But she did nothing.

Blackness crept over my vision, but not quickly enough to keep me from seeing her take hold of the pair of doors and slowly shut me away.

“You destroyed my plans, Pénélope,” my father whispered into my ear, his voice sounding distant. “Did you not realize there would be a cost?”

My knees buckled, but just before I lost consciousness, the magic cleared from my mouth and nose. I sucked in one desperate breath.

But only one, then the gag returned.

“Even if she couldn’t be Queen, Anaïs was favored by the heir to the throne,” he said. “There is power in such a friendship, but either you were too stupid to realize it or your actions were a malicious attack against this family’s future.”

Another breath. Tears dripped down my face.

“I know what you did.” His fingers dug into my arms hard enough to leave bruises that would last for weeks. “I know you insulted that little Montigny whelp to his face, all but ensuring your expulsion from that little circle of ingrates. Possibly your sister as well.”

My maid. Anaïs and I took pains to keep our servants from eavesdropping, but the girl wouldn’t have needed to hear anything to know what was going on. She must have reported what she’d seen back to him.

“You are a liability,” he hissed. “You are a weak and flawed creature. You are worth nothing in our world.”

I’d been hearing those words all my life, but at least before I’d been protected by the fact that no one outside our family knew my worthlessness. He could dangle me before potential suitors vying for connections to our house and to the girl favored to become Queen, no matter that he never intended to allow me to bond any of them. Now, instead of tempting fruit, I was the poisoned apple everyone was desperate to avoid.

He allowed me no more breaths. Nor would he. What a cruel twist of fate that not an hour after realizing that I might have a chance at a life worth living, my future would be stolen away. Regrets beyond number washed across my mind, and anger chased away the fear in my rapidly beating heart. Lifting up one leg, I slammed the pointed heel of my shoe down against the insole of his foot.

My heel wedged in his shield of magic, but the motion shoved him off balance and he let me go. Except the magic blocking my mouth and nose stayed firmly in place. I tried to tear it off with my hands; tried to wedge my own power underneath it, but doing so only made the bones of my face scream under the pressure. The ground rushed up to meet my knees, then my palms pressed against the carpet. I couldn’t see. Couldn’t hear. Couldn’t feel.

“Let her go!”

The magic tore away from my face. Sucking in breath after breath of precious air, I lifted my head from the carpet to see a pair of slender legs clad in snug trousers and boots. Anaïs.