“Who are you?” I asked.

He straightened out of his slouch. “I might ask you the same question.”

“You’d be the first.”

He laughed, but there was no humor in it. “I suppose it’s difficult to maintain anonymity when one is trapped in a cage.”

My smile was all teeth. “For some more than others.”

“In a cage and in the world, Your Highness.” He bowed, but it was sardonic. For a second, I thought he was mocking my fall from grace, but I quickly realized it was more than that. He was mocking our claim to any sort of authority. It wasn’t just me being censured, it was my father. Who was he to be so bold?

“You seem to manage,” I said, taking a jab at his sense of self-importance to see if he would bite and reveal his identity.

He only inclined his head. “We all have our talents. Now if you’d please excuse me, I have important matters requiring my attention, and I do not care to linger in this hole longer than I must.” He started to brush by me, but I caught him before he could go more than a pace. Not with my hand, as I might otherwise, but with magic.

I all but felt his skin crawl, his shudder visible to the eye. “How is she?” I asked, keeping my voice low.

He turned his head, looking me up and down before snorting softly. “Better than you, it would seem,” he said. “And yet worse. The woman I have watching her says she has turned to the dark arts.”

Blood magic. My stomach tightened at the idea of Cécile killing anything, and I almost regretted handing my father back the crown when I might have murdered him where he sat.

“I know what it is she seeks and how,” he said. “And as much as I know it is against her will, if I were master of my own, I would see her dead before I would see her succeed.”

Like a giant fist, my power contracted, forcing a wheeze of pain from the man. Only the small thread of control I had left kept me from squeezing the life out of him. From his own lips he’d admitted he could not harm her. My father owned his will, and this man hated him for it. Which meant there was a chance he’d help Cécile if he thought it in his best interests. Or he might be so bound by oath that he’d turn around and deliver the information back to my father. Did I risk giving him knowledge that might help her? It might be her only chance. Drawing in a ragged breath, I released him.

He staggered back and away from me, colliding with the guards. “You and yours are a scourge on this earth,” he hissed. “If Cécile falls like so many before her, it will not be because of anything I have done. Her death will be on your hands.”