by Alexia Purdy
Lilliana
“There.” I pointed out to the crowd from our crouched position atop the roofs of the marketplace. It was dark and hard to distinguish one person from the next, but I’d know that silhouette anywhere. I’d grown up with that face, and the bitter seeds of betrayal burned away the last bits of any love I’d felt for that woman.
Elise.
Ephrem looked in the direction I was pointing. Her long black hair was so dark, it appeared a deep blue rather than just black. Her eyes were clear cerulean with lips crimson to compliment them. She was the picture of Snow White come to life. I wouldn’t have missed her in a crowd no matter how hard she tried to blend in. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought she was a princess, especially with the handsome male companion hovering ever so close to her. A couple like that had to be royalty.
“Shit,” Ephrem cursed and pulled his eyes away from the couple. His sudden change in demeanor made my stomach drop. As I glanced between him and the handsome man next to Elise, I felt my face pale with realization.
“Who’s that next to Elise?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
“It’s no one other than my brother, Etan.”
My eyes widened as I observed the couple. The way she touched his arm and laughed at his jokes nauseated me. She had her act down to a T, flipping her hair just so and fluttering her dark eyelashes at him with pure feminine seduction.
It was sickening. If anyone could win the award for best actress, it was Elise. She had tricked me all my life, and now she was working her magic on Ephrem’s brother.
Possibly for the throne.
No… could she?
I narrowed my eyes, casting all the evil in the world in her direction. She was after the MarkTier throne! With the magic of my talisman and three others, she might be able to get what she wanted. That didn’t answer my question about why she wanted the damn throne in the first place. Besides power, of course. For some people, that was enough. She had no prospects of gaining such a position in the ArcKnight court, but here, the world was her oyster.
My hatred burned an inferno deep inside my broken heart. That traitorous fiend!
I wasn’t the only one flustered by what I saw. Ephrem was showing signs of losing it as we both slipped back down out of sight. I hated to think that this was what we were up against. We were doomed if she was under Etan’s protection. How could I swipe my talisman back when she was being guarded like that? There was a ring of bodyguards around them, mostly for Etan, but hell, it might as well be an iron wall.
“Well, there goes our plan to do this discreetly,” Ephrem groaned.
“He’s your brother. Surely you can convince him to help us.”
Ephrem looked away, frowning. “He won’t help us.”
“Why not?”
“We haven’t spoken since the Pit. We haven’t even seen each other since. I doubt he’d help us.”
I glared at him, feeling all hope for retrieving my talisman float away with the breeze.
“You don’t know that.”
“I do. Now think of something else, or we might as well leave.”
I stood and paced the roof we stood on. The perimeter had a half wall to keep the people down below from seeing us so there was no fear that we’d be spotted. I couldn’t just sit there and watch all hope to save myself drain away. There had to be a way. Why was he so stubborn?
“Okay, fine. Look. She has to be staying somewhere in the palace, right? Any royal harem is usually kept near them for entertainment purposes, if I recall right. Gil had something like that, but none of his concubines were up for the throne. Rafaela hated that he had a harem and immediately got rid of the girls when they were engaged, much to his dismay. There were special hallways the girls used so as to not be seen entering and leaving Gil’s room. Do you have that here? Where do you think he would’ve set her up?”
Ephrem scowled at the suggestion, but it disintegrated a moment later as his face brightened with a new idea.
“You’re on to something there. That’s exactly what we’re going to do. Come on.”
“Wait! Where are we going?”
He grinned wickedly at me and winked. “You’ll see.”
