Page 42 of A Promise of Lies (Shadows of the Tenebris Court #3)

41

Kat

I had a troubled sleep and woke later than I’d planned. This was the day of Cyrus’s masquerade ball, and judging by everyone’s low mood at yesterday’s party, it wasn’t going to be the exuberant affair he’d planned.

A king who didn’t get what he wanted meant trouble for everyone else.

As I hurried to get ready, Zita appeared at my door with a box. “I…” She glanced at the guards. “Can I come in?”

“You’ll need to—I’m running late.” Letting her in, I flashed a grin, but she didn’t return it.

In fact, an uncharacteristic crease scoured the skin between her eyebrows, and the muscles of her compact figure were tight rather than loose and limber. The pale grey dress she wore was uncharacteristically sombre, too.

“What’s wrong?”

She touched a finger to her lips and waited until the door was shut and we’d reached my bedroom before answering. “I’m worried for you. Cyrus has been acting strange the past this morning. Paranoid. Sepher said he’s never seen him like this.”

“Hmm.” I twisted a section of hair and pinned it, missing my lock picks. “Paranoia seems like exactly the sort of behaviour I’d expect from him. There’s something else.”

In the mirror, she lowered her gaze and placed the box on the bed, busying herself with opening it. “This morning… Two of his servants ‘slipped’ in his bathroom and cracked their heads on the floor. He didn’t bother to send for a healer in time and now they’re dead.”

My hands lowered. He’d killed Adra, of that I was sure. Not to mention those who’d died in his fake Hydra Ascendant attacks. But those deaths had a purpose in his eyes. Adra needed to be silenced before she revealed his secrets. The attack victims were collateral damage on his campaign for the throne.

But these two servants? Random. Senseless.

“He was angry, and they were in his reach.”

Zita met my gaze in the mirror. “With how close he keeps you, I fear you may be the next person in his reach.”

I took three deep breaths, letting the next hairpin dig into my fingertip. We were so close to being able to prove his guilt. Krae had agreed to meet us with evidence today . Once we had that proof, we would have to move quickly. I just needed to keep this up a little longer.

“I’ll be fine.” I got on with pinning up my hair. “Is that box from Ari?”

“That’s it? You’re not worried?”

I shrugged. “Does it make a difference if I am?”

“No. I suppose it doesn’t.” She smoothed her dress—faint lines blended with the folds, looking like pale grey marble. “Ariadne had this delivered to me, since you’re not supposed to be wearing anything that hasn’t been provided by His Majesty .”

I’d managed to get a message to Ari via Ella, and she’d worked based on that and the measurements she already had.

Thousands of crystals winked back at me from inside the box, shading from a deep starry night to dusky violet to sunrise yellow to, finally, hot coral pink. I’d asked for something that united Dusk and Dawn, and she’d executed that to perfection in the colours. She even knew me well enough to choose one of the only shades of pink that suited me.

Ariadne, less threadwitch, more thread genius .

“Well, that’s…” Zita widened her eyes as she pulled the outfit from the box. “Wow. Bold .”

I swallowed at the design. Less revealing than the gold dress from her wedding, yet more daring. “I hope I can carry this off.”