Page 84

Clarissa

S he’s Veridian .

My mouth opened, but no sound came out. I blinked to try and wipe away my shock, to make sense of the impossible. Because it was impossible .

“How do you know?” Thorne asked.

Nox strengthened his hold on Devora, who glared up at him and tried to pull away.

“My magic,” he answered. “I still have some left from the island, and when I touched her, she siphoned it from me.” He turned so his nose grazed the side of Devora’s face, baring his fangs to her.

“Tell me how you got to this kingdom, Shadow Wielder .”

She struggled against him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she snapped. “Let go of me.”

“You’re lying,” Nox shot back.

“I’m not,” she seethed. “I never knew my family, okay? I don’t know what this,” she jerked her head toward the shadows dissipating at her feet, “is. Nothing like that has ever happened before. I’d never even met a—a Veridian until Clarissa.”

Her eyes found mine, and their voices melted away. All I could do was stare at Devora, at the familiar face of the woman I’d come to know these past few weeks. The woman I’d called my friend . I didn’t care where she came from. I didn’t care if she was Veridian or not.

She’d betrayed me.

Those blue-green eyes held my stare, and to her credit, she didn’t back down. She was never one to tuck her tail between her legs—this was the girl with daggers under her uniform and liquor hidden in her chest. Honest, authentic, unfiltered.

Except…it had all been a lie.

“How could you?” I whispered.

Her gaze fell to her feet.

I took a step forward, my voice rising. I could still see the charred red fur staked in the middle of that bonfire, only this time, Devora’s form flickered next to it. “The fox in the fire? Was that you?”

She swallowed. “I didn’t have a choice. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I was trying to protect you.”

“Protect me?” A chuckle full of mirth bubbled out of me. “That’s the best you’ve got? After trying to kill Galen and me, trapping us in the mines, humiliating me?”

“I never tried to kill you,” she rushed out. “That wasn’t me, I promise.”

I paused, searching her features. When I gave a quick nod to Nox, he reluctantly released his grip as I stood toe-to-toe with her.

My fingers itched to close around her throat, the violent streak of my dormant fox half longing to rise to the surface.

“I trusted you. I let you into my life. I don’t know what she has on you, but I would have done anything to help you, Devora. ”

“I know,” she said. “But Lady Reaux promised to give me information on my family. You have no idea how long I’ve been trying to find them, Rissa, and?—”

“ Don’t ,” I snarled. “Don’t you dare call me that.”

She blinked and rolled her lips together.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty,” she finally said.

“I didn’t want any of it to happen this way.

Lady Reaux threatened to have you killed, to make it easier for her to ruin the alliance.

But after I met you, I knew I couldn’t let that happen.

I begged her not to. I—I told her I could get you to leave willingly, to abandon the marriage and go back to your empire. I didn’t want anyone to have to die.”

Her voice lowered, remorse shining in her guarded eyes. “Lady Reaux agreed. She told me to do what it took to convince you to leave. Whatever it took.”

“You could have warned me.” I was angry at how choked my words sounded—how my emotions bled through even when I tried so hard to hold them back. “You could have said something. Anything .”

“I know,” she whispered back. “I’m sorry. But she—she gave me a job, a home, when nobody else would. I owed her a debt. And she knows about my family, things I’ve been searching for my whole life. The answers were right there . All I had to do was?—”

“Betray me,” I finished for her.

Her shoulders slumped, that wavy red hair swaying across her chest. “She was going to get her way no matter what. I tried to protect you the only way I knew how.”

I didn’t respond. I took a step back and straightened. “I hope it was worth it,” I finally said, forcing ice into my tone. “I hope you got your answers.”

“I think today’s revelation made things a whole lot more complicated.” Devora’s eyes slid behind me to meet Azura’s. “How could you not tell me my parents were Veridian?”

I turned and saw Azura bristle. “I had no idea,” she admitted. “I don’t know who your parents are, Devora. All I know is that you were found on the shores of the North Territory as an infant.”

Devora’s eyes flashed. She jumped forward, and I could have sworn wisps of shadows appeared once again where she stood. “You lied to me? You promised if I helped you, you’d tell me!”

“And you were desperate enough to show your hand, dear. I knew you’d do anything to get what you wanted, just as I would. We’re not so different, you and I,” Azura remarked.

“I am nothing like you,” Devora spat, then spun to face me. “Riss—Your Majesty, I’m sorry. I never wanted to hurt you, but I— I made a mistake. So many mistakes.” Her voice hitched. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Start from the beginning.”

She nodded. “I was hired by the Reaux family four years ago. I served as Lady Reaux’s handmaiden, and she grew to trust me.

She made up a plan to have me transferred over to the palace’s staff so she could have eyes and ears on the Grimaldi family, although she wouldn’t tell me why.

So I…got close to the prince.” She averted her gaze from mine.

“As Lady Reaux knew he would, he eventually brought me to the palace. I worked there for two years, spying on the crown, delivering information back to her. Nine months ago, when King Orion died, things became…different. Galen would disappear for weeks on end. Lady Reaux stopped communicating with me, and everyone was quieter, more secretive. I couldn’t figure out what was going on.

But when word came about you arriving”—she gestured toward me—“she reached out again.

Told me what she needed me to do, in exchange for information on my family.

“Katrine and I were assigned to be your lady’s maids.

She had no idea about any of this, of course—I didn’t want her involved.

After we met you, after we heard about what you’d been through over in your empire, the way you were changing things for your people…

” Her shoulders fell. “I couldn’t do it.

I told Lady Reaux I refused to go along with her plan.

I thought she would give up, but then I found out about the attack on the way to the Mid Territory, and I knew it was her.

She was serious. She was willing to do anything to get you out of the way, even kill you.

So I went back to her and offered my deal: I’d do what I could to drive you off, if she swore not to hurt you again.

“I’d heard rumors about one of the citizen’s daughters winding up dead in the palace several months ago.

I found her father and told him Galen would be at the Harvest Tournament.

Then I bribed the guards to let Tovar Printh through with his weapon.

I hoped if you saw the kind of man Galen was, you’d be scared away.

Or pissed off—it didn’t matter, I just wanted to give you a reason to bolt. ”

Devora paused to rub a hand on the back of her neck.

Her cheeks paled as she took a deep breath.

“When that didn’t work, I—I remembered how upset you’d been about shifting.

How the people were scared of you. I thought—I thought if nothing else could convince you to leave, this would. So I found the fox.”

I gritted my teeth against the pressure mounting in my chest. She’d seemed unlike herself that night.

Almost as if she didn’t want to go to the Harvest Festival.

And when I was burned, she dropped everything to take care of me, with an urgency I’d thought was compassion but turned out to be guilt.

All the signs were there, but I’d been too blind to see them.

Her eyes swam with silver as she met my stare. “I hate myself for what I did to you.” She swallowed. “But it was better than watching you die.”

“Were you behind the mine collapsing as well?” Thorne asked, stepping to my side.

Devora shook her head. “No, that wasn’t me. I wasn’t the only one working for her. When I didn’t succeed, she turned to other means. She must have paid someone in the South Territory to cause the cave-in.”

Thorne rounded on his mother. “ Marigold was in those caves, Mother. Have you lost your mind? If anything had happened to her, if a single hair on her head had been?—”

“I didn’t know she would be there!” Azura cried out.

For the first time, she looked desperate.

True fear crossed over the hard lines of her face.

“She wasn’t supposed to be there, Thorne.

I would have never gone through with it had I known.

I made sure she wasn’t caught in the collapse. She was safe .”

Thorne’s jaw flexed beneath his thick beard. “Then I guess it didn’t matter that your ‘accident’ almost killed me too, as long as it got Clarissa. It’s all collateral damage to you.”

Azura reached forward to cup Thorne’s cheek, but he shoved her hand away. “That was a mistake,” Azura whispered. “Clarissa was supposed to be alone while Galen was distracted by the miner girl. You and your ridiculous heart simply couldn’t stay away from her.”

I turned back to Devora. “The poison, then. Our last night in the South Territory. Who was that?”

“I didn’t find out about that until after,” Devora said. “Lady Reaux spiked the whiskey, thinking you and your friends would have a few drinks after the ball, like you had the other nights.”

I hummed. “Take the Veridians out all at once.”

“But the girl who brought him the whiskey had no idea,” Devora finished.