No wonder her prosthesis was so advanced. It had been gifted to her by the crown prince himself. Who she worked for. Who she protected.

But Naari had arrived at Zalindov weeks before Jaren. So how—

“He’s not meant to be here,” Naari said, seeing the questions flash across her face. “It was meant to be another Royal Guard, Eidran, with the plan being for me to arrive before him so we wouldn’t raise suspicions. But Eidran broke his leg just hours before the prison transfer, and Jaren—” Naari bit off with a curse. “I can’t tell you anything else, Kiva. You’ll have to wait. But none of this was meant to happen.” Her expression turned haunted. “When you cleaned the blood from Jaren that first day, and I recognized him . . .” She shook her head. “He’s the only person I know reckless enough to get into a wagon with two thugs bent on killing each other and then try to play peacemaker. Of course he ended up beaten half to death, the fool.” She made an aggrieved sound and continued mumbling under her breath about idiotic royals.

Kiva didn’t want to hear any more. Once, she had. She’d been curious about Jaren’s arrival, why the two men with him had turned up dead and he’d been covered in their blood. But now, she didn’t care. She didn’t want to see him again, let alone speak to him. To hell with his explanations. Any of them. “He didn’t know about the poison,” Naari said, quieter. “I promise—he was just as horrified as you when I told him about the vials and the Warden a few days ago. I was telling the truth before. Rooke is acting on his own, without permission from the Vallentis family. They’ll stop him as soon as word reaches them. I swear it.”

The poison was the furthest thing from Kiva’s mind right now. It was all she could do to breathe past the screaming betrayal, her heart simultaneously breaking and burning, hurt and fury fighting for dominance.

The slightest of noises echoed through the small crack in the door, and Naari hissed out another curse.

“That’s my warning. The guards are changing shifts, I have to go.” She stood to her feet, the luminium beacon flickering shadows across the stone.

Kiva scrambled up after her. Despite everything she’d just learned, she didn’t want Naari to go, leaving her to face the darkness again.