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I’m still caught in the exhilarating afterglow of that dangerous encounter as I retreat back the way I came, the thrill of the chase, the quick decision, the flash of something undefinable with the stunning Zenthris lingering, and I let it.

It’s a stark contrast to the stifling politics I’ve become entangled in, and for a brief moment, it allows me to forget everything but this adventure.

Even distracted by the stranger’s sparking touch, it’s simple to evade notice, laughably so, and now I have a new game to play that suits me far better than any I might learn here. This will not be my last nighttime excursion through the Citadel.

I’m just arriving back at my quarters, a visit to Gorgon accomplished, my hand reaching for the ornate handle of my door, when I hear footfalls and turn just as the door next to mine opens.

Vae arches one perfect eyebrow at me as she hugs her silk gown around her, curls piled for sleep that I’ve interrupted.

“It’s almost dawn,” she says, her silken voice cutting through the quiet of the corridor. “And where have you been all night, Princess Remalla?”

At least she’s no longer hiding her animosity, her beautiful face is neither soft nor kind.

Her icy blue eyes, once so full of feigned warmth, are now hard, glittering with malice.

She’s a warrior of another kind, I realize, as practiced at her kind of battle as I am in mine, and though I’m still furious at myself for falling for her deceit, I have to admit she won fair and square.

Never again, however.

“Why you care,” I say, “means nothing to me.”

A wicked smile plays on her lips, and the sweet scent of lavender from her gown now feels like a venomous cloud as she glides toward me, poison in her eyes.

“I don’t care, Remalla ,” she purrs, taking a step closer.

Her voice is low, laced with a cutting wit that slices through the air.

“Especially now that we know where we stand. Except, of course, to ensure that you never, ever rise to the position you seem to think you’ve come here to take.

” She lowers her chin, vicious stare a blade she wields as sharp as my sword and meant to cut deep.

“I’ve dedicated myself, you see, to the cause. ”

“And what cause is that?” I need to take her seriously, as seriously as any soldier.

“The downfall of Heald, of course,” she says, stopping in front of me.

Bold and fearless, perhaps admirable in her conviction.

“The utter, complete, and absolute erasure of your kind from this overkingdom. Forever.” She flicks her fingers at me, soft and tinkling laugh wafting through the hall.

“When I’m done with you and your people, no one will ever even remember that the sliver of nothing that is your pathetic kingdom existed. ”

She means what she says, though I struggle with the intent despite myself. Not in her conviction, but to believe that she has that power at her disposal. But her hatred is hot and vicious, and I have to trust that whatever she has planned, she made a mistake warning me ahead of time.

“Acknowledged,” I tell her as I would any opposing leader across the parley table. “Now, if you’re done threatening me?”

Vae doesn’t take the hint, stepping even closer, her voice dropping to a chilling whisper that only I can hear.

“You really are a naive little savage, aren’t you?

To think you could waltz into this court without consequences.

” Does she know she’s overplaying her venom?

She really needs to walk away now, with her message delivered.

But she can’t seem to do so. How long has she been planning this?

There’s more to her hate than jealousy, clearly.

Some discreet inquiries might serve to answer the source of her rage against my people, if it matters.

It matters to her. Learning the secrets of an enemy can grant an edge so now, it matters to me, too.

“I will be watching you,” she says. “Every clumsy step. Every warrior’s grunt. Every misplaced glance. And I will use all of it against you.”

I nod. She hasn’t earned more.

Her icy blue eyes bore into mine, and the malice in them unmistakable, palpable.

“And when I marry the Overprince—because I will marry him, mark me, I will personally oversee the destruction of Heald. Of your precious queen, your filthy army. I will give the order that beheads Jhanette, and I will make you watch before I string you up to die a slow and painful end on the wall of this Citadel.”

“Careful,” I say. “That much hate will devour you.” It’s meant to wind her up, that warning, and succeeds.

She’s shaking now, venom pouring from her. “Your people will be enslaved, their spirit broken, their lands absorbed into Protoris, forever. Heald will be nothing, not even a footnote in history.” She tilts her head. “It’s happened before. We can erase you for good, this time. Like the rest of it.”

She’s taunting me about my country’s poor treatment by the rest of the kingdoms, but what does the rest of that mean? “So you’ve said.” I shrug. “Are we done?”

Vae stiffens, her tiny face twisting before she pulls herself together.

She must know she’s lost control in front of me and regrets it, perhaps.

Then again, her triumphant smile says otherwise, even if she’s just lying to herself.

She turns, her silk gown rustling like a serpent’s scales, and sweeps away down the corridor, back to her own chambers.

It’s not surprising that two of the other princesses watch through slivers and quickly close their doors when I salute their spying.

I hold my ground until Vae disappears. I will not be seen to retreat.

Which gives a watcher a moment to speak, though I barely pivot to hear the words of the daughter of the rich farmlands of Nethal, our most recent target, who pipes up from her doorway across the hall.

No need to meet her flat gray eyes, to remind myself of her hair the color of straw, or the way her long jaw and arching nose remind me of Gorgon. Her malice is no match for Vae’s and her simpering words carry little of a threat.

And yet, I listen because even this is important.

“You have no friends in the capital, bitch of Heald,” she says, her voice low, solemn, like a tolling bell.

“None. Everyone here hates you. Hates your mother. For what she’s done.

For the land she’s stolen. For the citizens of our countries whom she’s murdered.

The blood she’s spilled.” I do turn then, slowly, facing her down.

Her gaze wavers as I do, though she doesn’t stop, filled with a deep, if now anxious, resentment.

“Go back to your filthy animal of a queen before you learn to regret it.”

What my mother has done, what I’ve done, I’ve always seen as protecting my people, providing for them in an Overkingdom that’s given us no choice.

It’s hard to hear her words, despite my resistance to her attitude, because her truth is valid.

Mother might not want to admit it, but Heald’s wars have stirred anger toward us, anxiety.

But we are not just feared, are we? We are hated .

The battles I’ve fought take new meaning now. And perhaps I could argue the case, the truth I know of our reasons for our conflicts, but the pale light of dawn in a hall filled with the enemy is not the right time or place.

“A reckoning against Heald is coming,” she says as she hesitates, retreating before she goes on, barely visible now through the crack in her door.

“This marriage alliance, whoever takes the Overqueen’s throne, will not save you.

It will only hasten your defeat. Go home, Remalla. Go home and wait for the end of Heald.”

She shuts her door at last, leaving me utterly alone in the silent, perfumed corridor. The others listened in, I have no doubt about that, and now I know Mother has sent me, not on a fool's errand, but into a pit of vipers set on our destruction.

Amber has to know the truth. Or does she? She can’t be so foolish as to be blind to the animosity against us here. Then again, my mother’s envoy has been here in the Citadel for longer than I’ve been alive. Has she failed to uncover the tide turning against my homeland?

One thing is certain. If any of these princesses do wed the Overprince, Heald’s days are numbered. While we are mighty, I have no doubt if the whole of the kingdoms turn against us, we will fall eventually.

Which means my plan to encourage the Overprince’s choice of another must fall to the wayside. This has all been a personal frustration, an irritating inconvenience.

Until now.

Now, it is a deadly battle I never knew was in the works.

They will regret showing their hand to me. Because with a clear objective in mind, the choice made for me, for Heald, I will not fail.