Capture the Crown (Gargoyle Queen #1) -Jennifer Estep Page 0,114

parts of my body, especially my treacherous heart, didn’t seem to be getting the message this morning.

“How was breakfast with my mother?” Leonidas asked.

For once, I decided to give him a completely honest answer. “Stressful.”

His small, amused laugh further softened my heart. “Yes, it usually is.”

As we walked along, Leonidas pointed out tapestries, statues, and other knickknacks, playing the part of the polite host for all the servants, nobles, and guards that we passed. The more he talked, the more I wished that we truly were just a couple out for a stroll.

Reiko was right. I had read far too many storybooks where love conquered all. Oh, I certainly didn’t love Leonidas, but I liked him far more than I should have, especially given all the horrible things his family had done to mine.

Eventually, we moved to a quieter, less crowded section of the palace and then into a deserted corridor. The second we were alone, I forced myself to drop his arm and step away.

“What have you discovered?” I asked.

“Milo has quietly taken over the old armory,” Leonidas replied. “No one seems to know exactly what he’s using it for, and only he, Wexel, and certain guards are allowed to enter that area. Milo moved into the space while I was gone to Blauberg, which is why I didn’t know about it before you mentioned it last night.”

“And you want to sneak in there?”

“Yes. Right now. Milo is entertaining some nobles for lunch. We won’t get a better chance.”

“Then let’s go.”

Leonidas led me to a large section of liladorn on a nearby wall. He glanced around to make sure we were still alone, then reached out, took hold of a particularly large, curved thorn, and yanked down on it.

Click. Just like in the rookery, part of the wall slid back, revealing a secret passageway. Leonidas stepped inside. I followed him, and the wall slid shut behind us.

Unlike the one in the rookery, this passageway featured fluorestones embedded in the ceiling to light the way. We moved to the far end of the corridor and climbed a set of stone steps that spiraled upward. At the top landing, Leonidas pulled down on another large, curved thorn. That wall slid back, and we stepped through to the other side.

We were back in a regular corridor, but this area was as silent as a tomb. No paintings or tapestries hung on the walls, and not so much as a single chair crouched in the hallway. A thick layer of dust coated the floor, while enormous spiderwebs dangled from the ceiling like gray, silken chandeliers. The air was quite cold, as though no fires were ever lit in this section of the palace. I shivered, wishing I’d thought to wear the purple coat Leonidas had given me.

But the most curious thing was the liladorn. The vines had punched through the stones just like they did in other parts of Myrkvior, but there were more of them here than anywhere else in the palace, except for Delmira’s chambers. Perhaps it was my imagination, but it almost seemed like the liladorn was trying to strangle the walls, or at least reclaim this part of the palace for itself.

“What is this place?” I asked, my words steaming out in a faint cloud of frost.

“This wing belonged to King Maximus,” Leonidas said in a low, strained voice. “Mother ordered it sealed off after his death. I think she had as many bad memories here as I did.”

Another shiver slid down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold. Voices started whispering all around me, the sounds bouncing off the walls and echoing back. The voices quickly grew louder and louder until phantom wails were rending the air, as though we were surrounded by ghosts. But not all the cries were human. Many were sharper and higher and reminded me of how Lyra had cawed with rage when she thought that I’d hurt Leonidas back in Blauberg.

He gave me a sympathetic look. “I can hear the cries too. The sounds are some quirk of the liladorn. The vines and thorns sometimes vibrate with strange noises, especially in this section of the palace.”

“Why here?”

“This is where Maximus conducted his experiments on the strixes, where he took their blood and their magic,” Leonidas said, his voice even lower and more strained than before. “And where he punished the people who displeased him.”

And me too. He didn’t say the words, didn’t even think them, but they hung in the