Page 150 of A Game of Veils

Or what it might do to them.

Apprehension congeals in my gut. I motion the others farther away until I’m sure we can speak unnoticed.

“Whatever they’re planning, they obviously intend for it to be the biggest spectacle of all.”

Lorenzo frowns and makes a rough motion with his hand. And very bad for Aurelia.

Raul bares his teeth around a snarl. “Haven’t those psychopaths put her through enough already?”

I inhale slowly, gathering my thoughts. We know more than we did an hour ago. The trial is going to take place outside. It’s going to bring the prospective brides all the way out here.

Amid the trees, there’ll be so many places Lady Fausta might be able to launch a surreptitious attack. We’ll have to keep our eyes on her, have our gifts ready to whip out the instant she acts—and make sure we’re far enough away from Tarquin and his guards that no one will pick up on our magic.

Neven wasn’t part of our earlier discussion. His tanned face has paled in the dimness. “Is there any way we can help her? I?—”

He turns his head with an abashed expression. “Maybe it’s stupid, but it feels like she’s one of us. We should stick with her, shouldn’t we? She’s… she’s part of our weird little family of people who don’t belong here in Dariu but didn’t have any choice about it.”

Our family. His words hit me with more impact than he could have intended. My breath snags in my chest.

By almost every measure that counts, the three princes standing around me are more my family than my parents and brother back home could be.

It’s the same for all of us, isn’t it? Our parents might not have had much choice, but they let us go. They sent us off as playing chips in the game Tarquin and the emperors before him have been orchestrating for centuries.

We weren’t first born, so we weren’t worth fighting for.

Why should we keep imagining that one day we might finally have the chance to fight for them? Why not take whatever chances we can to make the family we’ve formed here as strong as it could be?

Neven’s right: Aurelia is one of us. She came from Accasy as an offering to appease the empire, a hostage to be used as a point of leverage. Even if she wins tomorrow…

As long as any of us dwell within these walls, we might as well be shackled to them.

The bits of conversation I overheard whirl through my mind. I suck in a startled breath. “They’re taking the trial beyond the walls. The workers said something about the river.”

Raul knits his brow at me. “So?”

I open my mouth and close it again, hesitation locking my jaw.

The proposal I want to make could be total insanity. It’d be throwing away everything we still have?—

Except for each other. Don’t all the things we stand to gain matter that much more?

I’ve spent so long encouraging caution. Sticking to the most practical path with whatever security it could offer.

What has that accomplished for us?

We never got to take the one gamble we sacrificed so much for. This could be our one chance to take another that would mean nearly as much—to us, if not to the rest of the empire.

The image of Pavel’s struggling body passes through my mind again, and my tongue loosens.

“I have an idea that I think could help all of us…”

Chapter Forty-Six

Aurelia

I’m gazing a little aimlessly into my wardrobe, trying to decide which of my new, much smaller selection of dresses I should wear for the final trial, when Melisse bursts into the room.

Her bobbed hair swishes around her face with her urgency. “The emperor wants the trial to start as soon as possible. We need to get you ready!”

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