Page 88 of The Shadow Heir

He didn’t look at me as he spoke, so I reached up and pulled his chin toward me. His dark eyes blazed with apparent restraint.

“Cas,” I breathed.

He choked back a laugh. “My carefully laid plan is going up in flames.”

“What do you mean?”

He offered me a half smile. “The antidote I’ve been working on, a magical recipe begun centuries ago by a sister I never met, provides us heirs with an increasing ability to resist Father’s curse. Each of us who tweaked and perfected the recipe over the years fully believed that at some point, the antidote would be powerful enough tobreakthe curse. But I realized it could never break the curse for someone who already had it. The antidote was never meant to keepmealive tonight.” His hand, still stained red with my blood, pinched the brow of his nose, then slammed in a fist against the wall. “It was meant to keep Alba alive. I was only taking it to test it.”

“You were going to give it to her?”

“I already did,” he said as he smeared a hand against his eyes. “As soon as I heard Father was returning, I slipped it into her tea and watched her drink it.”

My stomach sank. “So you don’t have it anymore.”

He shook his head.

A beat of silence passed as we stood and stared at the doorway that now glowed a faint blue.

If I walked through this door, I would never see Cas again. He wouldn’t survive tonight. He’d never intended to. It had always been his sister’s life he was bargaining for.

My hand slid quietly into his, our fingers lacing.

“You can’t stay, Zara.”

“I don’t have to leave, either.”

His fingers tightened around mine. “I need to know you are safe when he arrives.”

I leaned into his arm, still so shocked at how easy it was to be this close to him, how right it felt. “Would it help you more if I stayed here and fought by your side?”

He kissed the top of my head. “You are good with a blade, little spark, but against a three-thousand-year-old fae king, a blade would do little good.”

“True,” I mumbled against his shoulder. Then my head snapped up. “Wait.”

Cas eyed me narrowly. “What is it?”

“You gave me an idea.” My heart thundered madly, but I couldn’t just walk away from him. Not now that he’d held me like this, summoning a fire in my very bones. Before he could retort, I poked him in the chest again. “At least hear me out.”

Ariana helped me into my ballgown, the most exquisite one the wardrobe had yet provided. Tonight’s dress was a bright red, the preferred shade of flamenco dancers and my favorite color. Under the stacks of ruffles was orange fabric. When I turned a quick spin in front of the mirror, the dress imitated a flickering fire. I nodded at the roaring lion’s mouth atop the wardrobe. It was perfect.

Fingers shaking in her haste, Ariana quickly helped me dress and style my hair. The king’s welcome ball would begin in minutes. The king apparently preferred for the parties to be in full swing when he arrived, like the noblemen who arrived late to cause a scene.

Tonight, I wanted to simply be me, my wild hair unrestrained. Ariana brushed out my curls until they reached almost as wide as my shoulders. In the wardrobe, we discovered a sparklinghairpin the shape of an orange flame, and she used it to pin my hair off my face.

“You look amazing,” she told me, offering me a quick hug. She tucked her hair behind her ears. “And I’m sorry. For thinking—for saying what I did.”

I pulled her into another hug. “All is forgiven. Now, we have a ball to attend.”

Drawn by the magic of the king that bound them to serve the Shadow Court, the servants all made their way through the halls toward the ball hastily thrown together at the king’s command. I wished Ariana and all the others could wait this out in the lower levels of Nightsong, but it could not be so.

At least Ivy was safe. And Samuel and Eudoria and Alba.

We climbed several flights of stairs, my dancing shoes clacking with each step. We had less than a half hour until the arrival of the fae king.

Ariana sighed as we crested yet another flight of stairs, this one narrower than the widely used ones in the lower palace. “Why did the location of the ball change at the last minute?” she mused aloud.

My lips curled at the edges.

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