prince Icas.

“Shut your mouth,” he ordered me, then turned back to Melia. “Tell me the truth, and maybe I’ll spare your life.”

Melia’s eyes filled with tears and sobs spilled from her lips.

“He’s taken more than fifty of them already, my king,” she said through quivering lips. “They’re just waiting for the wedding to conclude before the mass exodus. What she said is true.”

The king searched her face, that disgusting smirk showing up again. Like a light switch, his anger was gone, and in its place was a monster that liked to play with its food.

“And he asked you to help, and you usedmyname to do it?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“Aurelia’s,” she corrected. “And her mother’s.”

The smirk dropped, and all the playfulness in his eyes disappeared. One moment, Melia was being held in the air by her hair, and in the next, she had her neck snapped and was tossed to the floor like garbage.

The king looked over her with a boiling anger that made even my heart stop.

“Lock her up,” he said to the guards stationed around the room. His reddened eyes dug into mine, the threat clear. “I have some things to verify before we let her run loose.”

The human guard ran the electric shock stick against the bars of my damp cell with a menacing look on his face.

The damp smell of the cellar still itched my nose, no matter how many hours had passed. The coldness of the stone underneath me felt much harsher than whatever we had in the guards’ quarters.

It was another floor down, with no sunlight, and the distinct scent of mildew filled the air.

The cell itself was about as large as the room Cedar and I shared, with a bed made of metal, no mattress, and a rusted toilet I didn’t dare use.

I gave the guard a look as he waited for my reaction.

What did he expect? For me to jump? For me to cower?

He was a human, just like I was. If anything, I was above him because of my position at Aurelia’s side. Maybe he knew that. Maybe that’s why he had that smug fucking expression on his face as he looked down at me and flicked the button on the weapon once more.

Someone usually at the bottom of the barrel in this family suddenly found himself with a bit too much power.

The grinding of my teeth was beginning to cause my jaw to ache. My nails dug into my palms. All the annoyance from the meeting with the king and now being forced to sufferthiswas too much for me.

How many times has he passed by?

How many times has he said something offensive under his breath, knowing very well that I can hear him?

Unluckily for him, hours of sitting on the cold rock put me in a little bit of a mood, and that was my final straw. I stood up, rolling my shoulders and tilting my head from side to side. My tight muscles were yelling at me to get up and move around.