hand when we exited the car, squeezing it this time.
I stopped him, looking up. “Thank you.”
Then I untangled my fingers, heading into the house before him. I marched through the halls and through the interior courtyard, climbing the stairs toward the chamber where I’d first met King Julius.
I listened to the shuffling of the Vissimo within.
Everyone was there.
I inhaled, scenting the saltiness of my perspiration. Gathering myself at the top of the stairs, I strode through the iron and wood doors.
King Julius sat in his throne, dressed in his usual coarse sarong—Queen Titania was seated beside him in a robe.
The royal siblings stood four at the base of the stairs, leaving an opening for Kyros and me.
I stopped in the middle and curtsied. Kyros stopped several steps behind me, obeying my wish to do this alone. I was alone in appearance only, perhaps, but that distance was driving him to the edges of his control.
“Human.” King Julius greeted me.
The last few times he’d spoken to me, I’d been Basilia or Miss Le Spyre or mate of my heir if he was feeling really nice.
He held up a letter. “King Mikael sent a letter tonight after his time with my heir. It is addressed to you.”
The king held it out, and after mentally checking Kyros for confirmation, I climbed the ten steps to take the envelope, dread filling me.
The wax seal wasn’t broken.
“Why is my enemy sending you mail?” he asked in a soft voice that shot fear through every fibre of my body.
I inhaled. “For the very reason I plan to reveal tonight. I’d like to discuss information surrounding the Mr Ringly deal and the background to what pushed me to investigate it personally.”
When I sealed the fate of you and eight of your children.
The king hummed, leaning forward. “Open the message.”
I stared at him, my palms growing slick with sweat. No, I had to start with the information.
“Now.”
My chest seized at the icy promise behind the word. I pried my finger under the seal.
It wasn’t a message; it was a photo.
I drew it out, and choked on my inhale, covering my mouth as the photo tumbled from my grip.
Sandra.
What remained of her.
The picture was of her severed head, her mouth twisted grotesquely and her eyes wide and glassy.
Bile surged up through my throat and I battled it, listening to Kyros’s quiet growl at my back. I retreated two steps toward him as his father swooped down and regarded the picture.
He flipped it over, reading aloud. “Good try.”
Oh my god. Sandra. “They caught her.”
How had they known? I took twenty-five Indebted with me. My team would have noticed anyone following us from Bluff City or within listening distance.
King Julius straightened, his face hard. Queen Titania rested a fleeting hand on his knee.
“Explain,” he boomed.
I jumped. “It’s a picture of Sandra Hoyt. S-She’s dead.”
“I can see that, human.”
“Father, she’s in shock,” Kyros murmured from the bottom of the stairs.
And that meant jack shit to the Vissimo king before me. I shook my head, grabbing at the tatters of my ruined plan.
“She was the councilwoman assigned to Mr Ringly’s case until June last year. She transferred to Frankton Gorge and his case was then transferred to Julia Dinh. I tracked Miss Hoyt down a week ago and questioned her.”
Hands shaking, I drew out my phone, locating the video.
I pushed Play.
“At first, I started receiving a list of my family’s addresses in the mail. It took me a while to realise I only received them after a phone call with Mr Ringly. First the letters turned up in my mailbox, then on my desk when I returned from the printer or the bathroom. Once, the letter was left on my pillow in my bedroom. I went to my supervisor for help…”
The video was ten minutes long, and I held the phone aloft, wondering if ten minutes had ever seemed so long.
“Miss Hoyt,” my voice sounded as she trailed off, “why do you believe you received the letters? Why do you think your supervisors and the police wouldn’t help? And why do you think the man with brown curls and hazel eyes was following you?”
“I wouldn’t approve Mr Ringly’s DA. Agricultural land is of greater need to Bluff City than more residential land. What’s the point of building more houses if our ability to feed the population doesn’t also increase? The people threatening my family, myself, and my career wanted me to approve the rezoning plan. I’m certain of that.”
The video ended.
“You found her