Chapter 184

Kit didn’t care that Pierce was angry. She spun around into Cassius’s arms, glad he’d stepped in, not because she’d needed his help but because his arms around her were a comfort.

“Should I even ask?”

“No,” she replied. “More of the same.”

Without properly positioning his hands, which were latched on to her upper arms, he began to sway back and forth to the music, and Kit felt a sensation of calm and safety wash over her. “When are you going to send him home?”

“When would you like the battle to begin?” she said into his chest in a whisper. She knew he’d heard when he slid one hand down to her hip and pulled her other one free of his chest, smothering it with his large palm. He didn’t say more, only held her and made some semblance of doing the correct dance steps. She never lifted her head from his chest.

As the music ended, Cassius raised her chin. “You’re safe, you know that, don’t you? We won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Yes, I know,” Kit replied, looking into his green eyes. “It isn’t me I’m worried about.”

Cassius leaned down and gently pressed his lips to hers, a sweet sentiment, despite all of the eyes on them. “No one has taken this vow without understanding the consequences, no one.”

Kit’s heart skipped a beat. Even thinking of anyone getting hurt on her account was unsettling. Her mind went to Tem and Lok, the two guards who’d been killed recently, during Merek’s rampage. She didn’t want to see that happen again, not to anyone.

Cassius’s expression lightened. “Come on, Princess. This is a ball. Let’s have some fun!”

Kit couldn’t help but smile at him, now that the twinkle was back in his eye. She looked around and saw lots of eager Representatives waiting for their chance to dance with her. But for now, Kit was thirsty. On Cassius’s arm, she led him over to one of the servants who was carrying a tray full of goblets of wine. They each took one, and Kit took a long sip before she realized who it was carrying the tray.

Blankka looked Kit squarely in the face for a moment as her bottom lip trembled. Then, she dropped her eyes and turned to go.

“Wait,” Kit insisted, reaching out but not making contact with the girl. Blankka stopped and turned back to face her. “Thank you, Blankka.”

Her former lady-in-waiting nodded, but didn’t say anything. Puzzled, Kit cocked her head to the side for a moment, studying her. Blankka refused to look at her and wouldn’t speak. “You can go.” Cassius politely waved her away, and Blankka hurried off. Kit stared after her.

“Something was different,” she said, taking another drink and turning to face him. “She wasn’t herself.”

He knew something. Kit could tell by the way he was breathing, unevenly, like he had something to say. His eyes flew across the dance floor, back to where he had been standing before he’d come to her aid. Eli was observing them, which was no surprise, but he looked away after having met Cassius’s gaze. “I think... you should speak to him about it.”

A red flag went up in Kit’s mind. “All right....” She took another sip of her wine before deciding she’d had enough. Whatever it was, she wanted to know. Setting her goblet on a table on the perimeter of the dance floor, she crossed between dancers, glad to hear the song was coming to an end so she could have a moment with Eli in relative privacy.

He looked like his former self. Even in the dim light from the lanterns that created a soft glow in the room, she could tell he had his color back. He didn’t seem to be having any trouble standing. Kit greeted the others, Jate, Landon, and Drake—whom she needed to speak with as well—before she said, “Commander, I would be honored to share this dance with you.”

Once again, Eli and Cassius exchanged glances. Part of Kit hated the fact that they always seemed to have information she knew nothing of. But at least she would be enlightened as to what the situation was with Blankka.

The feel of his hands on her temporarily caused all thoughts of the servant girl to flee her mind. It had been a few days since she’d been with him in any sort of an intimate capacity. Now, holding his hand, her palm pressed against his shoulder, she only wanted to drink him in.

Eli noticed her staring. A sheepish grin pulled at the corner of his mouth. “It’s been too long.”

“It has. How are you feeling?” She had inquired of others even as recently as earlier that day but hadn’t asked him directly. She knew he didn’t like to discuss it.

“Better. How have you been? Cassius told me of your encounter yesterday.”

She dropped her eyes, not wanting him to see the rage that boiled up every time she thought about Vin. He was there—she’d seen him earlier but did her best to ignore him. “I’m well.” She met Eli’s emerald green eyes. “I’ve been keeping busy with my assignment from the council.”

“And is it complete now?”

“It is.” She kept the rest of the information she’d discovered to herself. She imagined Cassius had already passed on what he knew. But he didn’t know about the passage, not unless he was clever enough to figure it out on his own, which wouldn’t surprise her, despite the fact that he had very few clues to go off of. There was the possibility Eli was already aware of it since he seemed to know every last detail of the castle.

“Blankka is not the woman she used to be.” His voice was low, and she was grateful he was answering her initial question without her having to pose it. “She was severely punished for... disloyalty.”

“Disloyalty? To whom? To me?” Kit could feel herself angering again. Eli reached up and smoothed back her hair, running his fingertips down her cheek, which helped, but Kit could still feel a flickering flame of rage down deep inside.

“I believe the official sentence was disloyalty to the crown, but I think the truth of the matter is that Rona didn’t want her talking to anyone about what had transpired between them, when Rona’s objective was to use Blankka to disrupt your Choosing and find reason to do away with me.”

“When you say severely punished... what does that mean?” Kit wasn’t completely sure she wanted to hear. A lump formed in her throat before he even answered the question.

Eli’s tone was gentle. He leaned in close to her ear. “Blankka was separated from her tongue.”

Kit looked up in shock. Her eyes immediately flew to the queen, who was standing on the dais with her cohorts, laughing about something. As awful as Blankka had been to Kit, the idea that her mother had removed her tongue made Kit furious.

Eli spun her around so that he was between Kit and her mother, likely to block her view and prevent the queen from noticing the daggers shooting out of her daughter’s eyes. “As awful as it is,” he continued, “it could’ve been far worse.”

“How?” Kit wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer to that question.

“Kit, have you ever noticed how many of the servants walk with a limp? Or have missing digits? How so many of them have facial deformities?”

She was embarrassed to say she hadn’t ever noticed. The only deformity she could think of was Vin’s scar, and she doubted that had come from the queen. She glanced around now and noticed one of the servants nearby dragged his leg a little when he walked. Another, a woman, was wearing a glove on her right hand. Why hadn’t she ever detected these oddities before?

“She does that? Lames her own servants? Why would anyone....”

“It’s better than ending up in the dungeon indefinitely. Or the chopping block.”

Kit shook her head and then rested it on his shoulder, not sure what to say. If she had noticed this before, it would’ve been a point of contention between herself and the queen. Now that she knew another of her mother’s despicable secrets, Kit felt sick to her stomach.

Eli continued in a low voice. “Blankka came to me a few days after it happened and handed me a note. She didn’t stay for me to read it, so I didn’t have a chance to say anything to her about it, but she realizes her mistake in betraying you. She said she feels far worse about that than anything else—even the loss of her ability to speak.”

Shocked, Kit looked up. “Do you believe her? Do you think that could possibly be true?”

“I do. That was almost a full month ago. Since then, she’s passed along quite a bit of information, snippets she’s overheard, discussions from those who are visiting the castle or the delivery drivers coming in, even the military and the Queen’s Guard. No one thinks twice about speaking in front of her because they assume she can’t tell anyone else.”

“So she’s proven her loyalty to our cause.”

“Yes, and to you.”

Kit was glad to hear it because it entered her mind that Blankka was the perfect person to help her and Danyen with the plan they were about to undergo the next night. Of course, she still couldn’t say anything to Eli about that because he would prevent her from going through with it.

The song ended, and Kit was reluctant to leave Eli’s arms, even though she was certain she’d feel comfortable with any of her other suitors.