Page 155 of A Dance of Shadows

The chair Marc was tied to lies on its side, both of the wooden arms broken into splintered stumps. Coils of rope lie on the floor near its toppled feet.

Raul holds out his arm to stop the rest of us from moving. His eyes narrow with concentration as he must be extending his gift through the dark space.

It only takes one thud of my heart before he confirms it. “He isn’t here. He must have seen how we opened the panel and escaped through the passages.” He marches forward and touches the cushioned seat of the chair. “It’s still a bit warm. He hasn’t been gone long.”

Lorenzo’s gaze sweeps over the room, his eyes wide.“Where would he have gone? Back to the hidden room in the emperor’s apartment? He wouldn’t roam around the palace while Linus is acting as emperor too, would he?”

My voice comes out tight. “That depends on whether he thinks keeping his secret is more important than exposing Aurelia’s crimes. We can’t count on that.”

The dread twists around my gut like strands of chilly seaweed meaning to drag me down, but I tense against the pang of despair.

We’re not beaten yet. We got this far.

We still have some tricks up our sleeves that Marc doesn’t even know about.

I spin toward Raul. “Use your gift to search all the passages. If he isn’t hiding there, we’ll check the emperor’s apartment. We find him, and we kill him.”

He’s proven himself to be an undeniable threat. Even Aurelia couldn’t blame us for putting him down rather than leaving him on the loose to do gods know what.

Raul pivots toward the panel we’ve left open. His expression hardens as he stretches his awareness through the shadows that permeate the secret hallways.

It shouldn’t be hard to locate Marc if he’s lurking in them. The narrow passages would be utterly empty other than him.

Raul’s search of the network through the rest of the palace takes a minute. With a grimace, he shakes his head. “No one’s there. Let’s go up to his usual hiding spot.”

His search of the secret room beyond the imperial bedroom takes much less time. He pauses for the space of a breath and then exhales in a huff. “That room is empty too—the whole apartment is. Both of the twins are running around out in the open.”

Lorenzo glances at me, his brow knit. He took the lead for our initial plan for dealing with Marc, but I’ve usually been the one figuring out the logistics of our strategies, advising on what the most practical or viable approach is.

We certainly can’t trust Raul to come up with a scheme that’s based more on wisdom than bravado.

I lay out the facts for my own benefit as much as theirs. “Linus is presenting himself as the emperor. Unless Marc wants to reveal their secret, he’ll have to stay concealed to some extent. We haven’t heard any commotion beyond the walls, so I think we should assume no incredibly gossip-worthy news is traveling through the palace before breakfast.”

Raul raises an eyebrow, but his rigid stance offsets the wryness of his tongue. “So we look for some prick who’s pretendingnotto be the emperor?”

I draw my own posture up straighter. “We’ll make our way through the whole palace, watching for anyone who’s trying to avoid notice or disguise their face. You can keep reaching out through the shadows into rooms that should be empty, in case he’s hiding to bide his time. And when we find him…”

My voice takes on an edge of grim satisfaction. “He won’t have his guards with him. He won’tbethe emperor. As long as we leave him unidentifiable, we can take care of him as if he was a hostile intruder we were protecting the rest of the palace from.”

A cold grin curves Raul’s lips. Lorenzo nods with a flash of determination in his dark eyes.

We emerge through our usual entrance in the unused bedroom and stalk through the halls at a pace not quite so brisk it can’t look casual. Lorenzo and I peer into the common rooms while Raul applies his gift to their nooks and crannies and the closed rooms we pass.

Every time he shakes his head, we walk on.

The smells of poached eggs and roasted pork drift through the halls from the kitchen where the staff are preparing breakfast. My pulse thuds faster with the realization that we may have less than an hour to continue our search before our presence would be expected at the day’s first meal… and our absence might be noted if we don’t appear.

What can Marc mean to do? If he wants to resume his arrangement with Linus, wouldn’t he have returned to their apartment?

But he knowsweknow about the hidden room. He might not have felt secure going there. Perhaps he’s waiting until he can speak to his twin without being noticed.

Where other than their private rooms might he hope to catch Linus alone? The more manic twin hasn’t been in the habit of spending time in the imperial offices or the library. Marc can’t come up with such an impressive disguise that he’d be able to stroll up to his brother with half the court looking on, can he?

He might have slipped into one of the smaller sitting rooms near the larger common spaces and be hoping he can signal Linus when the other man passes in the hall.

The nobles will be gathering in the dining room next. I veer down the hallway toward that room, my foster brothers trailing behind me.

Several members of the court are ambling toward the dining-room entrance. I catch a few excited murmurs about “the heir” and “his daughter,” but nothing worthy of concern. Everyone’s still occupied with the knowledge that Aurelia has given birth.

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