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“I didn’t,” she lied.

“You told Reon to leave the room. You knew before the king. How?”

“Didn’t you see…” her voice ran dry when she saw his expression flicked with doubt.

“See what?”

Nothing. Nobody else could see the bird, which was made clear by Pierre who rescued her from the balcony on the first day. How was that even possible? Why was she the only other person that could see it?

She shook her head, yanking out of Sabien’s grip. She shoved her palms into his chest, trying to escape. He backed away from her on his own, for there was no way she was strong enough to push him.

“What did you see?” Sabien repeated.

“Nothing,” she said under her breath. She turned away from him, starting off down the corridor. She didn’t plan on returning to the party. She wanted to disappear.

Fortunately, Sabien didn’t follow her. He remained by the door, waiting for the king to calm down, letting the king fight his mind on his own.

Whatever afflicted the king seemed to torment her too. And if he was a Mad King…what did that make her?

CHAPTER 35

Magdalena

“Get them,” Vex shouted at his officers to restrain Magda and Ravi.

As fast as lightning, he opened his palm and threw a white marble to the floor, which exploded in a burst of blue smoke. The choking cloud filled the entire space, causing Magda’s hand to fly to her mouth. In the chaos, she felt herself being wrenched out of Ravi’s arms, and her wrists being pinned behind her back. She wanted to scream, but her lungs were burning from the strange substance. All she could hear was Odie barking, mixed in with Vex’s chilling laugh.

When the mist cleared, one man each held both Ravi and Magda. Their grips were like iron clasps, digging deep into Magda’s forearms. When her vision fully came to, she noticed that the third henchman had placed another net over Odie and his new friend.

“Sit them down,” said Vex.

Magda screamed as she was yanked through the rows of barrels and over to the table. The man easily shoved her down onto a wooden chair and held her in place. She stole a glance at Ravi, who was seated directly opposite of her, equally held down.

“Let us go!” yelled Magda. “All I want is my dog back.”

“This goes far beyond your dog now,” said Vex with an angry growl. He leaned into Magda’s face, his stinky breath flushing against her lips. “You released my hound, and I just had to kill it before it bore any more havoc on my guests. Do you know how much money I will lose?”

Magda gulped. It would not have been easy to kill the hound. Vex was more powerful than she had realized. What would Dagmara do to get out of this?

“I promise I will pay you more than you earned this entire night,” said Magda strongly. “We can all leave here without any problems.”

Vex laughed before sitting in a chair between them. “These games aren’t about money. They’re about reputation. About who can be trusted, and who will win the best contracts.”

Magda stole a glance at Ravi sitting beside her, but he seemed equally as confused.

“What do you mean?” asked Magda.

Vex stood once again and clasped his hands behind his back. Then he began pacing as he spoke, “Together, the guilds are the most powerful corporation in history. We deliver goods around the kingdoms, and we’re the main economic trading power in the world. Our pockets run so deep and our men so vast that we could have our own army. But there’s one man who is more powerful, and he offers large contracts to any captain that not only brings goods back from uncharted waters, but full expedition logs.”

“King Claude,” Magda finished Vex’s sentence, remembering the letter in Ishani’s ship. “Why does he care about your logbooks?”

“Who cares,” Vex laughed. “He asks for strange notes, information, topography, animals, words…presence of magic.”

“He pays you greatly for this information I’m assuming. And you fight amongst each other to win the best information to bring back to Claude,” Magda asserted.

“Precisely.”

Ravi spoke up next. “We don’t have any contracts for you to take. So what do you want from us?”