Mask of Shadows (Untitled #1)(60)

Peace had a cost, and we collected.

“Delightful.” He straightened up and flicked his fingers at me, tapping his foot on the floor. “Pity you didn’t have a real alibi the first time around—could’ve saved us all this trouble.”

“You knew?” I rounded on Ruby, blood rushing in my ears. I’d blackmailed Four for nothing. Threatened him for nothing. “You knew it wasn’t me without a doubt the whole time?”

“Of course we knew. It’s our business to know. It’s why Nicolas is involved, why we know who’s seen and who’s set up.” Ruby picked his way over the shattered remains of the room and picked up my knife, missing my shudder—they couldn’t know about Seve, they couldn’t. “Next time, have an alibi and keep your arm loose but your grip tight.”

“Oh yes, I’ll get right on that, my lord.” I tore myself away from Four. Of course the Left Hand knew. They’d even had their spy Nicolas del Contes investigate my past. I might break my hand punching Ruby in the face, but it would be worth it if I broke his nose. “Next audition, I’ll have an alibi for every day. I’ll look good in red.”

Ruby laughed and said to his servant, “Get the other auditioners. Don’t tell them what’s happened.” He twisted back to me soon as they were gone. “Using me as a human shield? Really?”

“It was a pitcher.” I shrugged. “I was improvising.”

He snorted. I leaned against the back wall, pulling my mask over my face. The bitter scent of sweat and blood, musty dirt and dry forest, clung to the linen, and I sucked in a deep breath. Back where I belonged.

Where I needed to be.

No need to let Two and Five know what I looked like now that I was back in the audition. Amethyst helped the servant, now awake and confused, into a chair and looked me over. Emerald didn’t spare me a glance.

Eleven entered first, stepping through the broken door skittish as a deer. She was forgettable like me. I hadn’t paid her any attention.

She could’ve killed everyone.

She caught me staring and glared. I glared right back. She’d no right endangering the servants.

Five slipped into the room. His gaze darted from Eleven to Four’s body, to the Left Hand and the servant recovering between them. He put his back to a corner and fidgeted. Good.

At least I’d gotten that right. He was still finding my eyes.

Two came in last, saw Four, and stopped. She stayed in the doorway, raised on her toes and ready to run.

“Four and Fifteen are dead.” Emerald stalked around us terrifying as a storm rolling in from the sea, voice barely rising over a breathy whisper. She rolled her neck and cracked her knuckles. “All of you, at the table.”

Two, Five, and Eleven lined up alongside the table. Ruby circled behind them, huffing at the smears of charcoal that Five’s dirty hands left on the wood. Amethyst beckoned the servants into the room. Maud glanced at me as she entered.

“Which of you rigged the doors with Lady’s Palm? The doors to the rooms frequented by people we specifically told you were not to be harmed? With poisons that cause violence and delusions?” Emerald slid behind Eleven. “Admit it, and I’ll be less likely to kill you despite our well-stated rules.”

Eleven shivered and raised her hand. “It was only the auditioners’ rooms after their servants had cleaned.”

Emerald slammed Eleven into the table, smashing her face through a ceramic kettle and grinding her cheek into the slivers. Blood and tea pooled beneath Eleven’s face. She whimpered.

“When we said the servants were not to be harmed, we meant it.” Emerald’s voice was muffled and low. “No harm—not a chance, not even a little. Your disregard for the lives of the people you would have served as Opal is clear. So show me every trap and then get out of my sight. You are lucky no one else was seriously hurt.”

She yanked Eleven up and pieces of the kettle tumbled from her bloody mask. Five edged away. I bowed my head, not the least bit sorry. She could’ve killed Maud.

“And you are very, very lucky.” Emerald rounded on me. “This,” she said, gesturing toward the wreckage around us and nodding to Ruby, “wasn’t well done.”

I gritted my teeth, unwilling to let them see the disappointment so stinging that I was sure my bones were on fire. I nodded.

“But he recanted.” Emerald nodded to Amethyst. “And you were correct about the courts.”

Amethyst shook her head at me. “Although the extortion was a nice touch, if not sloppy.”

“You lot have an odd definition of nice.” My breath caught in my throat, choking me and burning in my chest. It had worked. It had all paid off. “Really?”

“Four’s witness against you would no longer hold in court, so it no longer holds here.” Ruby sidled up next to me, peering over my shoulder.

Ruby then strolled to the table, ignoring Five’s furious glares at me. I smiled, sure my lips would never drop the look again. Meeting his gaze only made him scowl more.

“Congratulations.” Ruby raised a broken teacup handle to us and bowed. “To our final three auditioners—Two, Five, and Twenty-Three.”

Ten must’ve died while I was plotting. Good.

“She’s disqualified!” Five gestured wildly to Ruby. “You can’t bring her back.”