I watched my Patrolman untangle his folded arms and stiffen his grip on the Patrol staff at his side. “The fairies mentioned a thing or three of it. I didn’t know anything for certain. Cane was heading up that bit.”

He couldn’t be serious.

“Cane? The former Red Prince, Cane? Brother of the viper-prince who tried to kill me?” I snatched another chocolate. I threw the thing into the air and tried to catch it in my mouth. It was an epic fail, but at least Apple laughed when it knocked off the edge of the table and skittered across the floor, rolling to a stop at Zane’s boots.

Apple wiped a bead from the corner of her lash before answering my question about Cane. “Yes, the one and only. He and the fairies have been staying with us since their ice caves were melted. In fact, Cane should be arriving in a measure. The other once-prince, Edward Haid—the Green—is with us too.”

I was having trouble remembering who Edward Haid was, but I waited for her to finish her story, stealing a look at Zane in the meantime. His electric gaze was still leveled on me.

“Cane is safer here with us these quarters. You see, the Silver Jubilee Renewal has the whole Red Kingdom in a buzz, but it was Prince Forrester asking Holly Kissing to marry him that really put an unmerry rash on Cane’s wellbeing,” Apple explained, and I raised a brow. It seemed Apple had no trouble saying Cane’s name aloud anymore.

“I think Forrester only did it to thrust a dagger of bad tidings into his renounced brother,” she went on. “Cane revealed himself to the believers nearly four quarters ago, and though we are good at keeping our secrets, we couldn’t stop the rumours from leaking across the Red Kingdom that Cane was alive and had befriended the Green once-prince, Edward. It’s why Forrester decided to propose, I imagine. Gossip claims the Crimson family began to suspect Holly of lying about her true identity after our heist in the season past. Forrester must have guessed who she really was. It’s all a pinch messy.”

I’d stopped eating. A chocolate melted between my fingers as I absorbed this news about people I had danced and dined with at a time that suddenly didn’t feel so long ago. Holly Kissing, despite her standoffishness, had tried to warn me at the Alabaster Ball. She’d tried to keep me from walking into a trap. Apparently, she found herself in one now.

I sighed, realizing my mind was sharper than it had been a moment ago. Apple’s orange tea must have had magical powers.

“Anyway, let me assemble the group. Everyone has been waiting to meet until you arrived, friend. I’m afraid we have much to discuss,” Apple said.

If only she knew.

The moment she fluttered off, my treacherous gaze flickered over to Zane again. He stared at me for a drawn-out moment before dragging a hand through his pecan hair. “I feel like I should know this but…are you upset that Porethius asked your sister for help?”