Page 70 of The Umbra King

Caius called on a shadow to open the door, and Nina stood on the other side. She was the last person he wanted to start his day with. “What is it?”

She stepped inside, and her eyes flared slightly at the sight of Sam. “One of the staff shirked their duties and disappeared.”

Caius sat behind his desk, pretending to look at papers. “Are they sick or hurt?”

“They weren’t in their room, Your Grace.” Her face was smug, and Caius was immediately suspicious.

He already knew what her answer would be, but he asked anyway. “Who was it?”

“Aurora Raven.” She was positively giddy, and he took a deep breath.

“I told her to stop last night.” He pinned Nina with a scathing look. “She is no longer your concern.”

The maid perked up. “She’s gone?”

“She works for me now,” Caius replied. “Now, if you will excuse us, we have matters to discuss that do not concern you.”

Nina’s rage was palpable. “Excuse me? What does that mean?”

Sam stood to his full six-foot-six height and stalked across the room. “It means there is no need for you to speak to her again. Leave.”

Nina flinched and looked to Caius for help, but he ignored her as he looked over his fake papers. “You heard him, Nina. Leave.”

After the woman left, Sam said, “She needs to be moved out of the palace.”

Caius sighed and set his pen down. “I know. I’ll have Rory arrange it tomorrow.”

Sam released a booming laugh. “Already trying to woo her, I see.”

Caius lifted a shoulder and sat back. “She can’t hate me forever.”

“If she thinks you murdered her sister, yes, she can.”

“I need something tangible to convince her it wasn’t me,” Caius said, twisting one of the rings on his hand.

“We both know it was Gedeon,” Sam replied. “The question is why?”

Rory admiredher ass in the red pencil skirt in the dressing room as Lauren huffed from the other side of the door. “Let me see, or I’m coming in.”

Rory opened the door and swept a hand over her body. “What do you think?”

Lauren twirled her finger in a circle, and Rory turned around. “Are you trying to get the king to fuck you?”

Rory jerked around. “What? He told me to get skirts!”

“I’m kidding,” theAngelreplied. Her expression said she wasn’t kidding.

Rory grabbed Lauren by the arm, tugged her into the room, and shut the door. “Are you trying to get me labeled as the king’s whore?”

Lauren laughed loudly and shook her head. “You are not a weaklittle lamb. What they think of you is irrelevant unless you believe it, little butcher.”

Rory stared after her and could almost see Cora’s sweet lamb form frolicking around her. Had she really lost sight of what was important that fast? There was a chance Caius was Bane, despite what he said.

“For fuck’s sake,” she muttered and grabbed at the zipper on the back of the skirt.

The truth was the only thing that mattered, and once she had it, she would either kill the Umbra King, or…

Or what?

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