On the battlefield below, Aerden released his friend and stood, ignoring the roars of the crowd as he picked up his axe and slowly walked to the archway that would take him back to his cell below.

I stood, my body shaking with rage and sorrow. Aerden was alive, but this was no victory.

“They cheated,” I said, turning to my parents. “They could have killed him, and you just watched it happen. Why didn’t you intervene?”

My father stood, his eyes meeting mine for a brief moment. In them, I thought I saw heartache and sorrow that matched my own, but it was gone just as quickly as it had appeared.

“I saw no such thing,” he said. “It was a fair fight, if over a bit too soon for my taste.”

He turned and began walking back up the steps that led to a private walkway back to the castle.

I started after him, but my mother put her hand on my shoulder, holding me back.

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll let this go, Lazalea,” she warned, her voice tense. “Go back to your chambers and rest for a while. Perhaps you’re simply not feeling well after all this excitement.”

Tears rolled down my face, and I did nothing to stop them.

“Rest and let it go?” I asked. “You saw what happened down there. Hasn’t Aerden been through enough, Mother?”

“And he won, did he not?” she asked. “How could it be unfair if he still emerged the victor?”

“They murdered his friend, and if Aerden hadn’t broken free of whatever potion that demon threw at his feet, he would have died right alongside him,” I shouted.

My mother shook her head and touched the gold chain around her neck. “I’m afraid the princess isn’t feeling like herself today,” she said, motioning for a pair of guards to join us. “Please, take my daughter back to her room where she can rest and think about how she should address her parents with respect, rather than accusations.”

“Mother—”

“Take her, now,” she commanded.

The guards each took hold of one of my arms and dragged me up the steps. I struggled to break free, but their grip on me only tightened.

As we passed Kael, he held up a hand and the guards stopped for a moment.

“You see what happens when you disobey me, Princess?” he whispered into my ear. “Your precious Aerden survived today, despite my best efforts. Perhaps I will have to find a worthier opponent for tomorrow’s battle.”

“I’m through with your threats,” I said. “Attempt to harm him again, and I will kill you myself.”

Kael laughed. “I’d like to see you try,” he said.

He waved his hand, and the guards pulled me forward, up the steps and down the long walkway back to the castle. When we reached my room, they threw me inside and locked the doors, instructing Presha to keep a close eye on me.

“Are you okay?” Presha asked, rushing to my side.

I slammed my fist into the wall. “No, I’m very far from okay,” I said. I straightened, staring at the blood that trickled free from a wound on my finger.

“Should I call for the shaman?” Presha asked, staring at my wound.

A chill passed through me. The shaman, Lisette.

She’d once told me that I’d helped to free her daughter from the sapphire gates. She’d said she owed me her life. I could only hope she still felt that way, because what I was about to ask of her would certainly get her killed if anyone found out.

“Yes, I would like to see the shaman, please. Can you call for her? I’m not feeling well at all, and I need for her to look at this wound.”

“Of course,” Presha said. She instructed one of the other girls to find the shaman, while she wrapped a strip of cloth around my hand.

When she arrived, I asked Presha to step outside. The handmaiden frowned.

“I was told to keep an eye on you,” she said.

“And where do you think I’ll go if you’re standing right outside the door?” I asked. “I need my rest, and I’ll never be able to relax with you hovering over me. When Lisette leaves, you can come back inside and watch over me as I sleep.”

“I promise to watch over her in your absence,” Lisette said, bowing slightly.

Presha frowned again, but she nodded. “I’ll wait just outside your door,” she said. “Please call for me if you need anything.”

“Thank you,” I said. I waited until she had ushered the other handmaidens out of the room and shut the door behind her. Then, as Lisette began to prepare a concoction of herbs meant to make me sleep, I put my hand on hers. “You once told me you would do anything you could to help me. Can I trust you to help me now?”

She paused in her work and nodded, glancing briefly at the closed door.

“Of course,” she whispered. “Anything you need, Princess.”

“Good,” I said. “I need you to give me something I can put in the drinks of my handmaidens to make them sleep heavily through the night.”

She nodded. “I can do that, easily,” she said. “But for what purpose?”

“I can’t tell you,” I said, afraid to put her in any more danger than I already was. “But there’s one other thing I need from you, if you can manage it.”

“Anything,” she said.

I thought of the sorrowful look in my father’s eyes when he had first looked at me earlier. It wasn’t the first time I thought I’d seen a glimpse of the man he’d once been, and I wanted to get to the truth, once and for all.

“Can you create a potion that will suspend any magic in the area for a brief period of time?” I asked.

Her eyes widened. “A protection spell?” she asked.

“Something like that,” I said. “I want a potion that will keep any magic from being cast inside a small area, no larger than this room, for at least fifteen minutes. Can you do it?”

She sat back, and brought a hand to her cheek.

“It’s not the type of magic I’m usually asked to cast, but I know of a spell that can be contained in a potion, as you ask,” she said. “At most, it will give you twelve or thirteen minutes of time. I’m afraid that’s the most I can offer.”

“And inside this space, can you place a sound barrier where no one outside the area can hear what’s happening inside?” I asked.

“That’s a bit more complicated,” she said. “I’ll have to combine several potions to make it work.”

“But you can do it?” I asked, hope rising in my heart.

“I think so,” she said.

“How long will it take you to create such a potion?” I asked.

She shook her head and looked off into the distance. “If I start working on it now, I might have it ready by tomorrow afternoon,” she said.

The hope fell to the pit of my stomach. Tomorrow would be too late. The final round of the King’s Games was scheduled to begin just after the morning feast, and I intended to be long gone by then.

“I need it tonight,” I said. “Lisette, I’m begging you. If there’s any way you can get that potion to me tonight, it will give me a chance to save someone’s life. Please.”

She met my eyes and gripped my hand. “For years, I believed my youngest daughter was lost to me,” she said. “I mourned her as if she had died, but when word came that she was alive and free, living in the human world as a waitress at some club, it was as if my own life had been returned to me. I owe you everything, Princess.”

I smiled. “A club?” I asked. “It’s not called Venom, is it?”

“Yes,” she said, her eyes widening in surprise. “How did you know?”

“It’s run by a good friend of mine,” I said. “What’s her name?”

“Melisandre,” she said. “The demon who brought word of her said she goes by Melissa now.”

“Melissa,” I repeated. “I promise you that if I ever make it back there, I will let her know that you are here, and you are safe.”

Lisette threw her arms around me. “Thank you, Princess,” she said. “I would love to see her more than anything, but I’m not allowed to leave the King’s City. A guard offered to smuggle her in to join me here, but I told him to let her be. She’s safer there than here.”

I wanted to ask her why she would say that, since most demons felt that the King’s City was the safest place in the Shadow World, but I didn’t have time for a long conversation. I needed her to get to work on that potion as soon as possible.

“So, you’ll help me?” I asked.

“I will,” she said. She got to work mixing herbs together until there were four small piles on her tray. “Sprinkle these into the drinks of each of your handmaidens. This will send them into a deep sleep, and they will not awaken until morning.”

“Thank you,” I said, clutching her hand.

“I’ll need to return to my workshop in order to mix the other potion,” she said. “But as soon as I can, I’ll return to you here in your room and deliver it myself.”

“I appreciate this more than you can ever know,” I said.

“It is my pleasure to help,” she said. “But I must go now. The potion will take hours and my full concentration if I’m to finish on time.”

She gathered up her bags of herbs and nodded to the piles still lying on the tray.

“Put those in the drinks before I leave,” she said. “It’s likely to be your only chance, since I’m certain the handmaidens will return as soon as I cross that threshold.”

I stood and did exactly as she said, sprinkling the herbs into each of the handmaidens’ goblets. It was common for them to drink winterberry wine late into the night as they gossiped about the events of the day. No doubt they had already heard rumors about the battle in the arena and would return to the room to discuss it at length when Lisette left my side.

When the herbs had dissolved into the wine, I hurried back to my bed and climbed under the covers. I nodded to Lisette, and she bowed toward me as she opened the door and greeted the handmaidens on the other side.

I closed my eyes as the women entered the room, pretending to be fast asleep.

I waited as the girls discussed my reaction to the games and went over the death of the former scholar in today’s tournament. I listened, biting my tongue to keep from saying a word as they spoke about Aerden and the death of his friend.

After a short time, though, their voices grew sleepy. Minutes later, they were all fast asleep, slumped over in their chairs with the last drops of their wine spilling onto the floor.

I sat up in bed and started thinking through my plan.

I would speak to my father tonight in private, or I would die trying.

But first, I needed to know what secrets Kael hid behind that door in the dungeon.