The groan tapers off like a sigh, the room falling silent and still once more.
Shrugging off my brother’s touch, I continue in my search. “I want to see.”
Keon points forward and says, “There.”
As soon as I lay eyes on what he’s pointed out, my feet take me forward, all the way to the far end. To the bulbous spot now marring the space of the wall.
“Great Divine...”
It’s him.
His crown is missing from his head. Perhaps melted into the gold that now encases him. He looks like he’s being melted into the wall itself, like it was trying to suck him into its depths and swallow him whole. His agonized face is on display. Wide eyes held with shock and fear.
King Midas is now nothing but a corpse encased in a gold tomb.
The gold groans again, as if staking its claim.
“No…”
We whirl around at the woman’s voice to find Mist stumbling forward, looking at Midas with horror. “My King…” She falls to her knees, clutching her belly, the tinged, demolished room carrying the echo of her cries. “She did this. She did this to him.”
“But how?” Keon murmurs as we watch her sob. “How is that possible?”
I think back to each interaction, to everything I’ve been told. I stare at Midas’s face as I think. As I hear. Flicking past strands of old webs that I’ve collected, words swaying back and forth in my mind.
Monarchs are secretive about their magic. It’s strategic. Knowing when to show your hand and knowing when to conceal it. In some cases, it’s best to make people underestimate you. In others, monarchs are known to show enough power to make everyone either revere you or fear you. Sometimes both.
Midas gilded the dining table—it was the first time I saw it with my own eyes. He also gold-touched this entire ballroom for tonight’s celebration. Two perfect spectacles.
Yet, tonight, his gold behaved as if he wasn’t in control of it at all. Because he wasn’t.
The gold-touch power was real, there’s no doubt about that. And he’s never gold-touched another living person, other than Auren.
This must be why.
I thought her greatest secret was that she was sleeping with an enemy army commander. I thought the gold-touched favored was just that—a favorite royal saddle for him to ride.
I was wrong on both counts.
I detest being wrong.
Midas made her into something ostentatious, a gaudy prize to flaunt. Men always have their fixations, especially when it comes to women. Their enthusiasm for their obsessions always straddles the line between infatuation and hate. One simple move, and the master will turn on their pretty pet.
But perhaps in this case...the pet was the one to turn on her master.
The fear in my mind digs down into my belly. If she can truly thieve powers, then what if she tried to steal mine? What if she succeeded?
My teeth click and grind. Instead of falling into panic, I need to figure out how I can weave things to my own advantage. Because if Lady Auren tried to steal what is mine, I will ruin her.
Seeing the hardened metal is what solidifies my own spinning thoughts. Midas is encased in gold like he’s been cast in a mold, ready to be plucked out and sharpened by a blacksmith.
I thought he was useless to me dead, but perhaps not. Perhaps all I have to do is use what he’s been forged into.
A weapon.
“When he gold-touched her, some of his power must’ve transferred to her,” I say quietly. “He wouldn’t have wanted anyone to ever know that.”
Midas was secretive about everything, but this? This is an entirely different layer of dangerous secrets. Is that why he kept her around? Because he trained her to take on the powers of others to use to his advantage?
“This isn’t good,” Keon says.
“Kaila,” my brother begins. “What if it wasn’t a fluke? What if that’s her magic? Being able to take on the magic of others if they use it on her? Did you…?”
“I did,” I say with a sharp nod, fresh anger budding through me.
“What if she steals your power?”
I don’t like hearing my own worry spoken aloud. My knees lock together, tongue pressing against clenched teeth. My gaze on Midas shifts to my blotted reflection shining from his gilded chest.
This wasn’t how tonight was supposed to go. I wasn’t supposed to be in danger of someone taking my power and using it against me.
“How are we going to use this?” Manu says, because like me, he’s grown up learning how to always spin every instance to our own political advantage. Tonight is no different.
I glance around the ballroom, but we’re still alone other than a blubbering Mist, who’s sobbing into her hands. “We tell people the truth,” I say. “That Midas’s favored turned on him. That she had an affair with King Rot to make him jealous. That she was jealous of my engagement with Midas.”
“Make sure everyone knows she’s the villain.”
I nod. “All of Orea will hate her.”
“But what about Sixth Kingdom?” Manu asks. “Now, there obviously won’t be a marriage.”
“But we publicly announced our engagement,” I reply. “It will be difficult, but if I play it right, I can still push for control.”
“The people there are still rioting,” Keon says. “Plus, they murdered their old queen. What makes you think they’ll accept you with Midas dead and no marriage ceremony?”
I shoot him a smile. “Because I’m not the Cold Queen. I’m the warm, charismatic, beautiful Kaila Ioana. I’ll make them love me as my own people in Third love me.”
“We know how beloved Kaila is to our people. She can sell it,” my brother says with a definitive nod.
“We will have to move fast,” Keon says. “As soon as we can, we will need to visit Sixth, do some sort of ceremony to honor Midas’s life, make you the grieving betrothed for them to sympathize over.”
If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s to make a kingdom love me.
“I can do that.”
More sharp, gasping wails behind us make me want to grit my teeth, and I spare Mist another look.
She will still have to be dealt with.
If I’m going to try and take Sixth, I certainly cannot have her bastard heir being born from her womb. But that will be a problem for another day.
“There will be a lot happening now,” I go on quietly. “Once the other monarchs find out about Lady Auren’s ability to steal power, they’ll want to get involved. Plus, there’s the issue of Fifth.”
“I actually have an idea about that,” Manu says, and my attention immediately sharpens.
My brother isn’t my advisor for nothing. He has a brilliant mind, knows how to play a room, knows how to read people, and above all, he will always be loyal to me.
“Since our focus now needs to be on how to secure Sixth, as well as how to take care of Lady Auren, the last thing we want is to lose all the work we’ve done to create a foothold here in Fifth. So, I propose that we immediately put in the search for the closest kin of Fulke, because now that the prince is dead, Ranhold needs an heir. We will track down whichever ones have power, and sift through the best candidates. Then we will choose which heir gets the throne. We will determine who takes power. And in exchange for our support...they will support us, and us alone.”
I smile. “You are perfect, brother.”
He gives me a matching grin.
“And if anyone tries to oppose us in claiming Sixth or with having our hand in naming a Fifth heir?” Keon questions worriedly.
My smile grows sharp, twisted with ruthlessness. “Any voice that speaks up against me, won’t have a voice to use after that.”
And if Lady Auren thinks she can take what I’ve worked for, she’s going to realize soon that she’s not the only one who knows how to steal what she wants.
I may not have gold-touch, and I may not have rot, but words are the most powerful weapon of all, and I will wield them.
CHAPTER 2
SLADE
There’s a tempest dredging the sky, while I hold a lifeless body in my arms.