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“Yes and no,” she says truthfully. “Silla’s hair pins have all been dipped in poison. I’ll do her hair to make sure that she doesn’t stab herself with them. These are meant to kill immediately. I’m not fucking around. If she pulls a pin from her hair it means that all hell has broken loose.”

There’s silence in the kitchen before a glass explodes against the wall. Swallowing hard, I can take a guess that it was Grayson. He hides his anger issues, but it just makes it even more explosive when it bubbles over. Andrya flinches, making me squeeze her waist.

“You good, Baby?” I ask against the shell of her ear.

“Yeah.” she sighs. “I agree with Gray’s sentiment, though. I don’t want to think about the worst case scenarios but I have. The ricin will be ground the morning of and split into pouches. The guard and soldier halls both are having stew the night Silla will be having dinner with the queen.”

“Where did you get that information?” Ayden asks curiously, leaning back to look at his sister.

“Cinder’s assistant chef really dislikes how his sister is treated in the castle. She’s the Queen’s maid. Cinder is either fucking while she forces the maid to clean, or forces her to strip naked and lay restrained spread eagle while Lana is fucked from behind by one of the Queen’s Mission,” Andrya says, wrinkling her nose.

“I’d expect hazard pay for all of that,” I mutter.

“Her brother is worried it’ll continue to escalate. Marie has become very depressed and secretive of late, and his fear is that she’ll spiral and either end her life or Cinder will kill her,” Andrya explains. “It’s not unexpected for the Queen’s Guard to bury a dead body found in her bedroom.”

“How is a dead body just ‘found’?” Sidney scoffs from the kitchen. “Silla hasn’t told us half the shit that her sister gets up to, and on some level, I don’t want to know. I’ll be forced to kill Cinder with my bare hands, causing an even bigger shit storm than we’re already about to face.”

“Keep that big dick energy in check,” Andrya teases him. Sidney barks out a laugh, making her giggle.

“I think Grayson’s dick is bigger, what do you say, Isaac?” Ayden asks curiously. I smirk at his question when Grayson yells, “I swear it’s a normal sized cock!”

“I don’t understand how you manage to walk around with that thing!” Ayden yells. We’re soon all laughing at Gray’s expense when there’s a knock on the door. Glancing at the computer, I frown as I see that her tracker hasn’t moved.

Squeezing Andrya’s thigh, I nudge her over as I stand. Sidney leaves the kitchen, a knife in his hand, and I follow. At least one of us is armed.

There’s a man in royal blue clothes at the door, and I wonder if this is the same auditor who was standing in front of the building the other day.

“Hello, how may I help you?” I ask fairly pleasantly. I can fake it with the best of them, and the tall man’s face almost appears skeletal as a smile stretches across his features.

“Is Drizella in tonight?” he asks. Of all the nights for our girl to be out, I’m almost happy she isn’t here.

“She’s not, I’m sorry. Can we help at all?” Sidney asks.

We’re both standing there with firm, helpful smiles, even as we’re anxiously waiting to see what bullshit he’s bringing to our door.

“I’ve been waiting for her,” he says slowly. “I have something of hers that she’ll want.”

What the fuck?I can’t think of anything that she would want or need that he would have, so I widen my eyes.

“Did she forget an important engagement?” I ask, talking out of my ass. Maybe if I ask enough questions, he’ll actually answer me.

“No,” the auditor says in a drawn out way. I swear these people are absolutely insufferable. Sidney squeezes the knife he’s holding where the man can’t see, and I can tell that he’s trying his patience. I wonder if simply firing them will be enough, or if we’ll need to ensure to kill them all as well. It may be a bit harder to poison them too if they all eat separately.

“Is there a message I can pass on?” I ask, pressing the issue. He’s giving me the creeps, and I very much want to know what he may have that belongs to Silla.

“No, if she’s not here, I’m afraid she’ll find out at another time.” The auditor sighs. “I bid you goodnight.”

Giving us his back, we watch him walk away, and I can feel the goosebumps clawing up my body.

“Fucking creepy,” Sidney mutters after the door is shut again. “Grayson, we have an issue!”

Traipsing into the kitchen together, the twins unsurprisingly on our heels.

“What did the auditor want?” Grayson asks, a black apron around his waist. He still manages to command an air of authority, and it’s really sexy. He’s in the middle of making breakfast for dinner, which is easy and one of my favorites.

“He kept saying that he had something that Silla would want, but wouldn’t explain what it was. I feel like we need to call her, because that was really creepy,” I mutter, shuddering.

Nodding, he palms his phone out of his back pocket, dialing Silla and putting her on speaker so he can continue to cook.