Ren was right. The Talons wouldn’t exactly deliver mail for prisoners. But they would tell the queen if an inmate said something important. And there was one thing royals usually wanted to hear from people they’d arrested.

Zofi took a deep breath. “Guards!”

In the distance, the faint sounds of chatter stopped.

“This is Lady D’Andros Zofi speaking,” she shouted.

One of the guards grumbled and stomped up the corridor. “Quit the bloody racket,” he growled.

Clanking, Zofi rose to her feet, the irons still clapped around her wrists. She lifted them to bang on the cell door. “My sister and I have discussed the situation,” Zofi said, trying her best to channel her inner Ren. The prim and proper sister. “Please notify Her Highness Lady Akeylah that Lady Florencia and I are ready to confess.”

29

Akeylah

This isn’t going to work.

“How do I look?”

Akeylah nearly started out of her skin when Audrina appeared at her side, to take a turn in her shining gold gown. The dress was long-sleeved and floor-length by necessity. Gold, the color of the Sun Throne. Gold, to position herself in opposition to Nicolen, the Silver Prince, the last acknowledged heir.

“Perfect,” Akeylah told her. It was the truth, after all. Akeylah had to admit, Audrina understood this political game better than her. Better even than Ren, who lived and breathed Kolonyan traditions.

Audrina had planned today’s event meticulously, from her clothes down to the arrangement of the seating, placing the courtiers who’d protested Akeylah’s, Ren’s, and Zofi’s initial acknowledgments nearest to the dais. Audrina anticipated the most support from them, since they’d already expressed dislike for the other available options.

She’d even invented a fake mother for herself, a noblewoman who’d passed away a few years ago, who Audrina had apparently researched obsessively. Akeylah heard her gushing about “dearest mummy” to the tailors’ assistants that morning, as they prepared for the ceremony.

She waxed so poetic about her imaginary mother and the tragic way she’d died that halfway through the story, even Akeylah was tempted to believe it.

But Audrina’s darker side also showed. She shrieked and threw one tailor from the Keep after he accidentally pricked her during her fitting, ignoring his desperate pleas about how long he’d worked there. After that, the other attendants pinned and sewed in nervous silence, while Audrina rattled off lists of nobles to Akeylah—which ones she bore grudges against, and how she planned to make their families repay those grudges.

“You don’t think it harsh, to begin your new reign doling out punishments?” Akeylah had asked quietly, while Audrina turned this way and that, admiring her gown.

“Oh, I’ll show mercy eventually.” Audrina had smiled at herself in the mirror. “Once I’m sure they’ve fallen in line.”