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For some reason, the horns and canines from my dream flash into my mind. I shake them away.

“So that’s it, then?” I ask. “There’s nothing more I can do? He truly owns everything and is who he says he is?” I breathe in disappointment as hope leaves me with each exhale.

Mr. Tomaras holds himself tall. “There is one more avenue of searching I’d like to exhaust before I accept the second half of my payment, Your Grace, but I would prepare yourself. The evidence is not pointing toward the answers you’re looking for.”

My body feels twice as heavy as those words settle in my mind. Eryx Demos really exists. He is the duke.

Butwhatis he?

I finally allow the thoughts I’ve denied to pervade my mind. Ambereyes. Mysterious deaths. A dream that feels less and less like a dream the more I think on it. The bodyguards here to keep me safe.

Or are they here to keep me from learning the truth?

“I shall see myself out once again, Your Grace. Until next time.” He bows deeply, and I precede him from the library.

Kyros escorts me back to my rooms. I’m lost in thoughts of all that was revealed to me, when he asks, “Did you learn what you were hoping to?”

“Unfortunately, it would seem that Pholios has a grandson. Eryx is who he says he is.”

“What of Vander’s guilty face when you met with him?”

“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “Mr. Tomaras has one more avenue of searching he’d like to try, but he told me to prepare myself.” I sigh. “The man’s dead, yet Pholios is still hurting me from the grave.”

“I’m so sorry, Chrysantha.”

“He was a pig. He cast out his pregnant daughter, leaving her with nothing. He was more despicable than I imagined.”

And now he’s left me one more mess to clean up. Eryx and I are fighting for an estate and a title that can only belong to one of us.

I still intend to win, no matter the cost.

The law can’t get rid of Eryx Demos for me?

Fine.

I’ll resort to plan B.

Eryx is dangerous, and there’s something unnatural about him. I may not know what it is, but there’s no denying that keeping him around the estate is a bad idea.

He needs to die.

I already have a scapegoat: his mysterious blackmailer. All the aristocracy still think me an idiot. It’s time to take action.

“Is there anything else I can do for you, Chrysantha?” Kyros asks as he sees me to my door.

I meet his eyes, and they are heated.

Amid everything else that’s been happening, I nearly forgot about his unsaid proposition. I do miss companionship in my bed, but I know now isn’t the right time. Not when I cannot get thoughts of murder from my mind.

I reach out my hand and take Kyros’s gloved one. “Not tonight, but perhaps… later.”

I let the suggestion of more linger in the air, and it is enough for now.

CHAPTER 13

Iput on a pair of sturdy boots, tying the laces up my calf. I don’t call for Medora to help me change my dress or put on my cloak.

I don’t want anyone to have any clues as to what I’m up to today. However, only mere moments after entering the foliage of the nearby woods, I hear a shriek of “Duchess!”