Across the table, Audrina sat in stony silence. Finally, after a long pause, she sighed. “You were right. Lexana’s having an affair.”

Ren’s eyebrows rose. “With who?”

“I don’t know yet. But that room she asked me to curtain off? She had me escort her there one afternoon. I left the curtain ajar and saw a man enter. The room was dim; I couldn’t see his face. But I certainly noticed the way he kissed her. Among other things.”

Ren pursed her mouth. “When was this?”

“Two days ago.”

The same night her father arrested Zofi. The night the heir cursed him with a vision of Yasmin. If Lexana was with someone else, she couldn’t have been the one sending visions to Andros. “How long did they stay in that room?”

“All bloody evening. She made me stay outside and wait for them to finish. Another sleepless night for me, just so she can have her Eastern fiancé and sample the local globe fruit, too…”

Ren groaned. “Thank you for the mental image.”

“Better that than the actual image, trust me.” Aud smirked. Then flashed Ren a curious glance. “What’s the matter? Isn’t this what you’d hoped for? It’ll ruin Danton’s engagement.”

Ren ran a hand through her hair.

Audrina continued to study her. “Unless that’s not what you were looking for after all.” When Ren didn’t respond, Audrina leaned forward. “You can tell me. Like you said, Ren, we’re friends. If we’re going back to the way things were, that means trusting each other.”

This time, when Ren reached for Audrina’s hand, her friend didn’t pull away. “You don’t know how much that means to me.” Especially now, when Ren could trust so few people.

She still couldn’t drag Aud into this. Not fully. But she could give her friend enough information to placate her without putting her in harm’s way. “I’m being threatened.”

Audrina’s eyes shot wide. “By who?”

“I don’t know. They call themselves the true heir—”

“What, like a secret identity?”

Ren shook her head. “Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is they want me gone from Kolonya, or worse.”

Audrina’s jaw dropped. “The baths…”

Ren nodded. “They…” She swallowed hard. “They used a curse against me. To make my limbs stop working. I sank under, nearly drowned.…”

“A curse?” Audrina frowned, clearly thinking hard. “But only—”

“Only relatives can curse you, I know.” Ren rubbed her temple with a forefinger. “That’s all I know about the heir. It’s someone related to me.”

“Well, did this heir tell you what they want so badly? What in Sun’s name is worth trying to drown your own relative?”

“They want the throne. Which means they need to get rid of me and my sisters first.”

Audrina inhaled sharply. “What are you going to do?”