The Belles (The Belles #1)(112)

“Bring them here,” Sophia yells out.

The guards slam me to my knees on the stairs leading up to the thrones. Amber is deposited beside me. Sweat drips down her ruddy cheeks. She pants and can’t catch her breath.

I reach for her. The guard steps on my hand.

It feels like my heart is threatening to jump through my mouth, along with everything else inside me.

Sophia slowly descends, letting her little heels click against the floor. “You’ve never been that pretty, Camellia, not without help. And certainly not after a few days without bathing.” She leans down and sniffs me. “You smell revolting.” She waves a hand before her nose. “Stand her up,” she tells the guards.

She circles me, then cups her hand around my ear. “I win. I win. You should’ve just been loyal to me. You could’ve been by my side.”

I jump at her. Guards catch my hands before I can wrap them around her throat.

Sophia scoots back, turning to inspect Amber. She lifts Amber’s chin and tsk-tsks. “So weak. The lesser Belle.”

Amber bares her teeth.

Sophia slaps her. “I don’t want to hear it.” She goes back to her throne, sinking into the plush red high-backed chair.

Lightning crashes overhead, followed by claps of thunder that vibrate through the room. Rain beats against the glass ceiling.

“Don’t you just love storms? Especially ones with snow? The God of the Sky helps us cleanse the land. Rid the kingdom of things we don’t need. It’s fitting for tonight.” She claps her hands together.

“I have to make my first hard decision as regent queen. My first trial. You’re going to be tried and imprisoned for the murder of my beloved lady-of-honor, Claudine.”

I fight against the guard’s grip. He holds me firmly in place.

“That’s the only way House Maille will forgive you. The city of Bissay, her hometown, is very upset. Justice must be served. But instead of sentencing you to the starvation box, or death by hanging in the Royal Square, or throwing you off one of our great rock barriers in the southern part of the kingdom, I’ll spare your life. Isn’t that kind of me?”

I glare at her.

“Show me your gratitude.”

My guard forces Amber and me down in a bow. “Thank Her Majesty,” he orders. I say nothing. Amber refuses, too. He jerks my arm. Sharp, hot pain blasts through me. “I’ll snap it clean off.”

Another guard kicks Amber in the side. She coughs and cries out.

“Thank you,” I mumble. Amber parrots me.

“What was that?”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” I yell.

“Oh, but maybe you shouldn’t thank me yet.” She motions at a nearby attendant. “Bring me little Du Barry.”

A side door opens. A red-faced and sniffing Elisabeth is dragged out. She stands beside me. Her eyes spill over with tears, her fear palpable.

“Elisabeth Du Barry, you haven’t been paying enough attention to the favorite. She’s been spending time with one of my suitors—breaking our fraternizing law. She ran away to the Chrysanthemum Teahouse under your watch. And worst of all, she called me a monster.”

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty,” she stammers out. “Won’t happen again.”

“You’re right, it won’t.” She stands again and reaches for a long golden staff. A fat glittering diamond the size of an ostrich egg sits atop it. She lets the bottom hit the ground several times, reveling in the echo it sends through the room. “Elisabeth, you’ll be jailed alongside Camellia.”

Elisabeth bursts into a sob.

“You will bleed her every day, collect every drop of her blood, and we will create an elixir from it. I will test it myself.”

“That will do nothing,” I shout.

“But didn’t you tell Auguste the arcana live in the blood?”

His face burns in my memory. Our conversations. The touch of his fingers.

A collar of fear tightens around my throat. Tremors work their way through every part of my body. The memory of him is like a poison masked in a beautiful glass.

“Did you think he liked you, or better yet, loved you? Did you think he’d keep your secrets?”

The words sting. A dead, haunting silence stretches. The word love bounces off the walls, only to slap me in the face and explode inside my chest.

Georgiana saunters forward with a perfectly proportioned smile on her face. “Out of my three sons, I made him the most handsome because, coupled with how naturally charming he is, I knew it would make him powerful. He cracked you open like an egg, and the secrets of your arcana poured out into trusted and loving hands.”

Sweat races down my face, like the rain across the glass above our heads.

“Anything to say, Camellia? You’re usually never at a loss for words,” Sophia taunts.

Duchesse Georgiana Fabry claps her hands. “With your blood, Camellia, we will usher in a new form of beauty work that will make the kingdom millions of leas and billions of spintria.”

“And the best part,” Sophia says, “is that Ambrosia will be our new favorite until I’m ready to reveal our newest and most potent Belle-product, the Beauty Elixir. Yes, that’s what I think I’ll call it.” She waves her staff in the air.

The guards start to drag Amber from the room.