Beguiled (The Fairest Maidens #2) - Jody Hedlund Page 0,73

me.”

She hesitated.

“The queen will likely force you to be on the green to watch me die. Once the commotion starts, you must run away with me.”

“I shall only slow you down.”

“No. We go together or not at all.”

She pursed her lips. As the door opened, she nodded. “Very well. I shall try.”

“Good.”

“One last thing,” she whispered. “I heard the queen talking about how she didn’t need the jewels anymore since she’d soon have gold. What could she mean?”

A soldier stepped into the room, his weapons drawn, his expression severe as he glanced from Ruby to me and back. “Time is up, Your Highness.”

Ruby sniffled and pretended to cry before she threw her arms around me.

It was the giant guard who’d stood outside Ruby’s door the night I’d snuck in. The guard had the grace to look chagrined. Staring at the floor, he waited, clearly liking Ruby and feeling sorry for her. I could only hope that favor would continue once we attempted to escape from the castle later.

Ruby pressed a kiss against my cheek. “What if Mother wants your heart because she believes it will aid the white stone in creating gold?”

She didn’t give me the chance to answer. Instead, she released me and started toward the guard, sniffling again and brushing at her cheeks. After she was gone, I stared at the closed door, her question rattling in my head and growing louder with each passing second.

The queen had established the requirements for the Choosing Ball because she needed a specific heart to mix with the white stone for her alchemy. A heart belonging to the most beautiful maiden in the land, a maiden not younger than eighteen but no older than twenty.

If such a heart was necessary to produce precious gems, then what kind of heart was necessary to create gold? Maybe the white stone would require a heart that didn’t just belong to the fairest maiden, but the fairest royal maiden. A princess’s heart. My heart.

The queen sent maidservants to attend to me and make me beautiful once more. Now I knew why—to make my appearance beautiful to ensure that my heart would be acceptable to the white stone for creating gold.

In fact, with the realization of her plans, many of my questions found answers. Now I understood why just after my eighteenth birthday, she’d plotted my murder separately from the Choosing Ball. In her greed, she hoped to have a heart for both gold and jewels. Perhaps she also thought that if my heart failed to produce the gold she sought, then she wouldn’t have to compromise her production of jewels.

Now I understood why she’d never release Ruby to me or to Mikkel, because one day when Ruby came of age, she’d use Ruby’s heart for the same purpose. Perhaps that’s why the queen had worked so diligently all these years to find my cousin, because she wanted Queen Aurora’s heart for her alchemy.

When the guards finally came for me, I told myself I was ready. If my outcast friends could somehow free Ruby and Mikkel, then I’d be able to bear going to my death, knowing that the two people I cared most about were safely in Scania.

As I walked through the long passageways, the heavy steps of the soldiers before and behind me tapped out an ominous rhythm, reminding me not only of how outnumbered my friends would be, but how unsafe against so many well-trained knights.

We exited through a side tower door and rounded the keep into the spacious inner bailey. I forced myself not to glance around and look for my friends. I didn’t want to give away their presence or their positions. Nevertheless, my pulse thudded with expectation.

The thick castle walls rose on the southern side of the bailey and overlooked the sprawling capital city. To the north, mountainous cliffs formed an impenetrable wall. Imposing stone towers spiraled into the air, and I suspected the queen had relegated Mikkel to an isolated room at the top of one of those towers. I prayed Gregor had figured out a way to release him, though I didn’t know how he would accomplish it.

The light-blue skies were the same shade as Mikkel’s eyes, and my heart panged with longing for him. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about and reliving his declaration of love and his kisses from the feast.

I realized now that the queen had planned the feast and made me as beautiful as possible to beguile Mikkel. His ardor had proven