Page 117 of The Lure of Wolves and Whispers
It was also Cash’s one condition to hide the magic on Oona—me being here as a distraction for the nobles and his stepmother while he plants the vial of magic that, as he had put it with a cold smile, will humiliate her when the gardai find it during her birthday feast.
Maybe I should’ve told Talon before we got to the wide double doors of the same mirrored hall we were in for the First Look and found Cash waiting for me, arm out for mine to hook through. Talon would’ve told Wolf, though—and then Wolf would’ve insisted on being here.
And even if Talon was right and it isn’t Wolf’s choice to keep sneaking back into this castle, it’s my choice now to try to keep him out of just a little bit more danger.
There’s enough of it facing both of us already.
But if the nobles are seething at the hand Cash keeps on me, they won’t be watching the one he plans to use to slip the vial of magic into Oona’s pocket.
We arrive fashionably late, to cut the time between Cash planting the magic on Oona and the Lady of Shadows’ expected arrival with the gardai.
More time between the two means more of a risk Oona might slip a hand into her own pocket and find the vial of magic there before the gardai can.
Every step of this plan has to move fast, and go perfectly.
Old Ones, is it possible to forget how to breathe?
Every inhale feels impossibly tight against the laces of my gown. Aoife lent me this one, and she follows a few steps behind Talon, sandy hair aglow in the candlelight. I’m wearing pure black velvet, trimmed with braided strands of black pearls stitched into elaborate patterns of what look like the outlines of gems.
The only color I wear is from the oxblood garnets dripping from my ears.
Every knife I own—and then more, borrowed from Talon—is hidden up and down the backs of my legs and calves in form-fitting leather sheaths.
My dark hair spills over my shoulders, loose and free.
The neckline dips just low enough to verge on inappropriate—again, part of the ruse. I want Oona sneering those crimson lips atmewhen we get close enough to plant this on her.
Even if it means I had to twine my mother’s necklace around my wrist instead.
“You sure you don’t want to just…” Cash leans in close to brush his lips against the edge of my ear, a blatant display of preference that sets every tongue in the hall to hissing. “Keep this little vial for yourself?”
A feeling like ice blooms beneath my skin at the touch. For asecond, I can’t tell if he’s joking, until he pulls back, and a smile cracks the cold mask he wears before the court.
“We’ve got this,” I whisper, and my pulse kicks into a thunderous jolt.
I’m not sure who the words are for—me, or Cash.
The cruel glances of noble after noble slide over me. All of them bow or sink into deep curtsies as Cash nears, leveling daggered glares my way from under their lashes when he passes.
Most of the nobles linger around the tables heaping with silver jugs of wine and stacked with enough food to feed half the city. The tables groan under the weight of trays of mushrooms roasted in sherry and thyme, suckling pigs glistening in their own fat, trays of sliced beef and caramelized onions, and every vegetable I can name.
I think there might even be a whole deer shaped out of marzipan.
The one thing missing is the High King—and I’m not the only one who notices.
Countless eyes from the crowd dart back and forth from his empty throne, flicking between Cash and the High Queen, who sneers over the crowd from her smaller throne.
“He’s still not here?” I keep my voice low, so only Cash and Talon can hear.
Cash’s eyes flash to his father’s throne. He makes no effort to hide the suspicion narrowing his eyes as he levels them at the High Queen. “A stubborn fever, she claims.”
I don’t dare press him further, not with this many ears around us.
His jaw tenses at my side. “You ready?”
I shake out my skirts and glance over my shoulder to where Talon stays within arm’s reach of me. “As I’ll ever be.”
From her throne, the High Queen’s icy eyes slice to Cash, and I feel the moment she realizes I’m the one at his side. Her double take might make me laugh, if we weren’t on the possible verge of a particularly terrible death. If we’re caught, Cash would die too, however they kill nobles. I don’t actually know—but they’re never brought to the Black Quay.
