Page 37 of A Touch of Poison
Lifting the mesh flap that blended perfectly from the other side, I peered through. The king was already inside, sitting at his desk, rifling through papers with his lips pursed. In profile, I could see he slumped a little—his casual pose an odd contrast with the crown upon his head and the regal opulence surrounding him.
Whoever had designed the passages had used this particular peephole a lot, because they’d had a stone seat built into the wall. I’d placed a cushion here long ago, so I settled on that and waited.
No one ever spoke about how the main part of spying was waiting. For the right time. For someone to slip up. For a target to trust you. For the right information to come your way.
A lotof waiting.
But I didn’t have to wait too long today, because Caelus was on time to the instant, knocking and entering as the orrery chimed. Classic Caelus—so perfect. So dull.
After bowing, he placed a file on the king’s desk.
“It’s all there, Your Majesty. Everything I learned in Albion.”
My heart sank. Please, gods, tell me they were going to discuss the report and I hadn’t come here for nothing.
Nodding, Lucius pulled the file closer and flicked through the pages inside.
Caelus shifted as the silence dragged on, yet he wasn’t dismissed.
I smirked at Lucius’s use of quiet. An old technique to assert power and encourage the other person to babble just to end their own discomfort.
It had the desired effect as Caelus went on, “We didn’t trust another interim report after the last one was intercepted.”
The coded message. “We” had to mean him or one of the sisters.
“And where’s the part about…? Ah,there.” Leaning forward, Lucius smoothed his hand over one of the pages, and I pressed against the wall, wishing I could see what he did.
His gaze flicked over the paper, his brow tight with focus until he gave a long exhale. “It’s true, then.”
I gritted my teeth.Whatwas true? Eavesdropping was one thing, but stealing a report from the king—that was another matter. An impossible one.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Caelus bowed his head. “It seems it is possible to end the Sleep.”
I froze. The enchanted Sleep that bound my queen to night and the king to day.
If someone managed to break the Sleep, they’d break the balance, too. Night and day gave the queen and king clear lines of what was hers and what was his. They had no choice but to relinquish control as they fell into Sleep.
The only time they were both awake was during an eclipse. A rarity, though we were due one soon. Those rare moments allowed them to meet for the first time in centuries—it was a time for them to appear together before their assembled courts, showing how they each trusted the other to handle the kingdom as they slept.
All a show, of course. Trust didn’t come into it—they had no choice but to walk a tightrope, carefully balancing power. If the king broke the peace, the queen could destroy it come sunset and vice versa.
Sleep forced them—and their courts—to hand over the reins. Without it, both sides would vie for power until eventually petty clashes turned into full-scale war.
“If, that is, Your Majesty can get his hands on the relic.”
Lucius didn’t look up from the report, palms pressed together, fingertips touching his lips.
More silence, though the heavy toll of my heartbeat tried to break it.
End the Sleep. Fuck.Fuck.
“But…” Caelus rocked forward on his feet, frowning at Lucius. “Forgive me for speaking out of turn, but isn’t the whole point of two courts and two rulers balance?”
“Balance?” Lucius laughed, though it was more sneering than amused. “You thinkshecares about balance? You thinkshewouldn’t use this to her own ends if she got her claws into it? Caelus, you are but a child if you believe that.”
I clenched my hands at the way he spoke of my queen.
He sighed, shaking his head as if explaining something sad to a youth who hadn’t yet been broken by the world. “There is only balance while both sides remain true to it, and that woman hasn’t been true to anything since she was a babe at her mother’s teat. If we don’t secure this thing, she will.”
