“They still want me there after what I did?”

“The meeting is about all that stuff you nattered, so I’d say so.”

My plan. “Wait!” I sprang back to my room, looking for my leather book bag, hoping someone had brought it up while I’d been sleeping. I spotted it against the nightstand, and I hauled it over my arm.

I’d hoped we could stay hidden at the back, but when Zane and I slipped into the meeting, Cane spotted us.

“Ah. The cheery maiden herself,” he called from where he was sprawled sideways over a chair. I wondered how he was conducting a meeting like that. “Shall we duck and cover?” he asked, and that beautiful, princely smile of his tugged wider.

I felt warmth meet my cheeks; Zane couldn’t conceal his laugh.

“Maybe just you should.” I flashed a smile back at Cane.

Cane slid to sit up straight, surprise in his burgundy irises. “Kingsblood. You’re trouble,” he decided. “I think I like you.”

“You like anything that causes trouble,” Edward Haid piped up from the corner where he stood, adjusting the collar of his jacket in front of a mirror.

“Well. ‘Tis the season.” Cane said, casting Edward a devilish grin. The Green Prince bit his lips to stifle an inside-joke-type of laugh and I sniffed princely mischief in the air.

“Why don’t we let our Carrier tell us what she knows?” Porethius interjected. The dark-skinned fairy she’d called Gathadriel stood beside her.

I swallowed and stepped forward. “Well, first, obviously I should apologize for my…” I waved toward the table, “thing. But yes, I’d like to tell you what my sister and I are up to, if you’ll hear me out.”

Hundreds of eyes blinked in my direction. This was the moment I had planned for. Regardless of what I’d said at first, if this group wasn’t on board, I knew we couldn’t pull off the plan.

I took in a deep breath, inhaling the warm peppermint and pine scent at my back. “I think Mara Rouge requested to have the Triad of Signs given to her as a gift in the beginning because she recognized what it was. When the Crimson Court handed it over, the Beast within her ripped it apart into its original three pieces—the signs bearing evidence that Elowin was the Truth itself, and thus, the real King of Winter. I don’t think Nightflesh could destroy it completely. I think ripping it up and hiding the pieces was the best he could do. It took some time to figure out, but Kaley and I have a good idea where two of those three pieces are.”

Cane was standing now, arms crossed, a finger tapping against his mouth as he paced. “I’ve studied the Volumes of Wisdom too, and I found nothing about the location of the signs,” he said.

“I don’t know what to tell you about that. But I have all the notes to back up our theories.” I hauled my book bag onto the table and tipped it over. Papers dumped in every direction, some slipping onto the floor. People inched in, picking up sheets to examine for themselves.