Page 93 of Spark of the Everflame

My blood stilled in my veins.

Don’t end up like your mother.

Boiling-hot suspicion flooded my skull and seared away all rational thought. Whatmistakehad she made? And what had he done to punish her?

I slid my hand to the blade concealed in my boot. He’d been a fool to let me keep it—a fool that was about to regret all his choices.

My fingers trembled with anticipation, my grip so tight around the handle that its edges nearly sliced into my skin. I pictured the blade puncturing his neck like the Descended man in the alley, imagined the heat of his blood on my skin and the light draining from his blue-grey eyes as I held the knife in place to keep his vein from healing. A sharp twist of something like regret nagged at me, but I angrily shoved it away.

I was about to step into the corridor and accept my fate—and his—when another set of footsteps, this time more hurried, grew louder and stopped.

“Your Highness, we can’t seem to find her. She wasn’t on the main staircase or anywhere near the front parlor.”

The silence that followed was so deep I might have drowned in it.

“I want guards posted on every floor, at every staircase, both inside and outside of every exit. Triple the contingent at the King’s chambers. No one is to leave their posts, no matter what they see or hear.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“If you find her, you send for me and me alone. No one is to engage her.Unless it is necessary to protect a resident of this palace, youdo not attack.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“I want her found alive. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Your H—”

“Go.”

The echo of fleeing footfalls skittered down the hall.

For an agonizingly long time, I heard nothing but silence. No footsteps, no more false promises of safety to draw me out. I waited long enough that I wondered if I’d missed his exit, even considered peering my head around to see—until his low voice pierced the quiet.

“You’re playing a very dangerous game, Miss Bellator. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

The rhythmic beat of his gait struck up once more and faded into the distance.

When I’d heard nothing further for what felt like an eternity, I finally let myself take a gulp of air to ease my burning lungs.

Shit.Shit, shit, shit.

There was no chance I was getting to my target anymore. Even if I made it to the stairwell before the guards took their new posts, I could end up trapped in the room I was seeking out. And being found unchaperoned in the hallway was bad, but being found on the King’s personal boat, or in the secret waterway...

My head rolled back and hit the column behind me with a heavy thump.

Step three... failure.

* * *

I’d barely turnedthe corner toward the royal chambers when the guards yelled out and bolted toward me with weapons drawn.

I plastered an innocent smile on my lips. “Sorry it took so long. I must have taken a wrong turn.”

In seconds, I was surrounded. Someone slammed my face against the gritty rock wall and twisted my arms painfully across my back. A knife appeared at my throat, the edge of the blade pressing against the soft flesh under my jaw.

Behind me, Maura wailed in distress, pleading my case with the guards. Unsurprisingly, they were unmoved.

I should probably have fought back, if for no other reason than it was exactly what Luther would expect me to do, but the disappointment of my failure had taken the fight out of me.

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