Chapter 86

Sienna’s POV

The King was summoning me, and all that ever made me feel was sick to my core. I was starting to think I couldn’t trust that man, that maybe he was the villain here, and had been all along.

I stepped into a conference room like the one I’d seen him in the last time, a sweat immediately breaking out across my palms.

“Your Majesty,” I said as politely as I could muster up, sitting in the chair across from him, trying so hard not to spiral.

“Sienna.” His first name basis with me was terrifying, and I wished, more than anything, that he’d just address me like the middle class citizen I was.

“And how have things been since the great reveal?” The King raised his eyebrows expectantly, like he was completely entitled to the business of my personal life.

“Um…” I couldn’t quite get a grip on what I wanted to say, the surprise still so fresh. “Surprising?”

That was the best I could do.

“Oh, come on — give me more than that!” The King chuckled, but there was something about it that gave me a chill of discomfort.

“Shocking and disappointing?” I didn’t mean for it to come out as a question, but it did anyway. My nerves were getting the better of me, and something about the King was starting to sit very wrong with me.

“He lied to you. Doesn’t that make you furious?” He raised his eyebrows, and the only answer was yes.

Because it did make me furious, that was for sure. But now, I was beginning to believe the King might not be the mighty leader he’d convinced everyone he was.

I was starting to sense the lies in him, too. When you’d been lied to as long and often as I had, you could pick up the signs faster than the average person.

“Absolutely,” I affirmed, feeding into exactly what he hoped I would.

“He has a lot more lies than just that one, Sienna,” the King said in warning, like he hadn’t lied throughout his life too, right?

“We’ve all lied,” I said casually, the tension building between us.

The King unfurled his fingers, which had been clenched against his palm, revealing a small vial filled with a dark purple liquid I immediately recognized as poison.

A very deadly poison.

I stared at the vial for a solid half a minute before I met his dark eyes. “What is that?”

I had to feign innocence; it was the smartest approach, even though he knew I worked with potions since I could walk.

“You know what it is,” the King scoffed, seeing right through me, like I’d figured.

“Deadly nightshade,” I whispered, knowing that poison would be toxic no matter how little you ingested.

“Deadly indeed,” the King murmured back, gazing at the vial with a weird level of affection for an inanimate object.

Then his eyes cut to mine, the sharpness of them making me want to squirm. That or just run sprinting out of the room — I think distance between he and I was a really good idea.

“I want you to kill Alaric.”

I admit, I almost choked. Somehow, I managed to conceal the shock that exploded through me.

The King was asking me to kill Alaric?

“Um — ”

“Think about all he’s done. This is revenge, Sienna, for the death of your parents, the loss of innocent lives.”

“I didn’t think Alarics own uncle would have him killed,” I said without thinking, watching the way his eyes flared just the slightest in anger.

Then again, the King knew how headstrong I could be.

“You have no idea of the things he’s done,” the King growled, unease settling into my bones. “The things I’ve had to hide because of him.”

I sensed a lie. Quite a few of them.

Even if I’d only known Alaric for so many months, somehow, I still knew him to the very core of his being. He wasn’t a bad person; he’d just made some of the most human mistakes that we all made in this great thing called life.

What I also knew for sure was that I had to take the poison and make it seem like I was going to do exactly what the King asked — after all, saying no wasn’t even an option.

But I’d never, ever hurt Alaric like that.

“He disappointed me more than anyone ever has.” As I spoke, I let an ice coat my words. The King seemed to enjoy that quite a bit.

“So I can count on you?” he smirked, holding the vial out towards me, all the hairs on the back of my neck rising in discomfort.

“It’s as easy as pouring something into his drink,” I shrugged, reaching out and folding the vial into my palm. It was safer with me than it would ever be in that mans possession.

“Good girl,” the King purred, praising me like I was some kind of trained pet. I wanted to cringe, but found a way to resist it, a sour taste rising to the back of my throat.

“Tonight?” I raised an eyebrow, playing along perfectly.

“Preferably,” the King said gruffly, leaning back into his chair. “The sooner the better.”

“And I have full immunity?” It’s something I’d have asked if I were going along with it — which I never would, not in any lifetime, though he didn’t need to know that.

“Oh, yes, of course.” I didn’t miss the coy smile on his thin lips, and I was fully aware that he was lying straight out of his ass. The blame would fall completely on me, but he believed I was too stupid to realize that.

To him I was some young, naïve girl who lost her parents and had no idea how to navigate this cruel world, so he was here to help guide me, holding my hand and leading me directly into the worst kind of chaos.

How the tables would soon turn.

“You can trust me,” I nodded, the wickedness in his eyes so unmissable that it made me feel immediately sick to my stomach. The baby sure didn’t like it either.

“Your loyalty will be rewarded,” the King straight up lied, and I curtsied briefly before the guards led me out, the vial slipping into my pocket like a paperweight.

He wouldn’t be able to reward anything — not that he actually would for this — because his karma would soon be upon him.

I strolled away from the conference room, heading back for the ballroom, suddenly feeling a lot more confident than I had before I went to speak to the King.

As shaken as I was, there was a plan starting to form in my head. I’d have to be careful with the nightshade, unsure what exactly the King had in store for me, if he was going to try and pin something on me when that poison was in my possession.

I slid into the ballroom, sliding along the edges of the space, searching for Alaric or Lucius. I found Lucius first, his eyes locking with mine from across the room, and I beckoned him over, hoping for a little privacy.

The vial of nightshade sat heavily in my pocket, alighting something in me.

It was time to start fighting back.