Page 38 of A Touch of Poison
Caelus’s throat bobbed. “Of course, Your Majesty. So… the plan is to secure it—to keep it safe.”
“You’ve played your part well.” Lucius smiled slowly. “However, my plan is my concern.”
With a flick of his fingers, he dismissed Caelus. As the door clicked shut, Lucius sat back, teeth baring in a wide, wide smile.
I knew what that smile meant.
His plan was to use this relic, whatever it was, on himself alone. There would be no sharing. The Night Queen would still be subject to Sleep and Dawn’s power would spread, unchecked.
A threat to me. To the queen. To everyone in Dusk.
And it would be my fault.
14
Bastian
The overheard meeting heavy in my ears, I stomped back to my office and wrote up a report of everything I’d heard.
By the time I’d finished, the sun was setting, so I stomped to the queen to brief her as she ate breakfast. I left out what I’d just heard—I needed time to process the information and verify it. There was no sense in worrying her if this turned out to be nothing more than myth and legend.
At last, I could turn towards our rooms. I needed sleep. Or to break something.
As if Hydra Ascendant wasn’t enough of a problem, now I had Dawn to worry about.
Maybe it linked to unCavendish’s plot. Though if he’d known, he would’ve asked Kat to get the note, and she hadn’t mentioned it in her debriefing interview. Assuming she’d been honest with me.
Even a single court had different factions—Dusk and Dawn alike. It could be unCavendish had worked for one that knew nothing of this rumoured artefact.
I’d know if Kat had trusted me from the start.
“Fuck.”
If the king escaped Sleep…
I threw open the door to my rooms and slammed it in my wake. “Fuck!”
Light spilled from the living room door and inside I found Kat curled up on the settee, eyes wide.
“What’re you still doing up?” Normally I managed to avoid being alone with her by returning from work so late.
She flinched at my tone, and maybe it was a little harsh, but my muscles were wound too tightly to speak any differently.
Eyebrows raised, she waved a book. “I hadn’t realised the time. Is that a problem?”
I made a low sound as I headed to my bedroom.
She had access to the library now. She could read all she wanted. It was fine.
Yet, the closer I got to the door, the tighter my jaw ratcheted. Gripping the handle, I blasted out a breath. “You couldn’t have just given me back the damn note, could you?”
It had chewed at me all the way back from the hidden courtyard. The message that had been hidden in my orrery—the one I’d risked leaving Riverton Palace for the night she’d robbed me—must have contained something about this thing that would cure the Sleep.
I shook my head, teeth grinding. “You might’ve screwed us all by burning it.” And it would be my fault for letting her take it and not getting it back sooner. I’d been so confident I could lure her into returning the orrery—and I had. But not quickly enough.
Even now, when I turned and found her wide eyes on me, the green so rich I could pick out the colour from here, I was a fool for her.
A damn fool.
