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“In other districts, it likely would never have been noticed that orphans were going missing from the streets. They began disappearing in the dead of night, right under our noses. My sisters and I, the deadliest and most skilled in the kingdoms, could not track them. We could not find them. At first, it was a child here or there. Then it started happening more frequently. The children were terrified. They would not go outside. They lost trust in our ability to keep them safe.

“We infiltrated other districts to see if we could learn anything. We sat in taverns with soldiers, on the streets with beggars, and in the tea shops at high tea. We contemplated kidnapping a soldier or two to interrogate, but where to start? Surely a lowly grunt wouldn’t know anything. We couldn’t ask Cassius, who was living at the manor at this point, to start asking questions and risk drawing attention to himself or the Black Syndicate. We had some leads we would follow up on, but they always led to dead ends, and we would find ourselves back at square one.

“One day, by pure luck, Cassius overheard two royal guards in a local tavern. They were grousing about urchins in the castle dungeons, and we started looking more closely at the crown being involved, but the Assassin Lord would not allow us to infiltrate the castle. He said we needed more proof before we risked affecting our relationship with the king.

“Then the orphans started disappearing weekly. Nuri was frantic. She begged the Assassin Lord to intervene, but even with providing shelter for as many as he could every night, it didn’t help. We utilized every resource the Fellowship and Black Syndicate had to no avail. We questioned every single one of our targets, mortal and Fae, but none ever knew anything of it. Then one week…” Scarlett swallowed hard. “One week a three-year-old child disappeared. Nuri was furious and beside herself. I’ve never seen her… The Assassin Lord had to help us physically restrain her in the Fellowship. My other sister and I had a huge fight once Nuri was secured. We never fought. Nuri and I, yes. All the time. But never with…

“I left the Syndicate to cry or rage, I didn’t know, and wound up in a forgotten wood north of the castle that housed a little pond in the center.It was hidden and secluded, and I dropped to my knees and cried in horror and frustration. In my sorrow, I almost didn’t hear the crunch of boots and snapping of twigs. I hid quickly enough, but then he stepped into view. His two prominent guards trailed him, and as I watched him, a plan formed, and I knew how we would get the eyes inside the castle that we needed.”

CHAPTER 27

SCARLETT

TWOYEARSAGO

“This is our purpose! This is what we were trained for! To protect the innocent. You more than any of us!”

Juliette’s words clanged through her mind as she watched the prince from where she lay hidden in a tree. It was late summer as the prince meandered through the green grass by the hidden pond. She about fell out of the tree when the prince plopped onto the ground and pulled a book from the satchel he had slung across his shoulder. His guards stood back by the clearing they had come from, relaxed and chatting. Clearly, this wasn’t the first time he’d come here. At one point, the prince took out a journal of some sort and wrote in it for a good fifteen minutes before he went back to his reading. How long was he going to sit here and read? He was the crowned prince. Surely he had other things he needed to be doing?

After another twenty minutes, Scarlett realized the prince had fallen asleep reading his book. He lay in the sunshine, the book still in his hands, and all she could think about was how incredibly stupid he was. She could have him dead in less than twenty seconds,faster than his guards would even be able to register what was happening.

Or she could somehow convince him to investigate the rumors of the children in the dungeons that Cassius had heard in the tavern a few weeks ago.

While the prince lay napping in the summer sun, Scarlett silently climbed down from her tree and crept along the grasses. She gave the guards a wide berth as she followed the path they had come from and found their horses tied to some trees near the road. She cooed and spoke softly to the animals to keep them from startling as she approached. The guards’ two horses were brown and had the coat of arms of the castle guards on their saddles, but the prince’s horse was a stunning black stallion. She drew her hood down as she approached him. He snorted once, pawing the ground.

“Shush now,” she crooned as she patted his nose, and he huffed into her hand. She made her way to the saddle bag that hung from the prince’s saddle, and a smile filled her face as she dug through and found a piece of paper and pen. She quickly scrawled a note onto it:

If you’re going to sneak away and read, Prince, at least read something that doesn’t put you to sleep. I shall leave a book at your napping spot tomorrow at this time that is sure to keep your interest.

Scarlett used the cinch of the saddle to punch a hole into the paper and secured it. Then, silent as the wraith she was, she climbed a nearby tree and waited. Ten minutes later, the prince emerged, laughing with his guards. They were casual and laid back, clearly friends and not just protectors. The prince’s stallion had shifted such that the guards hadn’t seen the note stuck to the saddle, but she saw the prince’s face as he came around his horse to mount. He paused, looking around, then reached for the piece of paper. He read it. Twice. Then looked around again. His companions, sensing his hesitancy, came to investigate.

“I told you we shouldn’t be coming here,” said the taller of the two guards.He was muscled and had a square jaw with short, cropped blond hair. His pale blue eyes scanned the surrounding areas warily.

“Relax, Sloan,” the Prince said, a small smile quirking up the side of his mouth as he read the note again. “Clearly if whoever wrote this wanted to kill me, they had every opportunity to do so.” He folded the note up and placed it in one of his inner tunic pockets. “Besides, they were right. That book was dreadfully boring.”

The other guard rolled his eyes. “That’s one of my favorite books,” he said pointedly. While he was shorter than Sloan, he was just as muscled. His hair was slightly longer than Sloan’s and was a light bronze color that accented his dark brown eyes nicely.

“I know,” Prince Callan said with a grin as he swung himself up onto his horse. “We should go. My mother will be displeased if I miss court…again.”

“I’m told she has a new list of potential brides,” the shorter one said. Scarlett would later learn his name was Finn.

“Lovely,” she heard Callan mutter under his breath. Scarlett held in her laughter as the trio made their way along the road, Sloan and Finn monitoring everything far more closely now.

Scarlett arrived hours before the time specified in her note. As she had predicted, a few hours before, Finn and Sloan arrived scouting the area to find the book already in place. Sloan swore as he picked it up.

“We should have come earlier,” he said through gritted teeth, leafing through the book. The note she had put inside fluttered to the ground. Sloan picked it up and skimmed it.

“Don’t read his private stuff,” Finn snapped, snatching the note and book from Sloan’s hands and placing the piece of paper back inside.

“It’s a book left by a pond. Anyone could find it,” Sloan argued.

“No, they couldn’t. That’s why Callan likes coming here…and also why I suspect he’s so intrigued by whoever left this and the note yesterday,” Finn said pointedly, returning the book to the ground. “You stay here in case they come back. I’ll come back with Callan.”

Finn trudged off and nearly an hour later, returned with the prince.

“I suppose you have already searched the book and area for traps, Sloan?” Callan asked with a sigh.

“I know you think no one else knows of this place, Callan, but clearlysomeoneelse does,” Sloan answered, his tone grave and serious.