Grace and Fury (Grace and Fury #1)(43)

He bent nearer. Even in the dark, Nomi could see the spark in his eyes. “So what do we do?”





Nomi and Asa spent half the night fine-tuning their scheme.

“The crime has to be something that directly impacts the Superior,” Asa said with a touch of bitterness. “Or else my father won’t care. He’d probably celebrate.”

“Maybe Malachi could plot a war?” she wondered.

“Too many moving parts. Hard to feign. We’d have to really start a war to make it convincing.”

“An assassination attempt?”

“Of the Superior? That might work. Father is very ill, but he’s got fight left in him. Maybe Malachi’s impatient to lead, so he decides to help Nature along.”

She thought of the first queen’s perfume. “Would he use poison?”

They now sat on one of the chaises, huddled together as the cool wind buffeted them. “Poison is difficult to procure, and no one would believe the threat without the real thing. What if he were to hire someone to do physical violence?”

“And you thwart the attempt at just the right moment, exposing the plot and saving your father.” To Nomi, it sounded like a fairy tale.

All the anger seething through her blood had brightened into joy. She was going to change things. She and Asa would give Viridia back its heritage. They would make it into the country it was meant to be.

And they would free Serina.

“It can’t be a real assassin,” Asa mused. “I won’t have my father actually killed. That’s important. It has to be someone who understands the subtleties, who knows we need a performance, not an actual threat.”

“So, someone we trust. Someone we can protect from punishment.”

“Yes,” Asa agreed. “Without immunity, why would they help us?”

“Do you know such a man?” Nomi asked.

“There are several palace guards I believe to be loyal to me,” he said. “But all are recognizable within the palace. Everyone knows them as my personal guard and couldn’t fail to make the connection.”

“I don’t know anyone at all, except my family.” Her heart stuttered. Renzo.

No. She couldn’t involve him. The risk was too great.

“How would we protect our false assassin?” she asked. “It would not be enough to urge your father to be lenient. You said he is merciless.”

“You’re right. We’d have to engineer an escape, maybe a disguise.…”

Nomi sat up straighter. “The Heir’s birthday. The Graces have been talking about it. Someone said it’s to be a masquerade.” It would be the night the Heir could demand her in his chambers if he so chose.

Not if the Heir is arrested.

“It is. That’s perfect.” Asa sounded excited. “A disguise and means of escape. Our conspirator can remain unknown. Slip in, perform our deception, and then disappear. No danger, no way of getting caught.”

No danger.

She turned to study him. The clouds had finally cleared, and a sliver of moonlight now shone on Asa’s boyish face. “You can think of no one to help us?” she asked again, praying.

But after a long moment, Asa shook his head. “The only people I know are guards and courtiers. With a disguise, perhaps a guard could do it, but they’d be working during the ball. It would be difficult to avoid exposure. And there isn’t a single courtier I trust. But don’t despair. I’ll keep thinking.”

Nomi shook her head. “No. I know someone who can do it. Someone I trust implicitly. My—” She broke off abruptly. “My cousin.”

She had to be smart, safe about this. This was Renzo’s life.

“A cousin is good,” Asa said. His hand lightly rubbed her arm; she wasn’t sure he was even aware he was doing it. But she liked the soft touch, the contact. “Where does he live? How do we reach him?”

“I can reach him,” Nomi said. She didn’t want to tell him more about Renzo than she had to.

“How? Does he live in Bellaqua?”

“I—” She paused. How could she reach Renzo without telling Asa who he really was? Where he lived?

Did it matter?

She had already trusted Asa with so much. He could have her sent to prison based on this conversation alone. Still. She would risk herself, not Renzo. She took a deep breath. “I will write to him.”

Asa went still. “So you can read and write.”

Nomi turned to him, suddenly desperate that he understand. “Yes. I’m the one who taught myself. I’m the one who stole the book. Not Serina. Ines saw her with the book in her hands, but it was mine. I don’t know why she didn’t tell the truth. But you see? She shouldn’t be in Mount Ruin. I should.”

“Nomi, no one should be imprisoned for reading. Not you or your sister.” Asa covered her hand with his and gave it a gentle squeeze. “We are going to free her. Together, we are going to change everything.”

Nomi balanced on a precipice, as wind-blown and perilous as a real cliff. There was a difference between defiance and outright rebellion. Could she do this? Could she jump over the ledge?

Maybe not for herself. But for Serina, yes.





TWENTY-ONE



SERINA