Page 36 of When Wishes Bleed

I fastened my attention on the flavor… “I don’t know that it’s an invitee, but it’s someone within the palace. Do me a favor and let me smell anything you eat or drink.”

Fate took the bitterness off my tongue. The person who wanted Tauren dead would strike soon. Perhaps with poison.

10

Tauren turned pale. “You can’t be with me all hours of the day or at every meal. And how are we supposed to be discreet if you need to taste or smell my food?”

“And drink,” I added. “I can spell the room.”

“Spell the room?” he asked.

“She would pause time,” Brecan explained, giving Tauren a condescending look.

Hopefully, Fate’s presence tonight meant he would help me find the person who would poison the Prince. Fate wanted me here. He hadn’t yet called for Tauren’s death, so Tauren was meant to survive this. I hoped.

The doors parted. A guard dressed in black with a large weapon slung over his shoulder stepped into the room. “Pardon me, Prince Tauren. Your father wishes to speak to Miss Sable.”

His mouth parted. “I’ll see her to him, then.”

“He wishes to speak with her alone.”

Brecan stepped forward. I knew he was about to insist that he accompany me.

“Thank you for a lovely evening,” I said to Tauren. “Brecan, I’ll let you know when I return to my room.”

Neither Brecan nor Tauren was happy I’d dismissed them, but the two men stood back dutifully and watched as I followed the guard out of the room.

King Lucius looked as tired as he did frazzled, and nothing like the calm ruler he presented at dinner. He had dragged a chair to the window and was staring out at the night sky, but he turned around when I entered the room.

His suit jacket was unbuttoned as well as the top buttons of his crisp white shirt, and from the mussed look of his hair, he’d been raking his hands through it. The circles beneath his eyes were darker and the worry lines on his forehead were more pronounced.

The entire walk to his office, I’d dreaded what he might say. A hundred scenarios played through my mind, but none of them included the smile he graced me with now.

He smiled warmly, wrinkles forming at the corners of his eyes. “Miss Sable.”

I wasn’t sure how to greet him. “Your Highness.”

He gestured to a plush chair sitting empty across from his enormous desk. Sitting down, I waited for him to roll his chair back to its normal position on the other side of the desk. Instead, he stiffly stood and gingerly walked across the room, sitting beside me in my chair’s match.

“My wife and I have reasons to be distrustful of witches, reasons I don’t feel apt to disclose at present, but I trust my son. I trust his instincts. He surprised me by offering you an invitation,” he began. “I wanted to speak with you discreetly for a few reasons. The first is to get to know the young woman who caught his eye.”

“With all due respect, that’s not what happened.”

He tilted his head and propped his ankle on his knee. “I’d say it is. I chose the other women for him. He dreaded turning eighteen, knowing this would be his invitation year. Yours is the only invitation he personally sent.”

“He only sent it because I might be able to help him, sir.”

“I don’t envy you, Sable. I’m not sure how you do it.”

“I don’t have a choice.”

He gave a half-smile. “Fate can make you quite uncomfortable. He did the same to your mother.”

I tilted my head, surprised. “You knew her?”

“I did. Cyril was… I sought her advice often when I was younger and untested.”

“I had no idea.”

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