Protect the Prince (Crown of Shards #2)(108)

Dahlia smiled at her cousin, then looked at me again. “I saw him right after your meeting in the library. I was most upset when I realized that you had cured him and destroyed all my hard work.” Her eyes narrowed. “How did you do that, Everleigh? How did you cure Heinrich?”

“I told you that she’s a Winter queen,” Maeven cut in. “Ruining our plans is what they do best.”

Dahlia frowned, not liking her cryptic answer. I didn’t like it either. Once again, I felt like Maeven knew something about my magic that I didn’t.

“But how could you have made the poison?” Then I remembered the faint spark of magic I’d sensed when I’d touched her hand in the gazebo earlier this week. “You’re a plant magier, just like Helene is.”

Dahlia nodded. “Yes. I don’t have Helene’s raw, obvious strength, but it doesn’t take much magic to grow an Amethyst Eye cactus and harvest the poison from the flowers. Helene was nice enough to give me the plant, never knowing what it could be used for. And then, when I realized that you’d discovered Heinrich was being poisoned, it was easy enough for me to slip my cactus into her greenhouse so you would suspect her.”

I’d thought the cactus had looked familiar when I’d found it in the greenhouse, and now I remembered seeing the plant on the balcony railing outside Dahlia’s chambers. So she had put her own plant in the greenhouse to convince me that Helene was poisoning the king, and I’d fallen for her simple trick. What an idiot I was.

My mind kept spinning, and I thought back to that jalape?o rage I’d sensed in the throne room. “You wanted me dead from the start. You used your magic to trip me when I was fighting Rhea.”

Dahlia shrugged. “The carpet wasn’t a plant, so I couldn’t do much more than twist it around your foot, but it almost worked.”

“You sent Frederich and Gemma off to die at Seven Spire, you’ve been poisoning Heinrich, and you helped that weather magier slip into the palace so that she and those other assassins could try to kill Dominic in the library.” I ticked off her crimes. “But why? You’re not married to Heinrich, so you won’t be queen when he dies.”

Dahlia let out another amused laugh, although this one had a bit more bite to it. “I told you before, Everleigh: I never wanted to be queen.”

Once again, she reeked of lime truthfulness, just as she had when she’d said those same words to me before.

“But with Henrich, Dominic, and Gemma dead, the only other member of the royal family would be . . . Sullivan.” My eyes widened in understanding. “You’re telling the truth. You don’t want to be queen. But you would be quite happy being the mother of the king. That’s what this has all been about—putting Sullivan on the throne.”

The implications spun through my mind. With all the legitimate heirs dead, Dahlia would present Sullivan as the perfect solution. The other nobles might kick up a fuss, but that’s when Helene’s wealth, power, and influence would come in handy.

Helene might not know about Dahlia’s true scheme, but she still cared deeply about Sullivan. Helene would help Dahlia put him on the throne, although I doubted that Dahlia would let her live long afterward. And Sullivan would feel duty-bound to take on the responsibility, never realizing that it was exactly what his mother wanted, what she’d been planning for years.

“Of course this has all been about putting Lucas on the throne,” Dahlia sneered. “My son is a powerful magier. He’s always been stronger than his brothers, and he’ll be an excellent king. Under my guidance, of course. With you dead, it won’t be too difficult for me to find some way to dispatch Heinrich, Dominic, and Gemma. And, after an appropriate mourning period has passed for the Ripleys, Lucas will marry a woman of my choosing, someone of good Mortan stock, although he won’t know that.”

A sick, sick feeling filled my stomach. “And then when their children are on the throne, Andvari will belong to Morta.”

I’d thought that Bellonans were good at playing the long game, but Dahlia put us to shame. She’d been playing a long game ever since she was a child, and now, she was going to force Sullivan to play it too, whether he realized it or not.

“This will break Sully’s heart when he finds out,” I said.

Dahlia shrugged again. “He’ll never know that I was involved. Besides, he’ll be too busy being king to wonder how he got the throne.”

She was probably right about that, but I didn’t tell her so.

“Did you ever care about Heinrich? Even a little? Or was he just a mission?”

For the first time, a bit of hurt flickered in Dahlia’s eyes, overcoming her smugness. “I did care about Heinrich,” she admitted. “Until he married another woman over me. That was the beginning of the end for us, even if he was too blind and stupid to realize it.”

“But that was his duty as king,” I pointed out.

“Oh, fuck Heinrich and his damned duty.” Dahlia spat out the words. “He certainly wasn’t thinking about his duty every time he came to my bed. No, if he truly cared about me, if he truly loved me, then he would have married me, despite the fact that I was a poor kitchen servant. But no, Heinrich wanted to appease his father and the nobles, so he married that wretched Sophina instead. As far as I’m concerned, Heinrich is getting exactly what he deserves.”