Page 47 of Only Flames Remain

“Aveline?” Emrys raised a brow.

I nodded. “My new housemaid.”

Emrys pinned me with a skeptical glare but didn’t press. He handed the fox over to me, and he willingly leaped into my arms.

“I assume you know where he belongs, then?” he asked, turning to head back down the staircase the way he had come.

I nodded. I called after him, my voice thick with sarcasm. “Sure, I’ll just take care of it myself.”

“As you always do, Brother,” Emrys replied, his back turned as he disappeared from sight.

Things hadn’t been tense between us these last few days, and I hadn’t expected his impulsive comment to catch me off guard.

I turned back up the staircase and descended on Aveline’s room in the dormitory wing.

I knocked once. Twice. Three times. There was no answer.

Where could she be at this hour? I tried the handle and to my surprise it gave way beneath my touch, she hadn’t bothered locking the room. Quinnick trotted in and made himself comfortable curled among the threadbare bed.

Aveline wasn’t here.

To my knowledge, she didn’t know anyone else in the castle. Maybe she had made a human friend on her journey? Met someone to befriend at the indenture market?

I knew it was an invasion of privacy, but not searching her room would be an oversight. Ren was convinced she was a spy for Myros, and if nothing else, perhaps I could find something we could use against their prince.

I opened the trunk at the foot of the bed to find only a few beautiful, beaded gowns. They were far more elegant than anything I would expect for a typical human, but they were well suited to the maiden of a prince or for life at court. There were cosmetics, undergarments, and shoes.

No weapons to be seen, not that I had expected there to be.

I lifted the cot and Quinnick let out a resentful huff. Next to a spring that had popped was a small leather pouch. I pulled it out, sitting on the cot beside Quinnick and unzipping it.

Inside, there were several vials of colored liquids with droppers. Crushed herbs and ground leaves. One might not think anything of it, except a bright pink flower caught my attention and my brow furrowed.

Foxglove.

A beautiful flower to be sure, but it was also poisonous.

What did Aveline need poisons for? And why was she hiding them under the mattress?

It was true that maybe she could have merely appreciated the flower for its rare beauty, if it weren’t for the assortment of other dangerous herbs alongside it.

This small, seemingly innocuous leather pouch revealed an entirely new motive for her. Was it possible Aveline was not sent to spy on us after all, but rather, sent to kill me instead?

Perhaps I had underestimated her.

Maybe Ren was right, and her softness and elegance was simply a ploy to charm us. To get closer to me and my brothers. Was it possible that Aveline wasn’t simply sent away because Queen Dyata didn’t approve of her relationship with her son? No…she was sent here to prove to them that she could be their next queen. That she was worthy of marrying their heir. My own arrogance had blinded me to her true motives.

I stood, the leather pouch afire in my tight grasp.

Quinnick didn’t bother opening his eyes this time as I lifted the mattress to return the pouch exactly where I had found it.

I had trivialized her presence.

Downplayed the entire thing to Rensford as if there wasn’t a reason for me to care about her appearance at court. Though Rensford was already suspicious of her, neither of us had seen her as a true threat to our lives. Because how could a human kill a dragon?

Poison…that was how.

I stood once more, rattled. I moved toward the door, wrenching it open. A familiar figure blocked the way out into the hall.