Cover

Dedication

For Mom, my first editor, my role model, my biggest fan. I just want to say… I’m sorry for that cliffhanger. Hope this makes up for it.

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1

Akeylah

Understand what I do to my enemies. You’re one of them now.

The words of the blackmailer’s latest threat rang through Akeylah’s mind, over and over, while she and Queen Rozalind hurried through Ilian Keep.

We were wrong about our aunt. Yasmin, King Andros’s overbearing twin sister, wasn’t the blackmailer. The countess, Sun accept her soul, never blackmailed or threatened Akeylah and her sisters. All Yasmin did was use the Vulgar Arts to forge a mental bond with her brother, the king.

Akeylah learned that when she suffered another vision. Another threat from the blackmailer, who was still out there. Still stalking this Keep.

She needed to find her sisters. At her side, Queen Rozalind paused to catch her breath, and flashed Akeylah a look. “Are you going to tell me what any of this is about?”

“Not yet.” Akeylah steered toward the nearest staircase as she mentally debated whether to make for Ren’s or Zofi’s suite first.

The mental bond Yasmin and Andros created meant Yasmin couldn’t have known about the girls’ treasonous secrets. Otherwise King Andros would know, too. And if her father the king ever learned what Akeylah did—that she was the source of the curse burning through his bloodstream, killing him from the inside out—he’d have her executed without a second thought.

The king’s condition had only worsened since Countess Yasmin’s death. He’d been bedridden since her funeral. Akeylah and her sisters told the Keep he was in mourning, but that excuse would only hold up for so long. Soon people would find out that more than his sister’s death was ailing him. Soon the curse Akeylah planted in his veins would take his life.

And then Yasmin’s murder wouldn’t be the only one within this Keep.

Murder.

Up until a few moments ago, Akeylah had been certain Yasmin leaped from the sky gardens of her own accord. She assumed the countess couldn’t live with the guilt of Andros learning she’d hidden his daughters’ secrets from him, or how she’d blackmailed his heirs.

But now, Yasmin’s fall from the towers looked a lot more sinister.

Did the blackmailer push her?

A shiver ran through Akeylah’s body at the memory of the blackmailer’s latest vision. They’d forced an image of Akeylah’s abusive stepfather into her mind, used him to threaten her. But threats were one thing. Could the blackmailer have escalated? Were they willing to kill someone as powerful as Yasmin?

If so, who would they turn their sights on next?

I have to talk to my sisters.