⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼ I stare at the man who claims to be the King’s brother. I have seen King Odion a couple of times through images, and up close when we were entering the gates of Gailis. The resemblance between them is pretty clear. Not uncanny, but really hard not to miss. He tries to step forward, closer to me, but I stop him by raising a hand. “Do not come any closer.” Osman stumbles back abruptly and almost knocks over one of the mannequins. “I’m so sorry, please do not kill me.” “I won’t do that,” I say, making my way around the place slowly, not taking my eyes off of him the entire time, especially when he lowers his hands. “You said you’re going to show me where the King is?” “Yes!” he answers breathlessly, sinking into another deep bow and falling forward. He lands on his knees, and in the same jerky manner, he straightens up, brushes himself off, and bows again, but much carefully this time. “But I have one condition, sir. Just one

⇼ E L O R A ⇼As soon as I say those words, a chill runs down my spine and spreads all over my body. Suddenly the memories of what I have seen in the cabin begin to overwhelm my head, making the entire room spin in my vision as I back away against the balustrade. I look up at the sky, catching my breath.“Elora,” Alistair says, alarmed. He reaches over and touches my shoulder, so gently and softly. It’s almost like he thinks I would break. Which I just might. “What’s wrong?”“Queen Zuri is pregnant,” I tell him, rubbing my hands on my face even with the blood of my Father still on it. “It’s not the King’s child. It’s Uncle Osman’s.”His shock is almost tangible. “How did you know?”Taking a deep shuddering breath, I stare at his eyes. There’s nothing but pure concern there. I know he would never judge me for making the choices I made today, but I s

⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼The Queen holds out her arms for me to bind them, but I’m empty handed apart from the cannon I stole from a guard just moments ago. I look at Elora, and she cuts off a strip from the hem of her shirt and ties it around the Queen’s wrists before pulling her up to her feet.Around us, the handmaidens all get to their knees, touching the ground with their foreheads as they face us. For a brief second I have to wonder what they are doing exactly, but then it occurs to me that this is their sign of surrender. They are changing their allegiance. They are showing that they are now ready to serve us since we basically dethroned the Queen and invaded the whole palace.To be frank, I don’t know how to feel about all of this. I want to tell them that it’s alright, that they don’t need to bow, but I can’t find the right words to say.Would it even be alright to show some kind of consideration or sympathy after I

⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼The sheer shock that thundered inside my body is enough to make time seem to slow down. I watch numbly as the Queen’s hand, still clasping the fork, draws closer and closer to her swollen belly. . . .I sweep closer, landing on my knees in front of the prison cell. I slide my hand through the metal bars just in time to move my hand right between the fork and her pregnant belly. She ends up stabbing my hand with enough force to let the tines sink into my palm with an abrupt squelching sound.The pain makes me gasp, but I take this accident as an opportunity to grab the fork and take it away from her.With my hand dripping blood, I turn to Jossie and Kalem, who are both horrified at the scene. “Do you have the key? Let’s take her—”“NO!” Queen Zuri shrieks, ramming against the metal bars. “It’s evil! Evil, I tell you! Get me out of here, please . . . I am begging you. Just take

⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼“No,” I hear Elora whisper, and my heart just cracks for her. She sounds so broken and so lost that I forget just how confused and afraid I am. I go up to her side and put a hand on her shoulder, and she wheels around to face me. “Are you sure this is the place?”“Yes,” I say, my voice low. I point at the smear of blood scattered along the massive elevated platform in the middle of the circular room. “Kalem said that they gathered the remains of the King’s brother and put him in the catacombs behind the chapel, in the room at the end of the tunnel.”Even though I remember what Kalem said perfectly, I still look around just to make sure we are indeed in the right place. There’s no other room in the catacombs, just these hallways with cubby holes on the walls, each containing either porcelain jars or wooden boxes with peeling gold paint. Apart from the blood on the slab of rock, there