Lady Smoke (Ash Princess Trilogy #2)(101)

If she heard that, then she must have heard the conversation that followed. The one where S?ren told me he loved me. That’s why she’s been so sure there’s something between us.

“And that’s why you framed S?ren for it,” I say. “It’s why the truth serum is taking so long. You never started brewing it, did you?”

She shakes her head. “I didn’t want you distracted. I didn’t want you to actually consider his proposal,” she says. She takes another step toward me but there’s nowhere for me to go this time. My vision blurs and suddenly there are two of her before she sharpens back into a single figure with bright, alert eyes. A predator. And I was too blind to see it until now.

I need to keep her talking so I can get a hold of myself.

“We were poured the same wine, though,” I say, forcing myself to focus even though my mind is a blur. “How did you know I wouldn’t be poisoned? Was it the cup?”

“No, not the cup,” she says. “Too many things could go wrong that way; there are so many servants in this palace. I couldn’t control all of them. No, I didn’t poison the wine, but I did lace it with a touch of strawberry juice. Not dangerous to you, but the Archduke was allergic.”

I remember Archduke Etmond’s face swelling up and turning red, him grasping his throat. Coltania breathing into his mouth in an attempt to save him—or so it appeared.

“You weren’t trying to save him, were you?” I ask.

“I was making sure no one else could. He might have recovered on his own, if I’d let him,” she says.

“The poison was on you,” I guess.

She smiles, red lips stretching over white teeth. With my vision blurring as it is, for an instant I swear she has fangs.

“Clever girl. My lip paint is mixed with distilled bolenza—not the first time I’ve used it for that purpose. I’ve built up a tolerance over the years.”

The rumors, I remember—the mysterious deaths of her brother’s political rivals. His clear path to the chancellorship.

I open my mouth to ask her another question to buy a little more time, but before I can, blinding pain shoots through my head and I cry out, dropping the teacup. It shatters against the stone-paved path, spilling the rest of the tea over the stones. In the moonlight, the liquid glows.

Coltania watches me for a moment, curious, until the pain passes as quickly as it came on. I gasp for air, struggling for a coherent thought.

“Sorry about that,” she says. Again, she doesn’t sound sorry at all. “A side effect of the poison. Don’t worry, though. Once it knocks you unconscious, the pain will cease.”

Another wave of pain hits. It feels like my head is being cleaved in two. I double over, hands on my knees to brace myself. I let myself scream as loudly as I can. Someone must be here, someone must hear me.

“Why poison me?” I ask her when the pain recedes again to a dull throb. “What could you possibly gain by this?”

“Oh, it won’t kill you,” she assures me. “It’ll just…make you easier to handle. Now that we know Etristo’s deal with Marzen and me wasn’t exclusive, I’m not taking any more chances. It won’t be easy to smuggle you out of Sta’Crivero if you’re kicking and screaming.”

Out of Sta’Crivero. She isn’t killing me, but kidnapping me isn’t much better. And if no one came after that last scream, no one will come at all.

I still feel the dagger at my hip, but if I have trouble wielding it when I’m in perfect health, I certainly can’t do it now, in this state.

Another wave of pain hits, stronger this time. So strong that I would vomit if there were anything in my stomach, but empty as it is, I only retch until the pain ebbs again.

“If you’d had more of your tea like I told you to, it would have done its job by now,” Coltania says with a heavy sigh, as if my pain is inconveniencing her.

I slump down onto the ground, my vision swimming with black spots. Part of me wants to give in to the darkness and let reality slip away to save myself from another wave of pain, but I fight through it. I force myself to hold on to what is happening around me. The sharp edges of the stones beneath me, the scratch of the branches at my back. Coltania’s face looming above me, watching me like I’m a most peculiar specimen that she can’t quite figure out.

The pain comes again and I dig my fingernails into my palms to anchor me here—a trick I used during the Kaiser’s punishments as well to keep from passing out. I scream again, trying to scream even louder.

“No one will hear you,” Coltania tells me, but even as she says it I hear footsteps coming toward us. My heart leaps but whatever hope there was disappears when Chancellor Marzen appears, looking between his sister and me in shock.

“Coltania,” he says, bewildered. “You said you were only going to talk to her.”

“We’ve put too much money into this ploy to risk it failing because of one girl’s indecisiveness. Favoring you one day, the Prinz the next, the Emperor another. Who knows who she will favor tomorrow?” she says, never taking her eyes off me. “I did what I had to do, Marzen, just as I always do. Once we get her away from her advisors and her guards, she will be far more amenable. But you were right about one thing, Theodosia—the Kaiser will come when he does actually learn where you are—and I imagine the Czar will be alerting him soon in a vain attempt to curry favor. We’ll be long gone by the time he comes, though. We’ll keep you safe, isn’t that right, Marzen?”