Beside her stood her betrothed, Kael Ardent, his hand lingering lightly at the small of her back. He was everything the bards sang of heroes - tall and broad-shouldered with storm-cloud-colored eyes and a smile that could melt the frost off a mountain. But tonight, his touch felt far away, his laughter empty. Evie told herself it was only her nerves, that she was imagining the way his gaze flickered toward the shadows, where her stepmother, Lady Seraphine, was watching them like a hawk.
"You're quiet tonight," Kael said, his voice low and warm, but there was an edge in it that made her shiver.
"Just overwhelmed," Evie said, mustering another grin. "It's not every day that a girl has to become the future queen."
Kael's lips curled, though he didn't look at her. "You'll be a lovely queen," he said, though it sounded practiced, as if he'd said it a hundred times before.
Evie's chest tightened. She wanted to believe him, to believe in the future they had dreamed of together; but something was wrong. The whispers in the court, the way her stepmother's lips would curl wryly at the corners whenever she thought no one was paying attention - it all penetrated her like a splinter she couldn't dig out.
"Evie," Kael said, suddenly breaking into her thoughts. "I have something I need to tell you."
Her heart skipped a beat. "What is it?"
Before he could respond, the great doors of the hall flew open, and a dozen guards strode in, shining like a dozen stars in the light. The music stopped and silence reigned as the captain of the guard stepped up, his face somber.
"Evelyn Ashford," he called, his voice ringing in the hall, "you are under arrest for treason against the crown."
The words struck her like a blow and for a second she thought she had misheard. But then the guards were closing around her, hands calloused as they snatched her arms. The nobles gasped and began whispering amongst themselves as the room erupted into chaos, but Evie just barely noticed, instead struggling to comprehend what had just happened.
"Kael!" she wept, looking at him, but he didn't shift. His skeletal face was a mask of ice, and his stormy gaze was cold without a hint of the warmth that she had grown accustomed to. "Kael, what is this? Tell them they're mistaken!"
"I'm sorry, Evie," he said, toneless. "But the evidence is inescapable."
"Evidence?" she said again, her voice shaking. "What evidence?"
Lady Seraphine moved forward then, her red gown flowing behind her like blood on the ground. She carried a sealed letter, stamped with the crest of the kingdom. "This," she said, her tone thick with feigned sympathy. "A letter describing your plan to depose the king and put your lover on the throne."
Evie's blood ran cold. "That's a lie! I would never"
"Enough," Kael said, cutting him off, his tone curt. "You've done this to yourself, Evie."
The guards pulled her away, her pleas for mercy ignoring. She caught sight of her step siblings in the crowd, Cassian smirking, Isolde refusing to look at Feb, and Lucien staring at her with wide, terrified eyes. But no one spoke up for her. No one came to her defense.
As they dragged her through the palace hallways, her treachery weighed down on her like a cloak. Kael's cold eyes, Seraphine's triumphant smile, the silence of the court all replayed in her mind, a nightmare from which she couldn't wake.
They dumped her into a dark, damp cell, the iron door clang shut behind her with a finality that brought her knees to the floor. Her dress was rent and marred and her heart was breaking into a thousand pieces. As the darkness closed in around her, the last thing she saw was the moon glimmering faintly through the empty window grating, a cruel reminder of the life she had lost.
And then, as the cold chilled her bones and the tears dried on her cheeks, one thought planted itself in her fertile mind, growing stronger with every passing minute:
When I get out of here, I will make them pay.