And trust her even less.
* * *
I wasin a hurry to get back upstairs and explain to Owen everything that had happened downstairs with a thick sound barrier up. He’d of course been in the gardens with me, but with the other guards, he had kept a respectable distance. He’d heard nothing of our conversation, but I just knew from the tilt of his jaw he was dying to know what had transpired.
Not that a lot had happened, but I still wanted to know his opinion on how trustworthy Nara really could be now that she was sleeping with the king.
As soon as we were in the room, I slipped out of my heels and moved to put up a sound barrier. Just as I was about to release my magic, I stilled.
There had been a blanket on the bench at the foot of the bed that was now on the couch. It was a blanket I adored but Krew loathed because it made him too hot. He never would have grabbed it and put it there.
My eyes went to the fireplace and saw one of the queen’s journals knocked onto the floor from the footrest.
I always left the journal I was reading on the footrest. And knowing the message his mother had sent to us in those journals, I never would have been so careless to leave it upon the floor.
“What is it?” Owen asked, his own green magic making the sound barrier I’d been about to create.
“Someone has been in here,” I explained. “And Silvia doesn’t normally move our things around.”
“Krew has been busy all day, I thought,” Owen added.
I gave him a nod and moved to look in the next room over. Nothing looked out of place except the dresser where Krew kept his bottles of liquor had a drawer slightly ajar.
I felt my magic crawl up my arms and down my spine. Someone had been in here.
Love? Everything okay?
He must have felt my surprise down the bond.I don’t know. Someone has been in your wing.
As in someone other than Silvia or Owen?
Yes. There are only three things out of place, but I know Silvia would not have messed around near your liquor bottles.
Krew was quiet a moment, likely talking to someone wherever he was.I’ll be up within the hour.
Owen joined me and began looking around. “Anything?”
“A drawer ajar. Whoever was in here was looking very carefully and doing their best to make it seem that they hadn’t been here at all.”
Owen’s forehead wrinkled.
“The Six?”
Owen shook his head. “No. Though they have access to his wing, Krew has rules for when they can come. Showing up unannounced would majorly piss off Krew and they all know that.”
I had been trying to block him out of my memory entirely and I hated that I hadn’t asked or given him much thought these past few weeks with everything going on. “Easton?” My skin hummed, as my magic seemed to loathe him just as much as I did. The man who killed my father.
Owen gave his head a shake. “He is still in the mountain. Kind of. It’s a comfortable sort of jail. Not like the part of the mountain where the king likes to inflict pain. He will be there until the Assemblages are done and Krew has calmed down enough to deal with him.”
I rubbed my head. “Who would have been in here, then?”
Owen gave a shrug. “The king or one of his minions, likely.”
“Looking for the ring,” I added.
Owen gave a nod.
The door opened and Krew came in, finding us still looking at the drawer partly ajar.
