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Chapter fifty-two

Adelyna

I t is a truly bad night when not even a performance of Love Undone —which involved two actresses balancing greater and greater amounts of fruit on their cleavage—was able to distract Adelyna.

Adelyna was hosting a party in her salon and failed to be taken in by the music, the wine, and the courtiers’ best attempts at wit.

Not even when a courtier told a story of how he seduced a man in a stable and was interrupted by a herd of surprisingly judgmental cattle.

The story would normally have sent Adelyna into fits of laughter. But not tonight.

Was Nerys with the R?ll now? Was her father already dead? Would she wake the next morning and find herself R?ll? Did her father stop Nerys and was he preparing at this moment to arrest her for treason?

“Lady?”

Adelyna didn’t take her eyes off the dark wine swirling in her goblet.

“Lady?”

“Lyna!” Maribelle said a little too loudly, making Adelyna jolt and sending the wine sloshing to the floor. Heat rose to her cheeks as she met her eyes and realized that all the courtiers stared at her with expressions ranging from amused to concerned. “What’s wrong?” Maribelle whispered.

“Nothing. I’m just tired.”

“They’re saying you’re ill.”

Adelyna frowned. “I’m not.”

“Go to sleep—and don’t torture the poor servant.

” Maribelle gestured to the servant who stood before her, wearing the R?ll’s gold livery.

The poor balding man stood unnaturally still, no doubt wrought catatonic by the sheer amount of attention.

How long had he been standing there waiting for her to acknowledge him? Maybe she was becoming ill.

“Apologies,” Adelyna said, sitting upright and setting the goblet on a side table. “What do you need?”

“The R?ll wishes you to attend to him.”

“What? Now ?”

“Yes, Lady. He requested immediacy.”

Then Nerys wasn’t meeting with him tonight—he’d never summon her if that was the case.

And for all of her fears, it was too early for her father to have discovered their plot.

Maybe there was news regarding the war. Maybe Cerdoran attacked and he wanted her counsel.

Maybe he had a new batch of chocolates from Aklia and wanted her to sample them first—he had summoned her before for less.

“I’ll follow you,” Adelyna said, more to reduce the chance that she’d have to stop the rest of her entourage from following than any fondness for her father’s servants.

Two guards followed Adelyna out of her chambers as she trailed the servant—those two she couldn’t get rid of without attracting notice. Every eye in the room was glued to her when she left, wondering what the R?ll needed her for at this hour. If only she knew.

When Adelyna reached the R?ll’s chambers, she followed the servant into her father’s apartments.

His empty apartments. That was strange—normally the R?ll’s rooms were the height of the palace’s social life, the one place at court that outshone her own.

Whatever news her father had, it was bad indeed.

The servant stopped outside the second to last door and said, “In here, Lady.”

“Thank you,” Adelyna said, and strode into her father’s private library.

The room was as she remembered it, full of books she knew her father never read and artwork of flowery animals that he despised.

Her father sat on one of the leather high-backed chairs, facing her as she stepped inside, his expression grim.

The servant shut the door behind her. Her and her father were alone.

Adelyna let out a short breath. Oh, this really wasn’t good.

“Highest,” Adelyna said, giving her father a curtsey. “You wished to see me?”

Her father hesitated before speaking. When he did, his voice was gravely. “I have always thought highly of you, Adelyna. I hope you know that.”

“I do.” Adelyna frowned at the distant look on her father’s face.

“Why do you say that?” Surely, he wasn’t discussing the succession.

She had been promised a full year to find a way to gain her magic, and not even a month had passed.

Did he somehow find out about Nerys? No—that was impossible.

Not unless doors had grown ears. This had to be about the war.

“You know that a ruler has to put their kingdom first,” her father continued.

“Of course. ”

“And that this means that sometimes, we have to do regretful things.”

A chill prickled down her spine. “What are you talking about? You gave me a year—”

Her father held up his hand, cutting off her protest. “I did. I didn’t come to talk about that.” Adelyna let out a breath of relief. “I came to talk about what you can do for the kingdom. Now.”

“I’d do anything. Everything.”

He smiled sadly. “I know that.”

Adelyna’s eye was caught by a ring on the R?ll’s desk. Vinay’s silver ring, with its distinctive garnet inlay. Adelyna’s breath quickened. “Why do you have Vinay’s ring?”

“Some people know how to make a bargain.”

A movement shifted in the corner of her eye. She turned to see Aherin, who had crept out from behind a chair. His face was devoid of its normal smirk, though he refused to meet her gaze.

Adelyna only had time to let out a gasp before her brother swung a sword hilt against her head, sending her into darkness.

“I told you to surrender.” Aherin’s voice flittered through the last of her awareness, if he spoke at all. “I’m sorry.”