The Queen's Assassin (The Queen's Secret #1)(81)

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CAL WALKS OUT TO the back field with Mesha to meet Shadow and Aunt Moriah in an open space behind the barn.

They join hands around a small stone fire pit. Shadow stares blankly into the flames. He is eager to know what happened in the house. For now he’ll have to wait.

The women begin chanting in unison: “Deia, hear our call; please assist these dear souls as they fight to do right, mend what’s been broken, and restore the rightful ways of the world.”

The flames flicker. A soft breeze blows past them. The aunts exchange a knowing smile. “Now you two may join hands so the spell can be sealed,” Mesha says.

Cal takes Shadow’s hands in his. She keeps her eyes down. The aunts walk around them, spreading salt and dried herbs from tiny drawstring pouches they’ve pulled from their belts. They continue the chant: “Deia, hear our call; please assist these dear souls as they fight to do right, mend what’s been broken, and restore the rightful ways of the world.”

Cal feels a tug, an invisible rope, wrap around them as the aunts walk and chant. Shadow closes her eyes, so he does as well. The sensation grows so that he swears he can actually feel it, physically, the warmth around his legs and torso and arms, extending between the two of them and all around them, an undetectable shield.

And then his hands, holding hers, begin to feel hot, and he feels the same sensation fastening their hands together, and he wonders if he’s merely imagining it or if it’s happening to her too.





CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Caledon

THE NEXT MORNING, SHADOW IS uncommonly pale and tight-lipped the entire trip back to Montrice. Cal asks her, only once, what happened while he waited outside. She tells him—forcefully—that she doesn’t want to talk about it, but that she will when the time comes.

He wishes they could have stayed at the ambassador’s manor for longer. Despite whatever upset Shadow so much before they left, he had a good feeling about the kindhearted women who raised her, although her mother gave him a bit of a chill.

Shadow’s aunts gave them each a drawstring pouch, and instructed them to keep the charmed talismans on their person at all times. It was the closest thing to parental affection Cal had experienced since his father passed. Perhaps they could tell how he felt, though, because while they waited for the carriage, Mesha and Moriah told him stories about Cordyn from their days at the Guild. They said he was one of the top students, and also one of the most mischievous, often reprimanded by the training council for his pranks and rule-breaking.

While they were telling him this, it almost seemed that Cordyn was with them. Cal felt the familiar presence, the spirit of his father. Who knows? He might have been there. Cal is willing to believe in many more things than he used to.



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THE ENTIRE RIDE BACK to Mont is somber. The butler informs them that the duke and duchess have gone out of town and to their country estate, as the duke had to take care of some unexpected business. That’s fine with Cal and Shadow, better even. They retreat to their rooms without fanfare and take the rest of the day’s meals there.

By all accounts the party to honor them is set to carry on as planned—that much is clear enough in the hustle and bustle of the staff as they dash from one wing of the house to another carrying chairs and vases and glassware. They leave them alone, and Shadow retreats to her room without inviting him, and so Cal takes the time to puzzle out the pieces of the conspiracy.

The black glass they’d discovered during the hunt, the same substance that the monks were mining in Baer Abbey, had to be recently found, he decides, if they had only started excavating. Since it was on the duke’s estate, then all signs point to the Duke of Girt as the conspirator. Cal blinks and wonders why he didn’t feel as confident before. It was right in front of him. It’s as if he was in a fog, and now his mind is clear.

Shadow’s aunts and mother didn’t know why Princess Lilac was in Montrice, only that the Aphrasians are set to assassinate her. He hopes that, wherever she is, the princess is safe for now. Is the princess in Montrice to marry King Hansen maybe?

And if the King of Montrice does not marry the Princess of Renovia, then which kingdom has been chosen? Stavin has the fiercer army, but Argonia commands an armada. Montrice will show its hand soon, and Renovia must be ready.

Cal feels the pressure of his task on his neck, on his chest. He will keep the princess safe; he will unmask the conspirator before they can hurt the royal family. If he fails, the princess will die. So he must not fail.

As for his dreams of a different life, of one with Shadow—if she feels the same way about him—then he must earn his freedom as soon as possible. But he needs to know her heart. He has hope, but not certainty, and her sudden coldness is not promising.



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THEY SPEND TWO DAYS this way, avoiding each other—or rather, with Shadow avoiding him. He respects her need for privacy, but as the days pass, he worries more and more about what upset her so greatly, and if it could be related to him in some way. Perhaps her mother saw into his heart and deemed him unworthy of her daughter.

Eventually, the morning before the party, they bump into each other in the main entry hall: Shadow, carrying a straw basket filled with fresh flowers, on her way inside from the market; Cal, just back from a final fitting with the tailor.