“Where could they have possibly gone?” Daufina asked.

“I…I don’t know. I haven’t been down to see them.”

“We can’t stay here, Cyrene. Someone will be looking for us soon. If we’re going to get you out of the castle, we have to do it now.”

“But…I won’t leave without them.”

“It seems they will leave without you though”

Cyrene didn’t have a minute to think. She could already hear voices moving about above them. Their distraction had ended. Whatever had helped them get out would soon completely be lost.

“Show me the way.”

Daufina nodded once and darted back down the hallway. Cyrene didn’t feel right about this. Yes, she needed to get out of the castle, but at what cost? She didn’t know if Ahlvie and Orden were safe, let alone alive. Who would have taken them out of their cell tonight of all nights? Had they been moved, or had they escaped? What was their fate? What did that mean for my escape? And what would I do to get them back?

She gritted her teeth and dashed after Daufina. First and foremost, she needed to get away however she could. She would not be consort. Not to Edric. Not to anyone.

Her future was her own, and she would fight for it tooth and nail.

Spiraling down through the catacombs of the castle gave Cyrene the distinct feeling of a rat trapped in a cage. The deeper they went, the harder it was for her to breathe. Apparently, having hundreds of tons of rocks over her head made her uncomfortable. Probably a new side effect of being knocked out, drugged, and held in a dark, dank prison cell. Her nerves fluttered about obtrusively, and she pressed her fingers into the rock they passed to try to calm down.

“Where are we?”

Daufina had a small candle to guide their way, but anything more could mark their presence. Though Cyrene didn’t know who would venture down below the castle like this.

“Almost there. Quiet,” Daufina said sharply.

Cyrene clamped her mouth shut. A gust of wind carried down the stairs behind her, shoving both of the girls at the same time. Cyrene gasped and stumbled a few steps before regaining her composure. Cyrene only knew that Daufina did the same because she cursed under her breath.

However, the flame that had been their guide guttered out.

Daufina stepped back up to Cyrene and clasped her hand. “Don’t let go.”

Cyrene steeled herself for the rest of the way downward and then followed Daufina. They reached a bend, and she maneuvered around the empty corridor and then down another empty corridor. Truly, much of the castle was not in use. Cyrene couldn’t imagine what it must have looked like when it was full of Doma. Then, she sighed and focused on the task ahead. Dwelling on a two-thousand-year-old court of magical people would do no good for her here. Truthfully, they had only brought her trouble.

They were almost to another set of stairs when Cyrene saw a candle approaching them. Daufina halted in her place, and Cyrene barreled into her.

“What do we do?” Cyrene gasped.

Daufina stood frozen, as if she were paralyzed.

Cyrene could not allow this to happen. Perhaps Daufina couldn’t take control of the situation, but Cyrene was not powerless. She took a deep breath and felt her magic from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. She didn’t listen to any of the months of training that she had acquired from Matilde and Vera. She just reached for that moment in the corridor when the assassin had come for her. She grasped on to the anger and fear and desperation…to the power that flooded her veins.

Then, she flicked her wrist, and the candle went out.

Just like that.

No thought process. No deep concentrating. No agonizingly slow method that exhausted her.

Power and control.

Air magic, which she had never touched before a day in her life. And it felt like second nature.

She pushed her palms out, sending whoever the person was sprawling backward, off their feet.

Then, Cyrene grabbed on to Daufina and tugged her. “Which way?”

“What…what did you do?” Daufina asked. Her voice was shaky and her body even more so.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but we need to move. Now.”

“You…you’re a witch!”

“Daufina!” Cyrene snapped. “Do you want to leave or not?”

“You’ve entrapped me. Edric. All of us,” Daufina said, stumbling back a step in the meager light. “It explains everything. You’ve possessed his mind. That’s why he wants to replace me.”

“You’re not talking sense! I am not a witch, nor have I done anything of the like.”

“Why else would you be so desperate to get away? He’s offered you everything. What kind of person turns away from that? You know what you’ve done, and now, you’re trying to escape consequence.”

“You’re mad. You know why I’m running? Because I. Don’t. Want. This!” Cyrene shouted at her. “I want my own life. I do not want to be ruled by anyone. Certainly not a man born into this position. Someone who never had to earn anything. Thinking me a witch just eases your mind. It’s not the truth.”

“Break the curse!” Daufina cried. “Do it now, and get out of here. I want you out of his castle. I want you out of our lives. And I never want to see you again.”

“Halt! Don’t move!” a voice called, approaching from the corridor she had just thrown the person.

“Daufina, please, tell me how to get out of here!” Cyrene pleaded.

“You are on your own. I will expose you for what you are. Mark my words.”

Cyrene turned to flee, only to find more soldiers at their back. She ran a shaky hand through her hair as light poured into the corridor they were in. A familiar face appeared.

Cyrene’s mouth fell open. “Eren?”

She had met High Order Eren on procession to Albion so long ago. He had been investigating the death of his brother, Zorian. Of course, he never did learn that a Braj had murdered Zorian. More death and destruction were on her conscience. Perhaps her ledger would always bleed red.

“Cyrene,” Eren said with a nod in her direction, “you need to come with me.”

“Yes, apprehend her at once,” Daufina said.

“Both of you,” Eren said.

He tilted his sword at the pair of them, and the guards moved forward and seized them.

“What is the meaning of this?” Daufina cried.

Cyrene didn’t even move as her hands were pulled behind her back. She stared Eren down, unable to believe that she was thwarted by one of her own friends.

“You are under arrest.”

“Arrest!” Daufina’s shriek could probably be heard by the rest of the castle.

“Indeed,” Eren said without providing further information. Then, he motioned for them to be brought behind him.

Daufina didn’t go quietly. She was furious and being most unladylike. Cyrene didn’t see the point. She could probably…maybe take out the group of soldiers. But she didn’t know at what cost. Anytime she had used that much magic in the past, she had passed out and been incapacitated for hours. She couldn’t afford that if she couldn’t get away. It was another moment where she desperately missed her friends.

Eren and the guards shuffled them back up the endless stairways until Cyrene was so turned around, she couldn’t have found her way out of a paper bag. Daufina shouted at them the entire way. By the time they reached levels with more human activity, she looked a wreck—hair falling out of its perfect coif, dress askew, eyes wide and feral.

The next level up, Cyrene could sense the direction they were walking. The constant tether that drew her to the Dremylons practically ached, the closer she got. It must be both Kael and Edric because it was never this strong with just one of them. Now, it was almost painful.

She took a deep breath to steady herself before answering the call and walking into the war room.

Edric was standing at the head of his long, rectangular table. Older men and women that Cyrene had never seen before, plus her mother and father, were standing around in elegant clothing in an attempt to match the king.

But it was Kael that drew her eyes. He was the only person seated. He lounged with one arm draped across the back of a chair with his leg crossed at the ankle. He put on airs, as if he couldn’t care less about the entire thing, but she saw the truth in his eyes.

She and Daufina were stopped in front of the king, and Cyrene dropped into a regal curtsy. Daufina, however, didn’t move. Something she might have been able to get away with while she was consort, but since she had been stripped of her position, Cyrene could tell, just by the tense atmosphere, that it would not be okay this time. Cyrene could feel it—the anger and bloodlust. It clouded everything, nearly choking her.

“Daufina,” Edric said, his voice cutting like a razor, “you will curtsy to your king.”

“Edric, I stand before you as your one true consort.” She bowed her head slightly, only slightly. A deference between equal rulers.

“Bow, or I will make you.”

Daufina lifted her chin higher. Cyrene made no move to assist her. Stepping out of line was not in her best interest.

Then, the Captain of the Royal Guard, Merrick, materialized out of nowhere and pushed Daufina’s legs out from under her. She gasped and fell forward, hard, onto both knees. She caught herself with her hands, and Cyrene could see her face burning with humiliation and insult.

“That is not how you treat your—”

“Enough,” Edric spat. He gestured to Daufina on the floor. “This is better. I approve of you addressing me from this position.” He leaned forward, resting his hand on the table and staring down at her. “And you have no right to use my name without the proper honorific.”

Daufina openly glared up at Edric. “Of course, My King,” she said with venom in her voice. “However, your soon-to-be consort is a witch!”

She hurled the accusation at Cyrene, and Cyrene pushed her shoulders back and let the words fall off of her. She couldn’t react. Certainly not to that. She couldn’t even look at Kael. Though she could feel his eyes on her like a brand.

“That is quite an accusation,” Edric said, holding his hand up to silence his court around him. “What proof do you have of this?”

“Down in the corridors, she used magic to blow out the candle of a soldier and then pushed him back down the hall without touching him. She did it with a flick of her hands! My King, she has been casting enchantments on the castle. She has cast one on you!”

Edric straightened, and his nostrils flared. “What makes you believe that I am under such an enchantment?”

Daufina should have seen it as the warning that it was, but she barreled on, desperate to prove her point. “The way you have been acting the last year. You are enthralled with the girl. You would do anything for her—send troops into foreign territories, threaten foreign dignitaries, even go to war. You are mad with love for her, and she has made it so!”

Everyone was stark silent now. A pin dropping in the room could have been heard. Cyrene wasn’t even sure if anyone breathed at that moment. Her own cheeks were hot with the words that Daufina had spoken. Declaring that the king, a married man, was not only infatuated, but also madly in love with another woman was an accusation never to be said in present company. But to say that he felt that way simply because he had been beguiled by witchcraft…that was beyond insulting.

“Interesting,” Edric said. His voice was clipped, his eyes boring into Daufina. “Interesting that you would make such a ludicrous claim when I brought you here on account of treason.”

“Treason?” Daufina said, struggling to form coherent words. “For…for what?”

“We were tipped off this very evening that you were going to stage an escape for the prisoners in the dungeon and try to force Cyrene out of the castle so that you could get your position back.”

Cyrene’s head snapped to Daufina. She knew that there was always a chance that Daufina would turn on her, but she had released Ahlvie and Orden? What had become of them? Had they made it out? Or had the guards stopped them?

Daufina looked like a fish out of water. “Who would make such a charge? I should be able to look my accuser in the face.”

Edric raised an eyebrow and then motioned to Eren. A girl stumbled into the room. A small, slight girl with wild strawberry-blonde hair that Cyrene would recognize anywhere. Adelas. An Affiliate lackey of the queen’s who had fallen in with a bad crowd of Affiliates with Jardana as their leader. Jardana was another person Cyrene had been fortunate not to see.

“Adelas?” Daufina asked in shock. “One of my own?”

Adelas dipped into a curtsy. “My apologies,” she said, her voice wavering. “I couldn’t let you get away with it.”

“Thank you, Affiliate,” Edric said. “You did the right thing.”

“I did nothing of the sort,” Daufina said. “Cyrene planned this whole thing. She wanted to escape. She told me herself.”

“In fact, we have a firsthand account of High Order Eren hearing you tell Cyrene to leave and never come back,” Edric said. “Or is his testimony a lie as well?”

“I…I…I didn’t,” Daufina said. “Cyrene, say something!”

Cyrene arched an eyebrow. Speak up for a woman who had accused her of witchcraft, who had been willing to throw her to the sharks on the hope of saving her own skin? No, she would be happy to offer her the same courtesy.

She faced the front of the room and could hear Daufina whimper next to her. But she couldn’t look at her. It was Kael’s eyes she found. His hands were steepled in front of him, and he leaned forward in earnest. At her glance, his smile widened, as if she had walked directly into his trap. She didn’t know what it meant, but for the first time, she didn’t even mind.

“Daufina, you are charged with treason and conspiring against the crown,” Edric said. “I have seen all relevant evidence. You will be executed at sun up in three days’ time. In the meantime, make your peace with the Creator.”