“Like I need to go to the well,” I say miserably.
She hops from the bed gracefully and gestures toward the door. “Up, up, then. Let’s go.”
I yank off my ruined dress and pull on my robe and slippers. When I push through the door with Aidia on my heels, Gaven greets me with a grim smile.
“Just going down to the well.”
He gives me a quick once-over and nods, but he still follows behind us as if I haven’t safely taken this path thousands of times before.
We follow the spiral staircase at the end of the family wing, down, and down, and down.
Gaven stops outside the door, striking a match to light a fresh torchand taking up his post to the left. I kiss the enchanted lock, feeling the tingle of poison in my lips. The lock is attuned to each Carrenwell’s magic because it doesn’t just lead to the well. The family vault of magical objects and the Cove—a place where prisoners are questioned—are located in the same section of the house.
The lock clicks and I pull the door open. Aidia winks at Gaven and darts inside. I grab the torch from Gaven and follow her into the dark.
The smell of moss and fresh water wafts up. The ceiling shimmers with the torchlight reflected as we descend further into the darkness. When we finally get to the bottom of the well, I walk along the edge of the shelf and light the additional torches, filling the space with an orange glow.
Aidia sits down on the ledge, dangling her legs into the water. I kick off my slippers and hang my robe on a hook. The slate floor is cold, but I know the water will be colder. I only allow myself one moment of hesitation before I rush down the steps into the water. My chest seizes, breath shuddering out of me in a wheeze from the arresting cold. The water ripples around my body, sending orange torchlight shimmering off the walls.
“What have you learned about your new beau?” Aidia asks, keeping her voice low so it won’t echo.
I smirk. “He’s hard to kill.”
Aidia bursts out laughing, the sound of it ringing through my chest. I cannot remember the last time she sounded so genuinely happy.
I shake my head. “I don’t know why you’re laughing. It’s a truly terrible quality in a husband.”
Aidia laughs harder. “I’m sure many women would disagree with you, but I’ve never related to you more. How did you make that discovery?”
I look up at the ceiling. “I kissed him.”
Aidia stills, her lilac eyes burning into me. “On purpose.”
“I thought he was a mark.”
Aidia’s jaw drops. “Someone hired you to kill the heir of Fallen Hold.”
I shush her. “Keep your voice down. Gaven doesn’t know where I get off to at night and I don’t need him in my business right now.”
Aidia’s face softens, and I know she’s thinking of her own bodyguard,Arthur, whom Rafe fired the moment he married my sister. Arthur serves on the city watch with Kellan, but every time I see him, he asks if I’m missing her in such an earnest, fatherly way. I know he misses her just as much.
“But yes,” I whisper. “It does seem that someone tried to trick me into killing the heir of Mountain Haven, which is very bad because?—”
“It means they know what your magic is and that you’ve been moonlighting as the Poison Vixen,” Aidia finishes.
“It means they knew who Henry was, too, even though he had a ring that hid his aura.”
Aidia traces the pattern in the tile along the cavern wall. “I was wondering how you didn’t know who he was.” She frowns. “So, who would know who both of you were?”
“No one, as far as I can tell.”
“You know who it could be?”
“Don’t say it.”
“Rochelli.” She rasps it in the creepy voice she’s used every time he’s come up in conversation the past couple of years.
“He’s real,” I say.
