Page 78 of A Court Bright and Broken

The old woman’s face came into view as she moved from the back of her own cell to the front. She was no longer in disguise either.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I have you to thank for that,” she said, her tone full of disdain. “If you’d done your job quickly instead of swooning like a schoolgirl and playing footsie with the Crown Prince, we’d both be home now in our beds instead of waiting our turns with the executioner.”

“You were watching?” I asked.

“I had to make sure you got the task done. You didnot.”

She wore a bitter scowl that leached into her voice.

“When the midnight hour drew near, I had no choice but to leave the palace before my own transfiguration spell wore off and my true visage was exposed,” she said. “Unfortunately, I waited too late and was apprehended. Ihopeyou got a chance to use that poison—that isifyou ever intended to use it in the first place.”

“Idid,” I insisted, but even I could hear the uncertainty in my voice. “But then… well, Pharis came along and interrupted me and Stellon before I had the chance to apply it to my lips. And then things got all out of hand.”

She snorted. “Yes, I saw. So out of hand you agreed to marry the prince instead of kill him.”

“I was as surprised as you,” I told her. “Everything happened so fast. What will happen to my family now?”

“If we stay in here? Or if we’re both hanged?” she asked with a bitter laugh. “Either way, their food will run out along with your papa’s pain cure. But…”

“What?”

Was there still some chance of salvaging this disastrous situation and saving my father and sisters?

“All hope is not lost,” Sorcha said. “Youdidmanage to get yourself betrothed to the Crown Prince.”

“Yes, but he thinks he’s in love with Lady Wyn of House Elardis. She is gone. And I’m in here.”

“True. But there is something about you,” the Earthwife said. “I don’t know what it is, but I’ve never seen a spell be so potent. And the prince liked you well enough to give you an invitation to the ball while you were yet human. I thought at first it must have been out of gratitude or perhaps pity. But now I wonder…”

“What? What do you wonder? How is all hope not lost?”

Reaching through the bars, she took a lock of my hair and stroked it between two of her fingers.

“I wonder if your appeal to him might outlast the spell.”

She hummed for a second and scratched her chin before going on.

“Yes, there may still be a chance. This time you must not fail. Otherwise, things will be worse for your family than they’ve ever been.”

“A chance?”

In spite of my current surroundings, fresh hope flickered to life. “What are you going to do? Can you get us out of here?”

“Notus, but you, yes. Here’s what you’re going to do. Call out to the jailer. When he comes, show him this.”

She pushed something through the bars toward me. It was a coin worth more money than I’d ever seen in my life.

“Tell him to get a message to Prince Stellon that his marketplace savior, Raewyn, has been mistakenly imprisoned and needs to speak with him, and that if the jailer arranges it, there will be muchmorewhere that came from.”

“Will it work?” I asked.

“There’s only one way to find out,” she said. “The jailer has a greedy nature. I think he can be persuaded.”

“And if Stellon comes, what then? What should I say to him?”

“Tell him you tried to attend the ball at his invitation and were thrown into the dungeon. If your appeal to him is as strong as I suspect it is, he’ll believe you and take you out of here. You’llhave another chance to eliminate the royals… and save your family.”

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