Page 33 of Rise of the Phoenix King (Crown and Crest 4)

Maisel shakes her head. “I don’t know.”

“When did this happen?” I demand.

Why didn’t Maisel find us sooner?

“About a week ago, maybe a little longer.” Maisel looks around. “I didn’t dare take off just in case she came back. But when I heard you came into the city, I decided to risk leaving to find you.”

“This isn’t good,” Clover whispers, stating an obvious fact.

“We need to have the body taken back to Cabaranth,” I say heavily, averting my eyes from Barret’s face as I kneel next to his corpse.

A folded piece of parchment protrudes from the lacing of his jerkin.

“What’s this?” I ask, gingerly pulling it free.

“I have no idea.” Maisel crouches beside me and peers at the parchment. “I didn’t notice it.”

“What does it say?” Clover demands, standing over my shoulder as I break the wax seal.

My chest constricts as I read the words, and the room begins to spin.

“What doesthatmean?” Clover gasps, pressing her hand to my arm to keep her balance as she reads over my shoulder.

Maisel snatches the parchment, and I relinquish it without argument. The gnome’s forehead knits as she scans the short message that’s written in dried blood.

To Henrik, with love.

Yours in death,

Camellia

9

CLOVER

Camellia wasloathsome enough when she was toying with Henrik while she was alive, but now I must deal with her even though she’sdead?

And what kind of horrifying love letter was that?

It’s too surreal—this can’t be happening. I trust Maisel, but she must be wrong. Maybe Camellia wasn’t truly dead. It’s the only way to explain it.

I stand in the dark street, watching as Henrik talks to the city guards he called over to collect Barret’s body. Not surprisingly, the commotion has caused quite a scene. We’ll bring Barret back to the fortress for now, and then we’ll have him transported to Cabaranth, where the mortician can examine him.

How this all connects to the golems, I can’t even guess. Or if it even does. For all we know, we could be facing a scorned dead princess suffering a wicked case of unrequited loveanda spiteful High Vale determined to start a war.

My lack of sleep suddenly catches up with me, making me want to crawl into bed and pretend none of this is happening. But as I think it, the skin on the back of my neck prickles, causing the hair to stand on end. Feeling eyes on me from the dark street at my back, I slowly turn.

But there’s nothing there—nothing I can see anyway.

Spooked, I move closer to the group. If Camellia is truly out there, I had best watch my back.

* * *

“Henrik, we’ve discovered something in the golem,” Lord Yorgin says to the commander, meeting us at the fortress’s entrance.

It’s still the middle of the night, but there are far more guards milling around than there were when we left with Maisel.

Lord Yorgin’s eyes move to the entourage we lead. It only took two guards to carry the emaciated knight. So, naturally, we ended up with fifteen.

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