Page 25 of Tricky Princess

The trip back to her room went by quickly as one thought after another went through her mind. Florence came in after her, shutting the door quietly and guiding her to the bedroom before closing those doors as well.

“Why?” Ellea asked, unable to find the right question to start with.

“Which part?”

Ellea climbed into bed, leaning up against the headboard and clutching a pillow in her lap. “All of it? Why bring me? What do you do? What is going on?”

“Besides my courtly duties, I spy for the king.”

Ellea stopped her eyes from rolling at the obvious statement. “Are you part of one of the families or…?”

Azzy had explained to her that most of the court was made up of old families or gentry, ones whose lineages had started at the beginning. Their lands or titles were passed down through the generations.

“Gods, no.” She shook her head. “Asmodeus caught me stealing—or attempting to steal. I was so young then and didn’t have a family. I was also a bit too ambitious.”

Florence smiled deviously, and Ellea could picture it. She could see a smaller, younger-looking version of Florence sneaking through the castle and dodging guards.

“You didn’t try to steal from a king, did you?” No, she couldn’t be that ambitious.

“Oh, yes.” Florence took a spot across from her, grabbing her own pillow to lean against. “I was dumb and young. I didn’t care what happened to me, and I wanted to push things, see how far I could go. I tried joining the guards since I had nothing, but they wouldn’t take some low-born demon who was too small and weak.”

Her eyes became a bit glassy as she stared at nothing. Ellea recognized the look; Florence was going someplace else, lost in a distant memory or vision. Clearing her throat, Florence continued.

“Long story short, I was a little mad about the whole situation, so I attempted to steal something big, something that would put me up for a while—”

“Wait, why didn’t you go to the other realm? Start over in the land of the living?”

“It’s not that easy, and this place was all I knew. Young and dumb, remember?”

Ellea knew the feeling. Living your regular life, not reaching or trying something different. “So who caught you?”

“The king himself.” She smiled wide, and a hint of mischief sparkled in her gold eyes. “I expected a guard or some court member. Instead of throwing me in the dungeons, he recruited me. He seemed quite impressed that I’d gotten into his quarters unseen by anyone but him.”

She brushed off her shirt, smugness seeping from her.

Ellea shook her head and laughed. “How long ago?”

“Two hundred years or so.”

It was amazing how long some lived for. Florence’s smooth, perfect skin showed no age. “And now you…?”

“Do what I can, keep an eye on things.”

“Like spying on a prince?”

Florence straightened. “He has been up to something for years, and I think we are finally getting to the end point.”

Ellea chewed on her lip, unsure of how much the demon knew or how much she wanted her to know.

We are doing things differently.

No more hiding, no more shoving things in a closet and ignoring them. She glanced at the chest where she’d hidden the books from Viatrix.

“So you know about him and my parents?”

“Pieces of it from Asmodeus and news that travels here. But what Belias is up to with them is hard to say. He always speaks in code or is vague when meeting with people. There has never been enough evidence to pin something on him.”

So Ellea knew as much as Florence. That made her feel a little better.