Page 18 of A Touch of Gold and Madness

Moments later, Cotton appeared in the doorway carrying two black leather chairs. Once he reached Scarlett’s side, he dropped them to the carpet, arranging them to face us.

Scarlett thanked the Inquisitor as they dropped onto the seats to settle in for our conversation.

Scarlett cleared her throat, “So, when we said we were going to cause a scene, Stoney, I didn’t mean for you to nearly die.”

I huffed out a laugh. Running my fingers through my hair, I searched for the pins that barely held it up. “It was a spectacle, wasn’t it?” I winced.

Hazel sighed. “You could say that.” She sat up straight and looked at me. “Between Scarlett threatening the bartender and Cotton carrying you out, we’re lucky you’re here with us and not with the healers,” she said with a reproachful look toward Scarlett who shrugged, uncaring. “Everyone witnessed you collapse. And your screams…” She shuddered at the memory.

“I wish I could say that it’ll never happen again, but…” I said, trailing off, noticing a pattern of nearly dying beginning to form.

“But what?” Hazel asked.

“This sort of thing keeps happening to me,” I said with a shrug.

“The king poisoned you with redfern, Stoney,” Scarlett said, getting to the crux of it.

I halted the probing in my hair, freezing at her words. “He what?”

“He poisoned you. He tried to kill you.”

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but that wasn’t it. To hear that my father, adopted or not, tried to kill me, left me feeling like I’d had my feet kicked out from underneath me. The others let the truth settle before pushing onward. “I knew he would punish me, but I was expecting the usual beating or whatever. Not…death.”

“Punish you for what?” Scarlett asked, her head cocking to the side.

Running my palms over my face, I answered, “I failed to kill Griffin.” I dropped my hands and rested my elbows on my knees. The silken gold fabric of the dress suddenly felt suffocating, the color reminding me of him. “He’d promised me that if I failed, I’d suffer ‘consequences unlike any I’ve experienced.’”

“There’s more to it than that,” Hazel said. She straightened her posture in willful determination.

I cocked my head and narrowed my eyes at her, fear seeping in at her tone.

“All right,” she started, leveling me with a serious expression. “The day before Slate left for his mission, he came to me.” Hazel’s doe eyes met mine, a sadness creeping in at the mention of her brother.

“What does Slate have to do with this?” I asked, frowning in confusion.

“Kind of—um—a lot?” she responded in an apologetic tone.

“Okay?” I prompted, glancing at Scarlett, who wouldn’t look at us.

“You know how much Slate hated the way your father treated you—well, he’d always suspected he was hiding something.” Hazel took a deep breath to press forward. “He began doing some digging behind his back every chance he got. He’d eavesdrop on conversations, sneak into Aunt Amethyst’s office, go through files, books, ledgers, drawers…anything. One day, he discovered some stuff that rocked him. I don’t know the details of what it was, but he told me they’d been up to something. It was huge, and apparently, it’d been a long time in the making. And you were at the heart of it.” Hazel paused, allowing time for me to process.

My heart beat wildly in my chest, and once again, I worked to control my breathing. “Just tell me, Hazel,” I snapped and then squeezed my eyes shut. “Please,” I added in a softer tone, to ease my unintended harshness.

Hazel nodded. “Evidently, the king and my aunt have plans that could destroy everything, but you’re needed for them. Somehow. However,” she said, biting her bottom lip in hesitation, “if you failed to proveuseful, they planned to eliminate you, as they’d consider you a liability.”

My palms stung from my nails. I focused on the pain and pressed harder, distracting myself from my whirring thoughts. “Did he say what those plans were?” I asked, my voice almost as soft as a whisper. How had they kept me in the dark for so long?

Hazel shook her head. “No. Slate came to me in an awful state on the day he left. He said he’d tell me everything once he returned from the mission…” she trailed off and closed her eyes, wringing her fingers together in her lap. She took a deep breath before continuing, “Before he left, he made me promise to look out for you, to keep you as safe as possible. No matter what it took.”

“I guess my usefulness has run out, then?” I asked. “Failing to kill Griffin was my last chance.”

Hazel nodded solemnly. “Yeah, and when he nearly killed you, that sealed the deal,” she said, dropping her eyes to her lap.

“It’s still unclear what happened,” I mused. “Is it possible for Kinetic blades to affect us?” I asked, glancing back and forth at the three of them with hope.

A look of shared confusion passed between them. “What are you talking about, Stoney?”

I peered at Hazel. “You mean you didn’t know I almost died from a Kinetic blade?”

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