Chapter 37
Now
I stood in the silk robe, my mouth gaping at the woman before me. Solise’s eyes were the size of the moon as she stared at me, pure disbelief on her face, the same familiar face I hadn’t seen in almost three years.
And then we were rushing toward each other, tears streaming, the sobs saying what we couldn’t. She pulled back to hold me at arms’ length. “What are you doing here?” I cried.
“We don’t have much time. Your mother?” she choked.
My head shook in some semblance of a nod. “She’s here. She’s here somewhere,” I said through tears. “She’s...gone.” Solise nodded in grave understanding. She wasn’t surprised. “How are you here? What happened? Where is your sister?”
“I will explain everything soon. I heard rumors a few days ago that Eserene had fallen.” I nodded frantically. “I’ve been praying to my Saints every single day, Petra. Praying that you and your mother weren’t hurt or killed, that you hadn’t taken the pipe, that Castemont had gotten you two out safely.” She searched my face, and I saw the confusion across hers. “Why didn’t they make you take it?”
“They did.” Her eyes widened.
“What?”
“I’ve taken it three times. And I feel nothing, no different than before. It...it doesn’t affect me.” The confusion didn’t leave her face, but I could see her working over my words in her head.
“What are you doing here? In the castle?”
How the hell was I supposed to explain all that had happened? The fact I had decided to move into Castemont’s residence? The Board of Blood, the trip through the Onyx Pass, the healing and the…powers? Miles and his insistence regarding my true identity? The fact that she wasright about Castemont,that what was off about him was the fact that he was a self-serving bastard?“Solise,” I started, grabbing her hands. “I will tell you everything as soon as I figure it out for myself. I don’t know what’s happening, I don’t know why I’m here, but I’m to be brought before Kauvras in less than an hour.”
Her face went ghostly white. “Why?” Her whisper was shaky.
“I… I don’t exactly know.”
“I’ve heard whispers, Petra,” she started. “Whispers growing louder between the guards that the Daughter of Katia is coming. You don’t think… They couldn’t think–”
“No, that’s ridiculous,” I blurted, pushing Miles’ words from my head.
A solid pounding on the door broke through the room. “Twenty minutes,” Miles’ raspy voice called.
I inhaled sharply, looking at the woman who had been like a mother to me. Marita had reminded me so much of Solise, and I pushed down the last image I had of my tutor.
For so long I assumed the role of provider when the responsibility should have fallen on my mother. I was tired of being the one to take care of everything, tired of being depended on, tired of being lost. “What do I do Solise?”
Her eyes didn’t leave my face as she raised her hand to her mouth, chewing on a fingernail. “We need to get you ready. Are you hurt?”
“No,” I said quickly. She nodded and pushed me toward the bed where a gown of crimson satin lay. It was beautiful — thin gold filigree stitching from the delicate straps through the deep vee of the bodice to the waist made it appear to be dipped in gold, the skirts blood red beneath. As I dressed, I thought of the expressions she’d make when I told her about my apparent power to heal. She’d be wonderstruck. I let that thought keep my mind from spiraling.
She herded me toward a chair that sat before a small vanity and began frantically brushing through my tangled hair, still wet from the bath. She braided and twisted and pinned, and all the while, she spoke.
“Listen to me Petra, and listen closely. Kauvras will not kill you, at least until he knows you are not the Daughter of Katia. If he believes you are this prophesized Daughter of Katia, he will want to wed immediately.” I swallowed hard. “You need to make him think you are.”
“What?” It was almost a shriek.
“If he believes you’re not descended from Katia herself, he will kill you without a second thought.Play along.Make him think there’s a chance. It will keep you alive long enough for me to get you out of here.” My head spun at her words. I realized I was biting my lip so hard that the skin almost broke. “Petra! Are you listening to me?” I nodded, wide eyed. “I am going to get you out of here.”
“My mother–”
“Petra,” she cut me off. “If she’s addicted–”
“No. I know she’s not coming back.” I steeled my heart against the words, staring at Solise in the mirror. “I just want to know she’s alive.”
She pursed her lips, the veins in her neck bulging, but she gave a small nod. “I’ll see if I can find out where she is.”
She pinned the last piece of my hair up, the wetness of it much less obvious. “My diadem,” I whispered.