Academy of Falling Kingdoms Box Set

by Marisa Mills

  Lucian wasn’t contained in the sword, so it wasn’t like I’d be powerless without it. Still, I hesitated before unbuckling the swordbelt from my waist. I watched Viviane secure it around her own with trepidation. Now she was armed, and I wasn’t.

  I fought to keep a neutral expression on my face as Viviane continued confidently down the corridor. We passed a few servants, none of whom spoke to us; a few bowed or curtsied.

  When we saw a pair of armored guards, my stomach churned, but they didn’t stop us. I tried to keep track of the doorways we passed, but I quickly reached fourteen. These apartments had multiple doors. Finally, Viviane and I reached an archway, gilded in gold. Beyond it, there was a walkway lined with columns and rose gardens.

  The guard here was fully armored, save his face, which visibly tensed at the sight of us. “Good evening, Captain,” Viviane said.

  The man bowed. “My Lady,” he said.

  Viviane tilted her head towards me. “This is Sapphire,” Viviane said. “One of Prince Christopher’s companions. I fear she must’ve become lost, as she was wandering one of the guest apartments.”

  The guard narrowed his eyes.

  “Fortunately, I found her,” Viviane said, “And I thought I would lead her to Prince Christopher’s apartments—with the appropriate amount of discretion, of course. I’ve passed them many times on my way to Alexander’s.”

  Right. She and Alexander had been something. A couple. I wondered how many times she’d been to Alexander’s chambers, late at night, the guards looking the other way. The guard frowned. He was a handsome man with dark hair and wide, brown eyes. I tried to smile alluringly, hoping to sell the illusion, but I felt foolish.

  “Yes,” the guard said, “but Prince Alexander isn’t here. You know I can’t let just anyone access the royal apartments.”

  “I know,” Viviane said, looking coyly up through her eyelashes. “But…I thought this matter required some delicacy, especially given the early hour. I know royal men can have insatiable appetites…”

  “Yes,” the guard said, “but—”

  “Well,” I said, flipping back my hair. “I’m sure I can just find Kit downstairs. He did invite me after all.”

  I glanced at Viviane for her reaction. I was trying to help, but I had no idea how I was supposed to behave.

  “I don’t think we want Sapphire wandering around the palace with the other esteemed guests, looking for His Royal Highness,” Viviane said, smiling tightly. “I’m sure I can just take her to his rooms, and she can wait for him there.”

  “We definitely don’t need you to search for Prince Christopher,” the guard said, but he didn’t sound convinced. Viviane touched the guard’s arm. “Come, now. Do we look like assassins?” she said. “Plus, I’m a peer of the realm. A Rosewood. And I personally vouch for her.”

  The guard glanced at me.

  “Just this once, then,” he said. “But be quick about it.”

  Inwardly, I sighed in relief.

  “No problem,” Viviane said. “Come along, Sapphire.”

  As we headed down the corridor, Viviane quickened her pace. I followed along after her in my pink dress, my skin tingling. This part of the palace was even more extravagant. I’d never seen so much gold in my life. My heart raced as I saw more guards further down the hall.

  Viviane paused at Kit’s door, pretending to knock, but when the guard wasn’t looking she gestured at me to hurry along the hall to the next door. Viviane twisted the knob and pulled on the apartment door, but it didn’t budge. Footsteps and voices were coming from around the corner.

  “We have to get in here!” Viviane hissed.

  I pulled a pin from my hair, letting my dark curls fall around my face like a curtain.

  “Let me,” I said.

  Viviane stepped aside and cast a nervous look at the guards.

  “If we take too long, they’re going to come and ask what we’re doing,” she murmured. “These are Alexander’s chambers, and he isn’t around.”

  I put my pin in the lock and twisted it. I listened for the quiet turn of the tumblers. Finally, a skill I was competent in… Gabriel had made me practice lock-picking for months until I could open most doors. It had come in useful.

  The door opened and we tumbled inside. We closed the door gently and hovered near the wall, holding our breath as guards passed outside. Once they were gone, Viviane locked the door behind us. I followed her through a parlor and into Alexander’s red and gold bedroom. It was massive, nearly the size of the entire girl’s dormitory.

  “Wow,” I murmured. “Look at this.”

  Look at a lot of needless gold, Lucian muttered. No one needs a room this extravagant.

  Maybe not. But it was still beautiful. Viviane pushed open the balcony door, letting in a gust of cool wind, but frowned as she surveyed the landing.

  “Queen Ariana’s chambers are next door, and then the king’s chambers. But it’s further than I remember it,” she said, nodding at the ten-foot gap between balconies.

  “Maybe if we got a running start,” I said, “though moving quickly in this dress will be difficult.”

  I can throw you, Lucian said. The little noble too.

  Viviane looked nervously across the gap. We were on the third floor. The fall might not be fatal, but it would hurt.

  “It’s fine,” I said, unsheathing my sword from Viviane’s waist. “I’ve got this.”

  She frowned but said nothing as I sliced it across my palm.

  Her eyes widened as I dipped my fingers into the pool of blood.

  “It’s a trick I read about,” I lied.

  “I see,” Viviane replied, crossing her arms.

  I expected her to argue, but she didn’t. Maybe it was the thought of Guinevere’s charm, of being closer to the mother she’d never known, that kept her silent as I traced Lucian’s sigil in against the bedroom wall.

  Once it was complete, I gently pressed my fingers against the stone. They passed through easily, disappearing into the wall. I took Viviane’s hand, and with only a second’s hesitation, I pulled her through behind me. We arrived in a well-lit room, with purple wallpaper and white candles glowing from tall silver stands.

  “How?” Viviane asked, snatching her arm back.

  I scrambled for an excuse. “Your uncle hired me to steal, remember?” I asked. “I have a few tricks.”

  Dorian didn’t know about this one, though, and I had no idea how he’d feel if he did. But Viviane didn’t argue. We stayed close to the walls, keeping to the shadows.

  A soft voice drifted through the air, humming. Viviane put a finger to her lips and slowly crept forward, so she could peer through the doorway. After a few seconds, she returned to me.

  “It’s a maid,” she whispered.

  “What do we do?” I asked.

  Viviane bit her lip. “Maybe we can wait her out,” she said. “I don’t recognize her, so she must be new.”

  “What should we do?” I asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  Viviane crept back to the doorway, crouched there, and then returned to me. “She seems distracted with the bedding. If we hurry, we might be able to sneak behind her. If we can cross the room, there’s a doorway to the king’s private chambers.”

  I nodded. Silently, I trailed Viviane to the doorway. She slipped through, and hearing no sound, I followed. I crept behind a nearby table. Viviane was further along, concealed behind a large padded chair. She jerked her head to the left, indicating to a doorway across from us. It was likely a bathing area connecting the two rooms.

  I followed, keeping myself concealed behind the furniture. The maid began humming again as she fluffed the queen’s pillows and straightened her blankets. It was several feet to the doorway with nothing between us and the maid. I held my breath as Viviane began creeping across the open area, but she retreated quickly, ducking behind the couch as the maid turned away from the bed and began dusting around
the fireplace.

  Now what?

  Do you want me to distract her? Lucian murmured.

  That might work.

  A vase tipped over across the room, shattering on the tiles.

  Viviane darted through the door as the maid swiveled away. I was right behind her, but the maid saw me and screamed. We yanked on the door separating the rooms, but it was locked.

  “Be quiet!” I hissed. Viviane lunged for her, but the maid darted away and out the door. I hastened to the opposite wall and drew Lucian’s sigil as quickly as I can. That maid would draw guards, and we’d be caught quickly when she did.

  Just as I finished the sigil, the door opened, and a guard stormed in.

  “Halt!” he shouted. “In the name of the king!”

  The guard reached for me, and fire burst from the ground. The guard stumbled back, startled, and right into Viviane. She grabbed a thick book from the mantle and brought it slamming down onto the guard’s head. He stumbled and swore. Before he could recover, I punched him in the jaw. I’d only meant to distract him, maybe wound him, but he collapsed into a heap at my feet.

  “That must have been some book,” I said.

  Viviane ran her hand over the wood and iron cover of the thick volume, a smile playing on her lips. “It’s the Rosewood lineage,” she said. If the situation hadn’t been so serious, I might’ve laughed. We didn’t have much time. There had been multiple guards, and as soon as one didn’t return, we’d be caught.

  “Let’s go!” I snapped. I grasped Viviane’s wrist and pulled her through the portal as shouts filled the hallway. We arrived in a white and gold chamber, with mirrors and a lion-footed tub. Viviane tore away from me and dropped her book on the counter as she ran across the private bathing area. I followed as she pushed open a door on the other end, into a large room with dark wood furniture.

  The king’s chambers were a mess. Clothing spilled out of open drawers, and the floor was covered with keepsakes and papers, near-empty boxes that looked like they’d been dumped onto the carpet. One wall was filled with bookshelves, and a third of the volumes had been yanked from the shelves into a messy pile.

  No wonder he needs a housekeeper, Lucian said.

  “Something’s wrong,” I said.

  “Well, we’re here,” Viviane snapped. “We might as well look.”

  Viviane tore through the drawers of a vanity, and I opened the closet. There were cosmetics, lotions, dyes, potions, and jewels, but no brooch.

  “Where is it?” Viviane hissed.

  We searched through a smaller parlor area, with a desk and a table filled with what looked like laboratory equipment, then entered the master bedroom. Heavy, dark drapes covered the windows. The walls were filled with a large tapestry portraying a battle of some kind, and a handful of portraits. I opened drawer after drawer, my work sloppy, in desperation to find Guinevere’s charm.

  A ripple of movement behind the drapes made me pause suddenly. Viviane was on the other side of the room, so it couldn’t be her. I stalked closer and threw aside the thick fabric. Someone grabbed my arm, whirling me around. I felt the tip of a dagger at my throat, as warm lips grazed my neck.

  “We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” a sultry voice whispered in my ear.

  Autumn. I elbowed her in the stomach, ducking under her knife.

  “That’s no way to treat an old friend,” she smiled, rubbing her ribs.

  “We’re not friends,” I said.

  “And yet you saved me once. I owe you a favor, I think, so I won’t tell everyone here where you’re really from.”

  “Speak for yourself,” I said. “You’re stealing, aren’t you?”

  “And you’re trespassing. I won’t tell on you if you don’t tell on me.”

  Viviane charged her, thrusting with my rapier, but Autumn whirled deftly away, kicking open the balcony door. I followed her outside but froze as she climbed up on the railing. With a smirk, she tightened her cloak around the folds of her dress and vaulted off the edge of the balcony.

  I stared after her as she ran across the moonlight gardens and vanished into the shadows. A deep throat cleared behind me, and I turned to see a dark silhouette framed in the balcony doorway. Beside me, Viviane’s hands darted nervously behind her back, trying to hide the fistful of pearls she was holding. It reminded me of when I’d tried stealing the tiara from the Rosewood mansion, and been caught by Eleanor. Dorian had forgiven me, and I’d managed to escape unscathed. I knew I wouldn’t be so lucky this time.

  “Well,” King Gregory said, his voice rumbling in a low timbre. “This is an unexpected surprise.”

  Nineteen

  THE KING WAS WEARING AN embroidered black suit, with a red cravat, and silver wrist guards with lion faces on them. A long tapered sword, studded with rubies hung from his side, partially hidden behind the dark fur trim of the cloak that hung from his broad shoulders. His black boots had a golden trim.

  Viviane dropped into a curtsey, and I stumbled to copy her graceful movements. Would that even help? My mind raced, as I desperately tried to find an excuse for being in these chambers.

  “Your Majesty,” Viviane said, “I can explain.”

  Let’s hope the roseling will be as conniving as the rest of her family, Lucian murmured.

  But what excuse could Viviane possibly offer that would be good enough to appease the king? I glanced nervously at the open drawers scattered belongings on the floor behind us.

  Two guards flanked him with weapons raised. The king’s personal guards were even more intimidating than the ones outside. Their uniforms were plated with engraved armor, and their beards were trimmed short in identical fashion. Long curved daggers gleamed from their palms, glowing with energy in the dim light. Battle mages, I was sure.

  King Gregory raised his hand, and they halted a few feet behind him.

  “Then, please, explain,” he said.

  The king didn’t look at Viviane, though. His attention remained firmly fixed on me.

  “We were going to look in Alexander’s room,” Viviane said hastily. “I—I’ve been courting your son, but—I don’t know if you’re aware that we’ve recently had a falling out. I suspect he’s interested in someone else, so I just wanted to look around his chambers—”

  “And yet you’re here in mine,” the king replied.

  “I heard the guards approach outside Alexander’s door,” Viviane said, “and I panicked.”

  “And somehow you got past the guards at my door?” his eyes narrowed.

  “They must have been distracted,” I said quickly. “We heard a noise in the Queen’s chambers, it sounded like a fight. And we saw a woman, with red hair. You may still be able to catch her.”

  After a moment, the king nodded at the two guards, and they hurried out the door. I felt bad, but better Autumn than us.

  “I’m dreadfully sorry, Your Majesty. I realize that it was an error of judgment on my part, and I shouldn’t have done it. And I convinced Wynter to help me. It really wasn’t her fault. She’s not from here; you know.”

  “Yes, Dorian’s charge,” the king smiled, stroking his beard. “From Argent, wasn’t it? Well, love does make fools of us all.”

  Viviane let out a nervous titter of laughter. “It won’t happen again, Your Majesty.”

  King Gregory reached out with one hand, his fingers loose as if reaching for a doorknob that wasn’t there. Viviane haltingly offered her hand. The king kissed her knuckles and stroked along the underside of Viviane’s wrist. It was an elegant gesture, but something about it made my stomach lurch. He was taking this far too well.

  Agreed, Lucian said. I don’t like this.

  “Eleanor and Frederick are very fortunate to have such a lovely daughter,” the king said. “My dear queen had always hoped for a daughter, but it seems fate blessed her with only sons.”

  Viviane’s smile faltered. Maybe she’d caught that something was wrong.

  “
Very fine sons,” she nodded agreeably.

  “Some kings are not so lucky,” Gregory replied. “Nor some counts or some barons for that matter. Why, your own grandmother was a fine woman, the very picture of nobility and elegance, and yet her eldest child was so… ill-suited for her noble blood.”

  Why was the king talking about Guinevere?

  “I hope, Viviane, that you do not prove to be likewise ill-suited,” the king said.

  Viviane paled. “No, Your Majesty,” she said.

  When the king dropped her hand, his eyes landed once more on me. I felt like a mouse trembling before a cat.

  “You and Wynter shall be confined to separate apartments until I can decide how to punish this most grievous invasion of my privacy,” he said slowly. “As long as nothing is missing, I expect this can all be resolved amicably.”

  He smiled, flashing a row of perfectly white teeth, almost as if they’d been magically enhanced.

  “We really need to get back to the Academy,” Viviane said. “Or our professors will notice our absence.”

  “I insist,” the king said. “You’ll stay as my guests. Perhaps we’ll find this mystery woman of yours. If not, we’ll need to have a much longer talk.”

  He snapped his fingers, and four more guards filed into the room, flanking Viviane and me. They took my sword and searched our pockets, even dumping out her purse and going through the cosmetics. The king watched carefully as the guards ran their palms up the inside of our dresses, feeling for hidden contraband, and then checked the hem and lining of our clothes. He frowned when they didn’t find anything.

  I had a sneaking suspicion he knew exactly what we were doing here, and what we were looking for. But he couldn’t know we were interested in Guinevere’s charm.

  Someone told. He knows.

  But nobody knew except Viviane and me… and Alexander.

  I told you not to trust your princeling, Lucian growled.

  My skin prickled. Alexander betrayed me.

  ***

  After searching us, we were separated and locked in a set of apartments. They were nice, luxurious even. I walked slowly through them, touching the silk bedsheets and the marble tub in the bathing chambers, the tapestries on the walls and the soft rugs. I tried to tell myself that—maybe—the situation wasn’t so bad if I’d been imprisoned somewhere so nice.