House of the Raven (The Eldrystone #1)

8. CHAPTER 8

8

VALERIA

“Don’t fret, ni?a bonita. It’s just the Basilica’s bells. They’re tolling for the queen. She’s with the saints now.”

Orquidea Rios - Castellina Resident - 10 DV

I pace in my room, my lungs pumping too fast, anxiety ripping me to shreds. I fear I’ll go insane. There’s a knock at my door. I freeze mid-step.

“Val, it’s me.”

I run to the door and fling it open. Jago stands there, his expression full of sorrow. I fling my arms around his neck and sink into him. He says nothing. He just holds me tight. Only two hours have passed since…

The news has clearly spread through the palace, but what news?

I grab his hand, pull him into the room, and shut the door. “What did she say?”

He furrows his brow. “She?”

“Amira.”

“What story did she tell everyone?”

“Story?”

“Don’t just repeat everything I’m saying, tell me what she said… what you heard. ”

“I heard from a guard that Uncle Simón is dead. I’m so sorry, Val.”

“What else?”

He shakes his head.

“What else did you hear?”

“Nothing. I came straight here.”

I whirl away from him and start pacing the room again.

“I’m confused. What’s going on?” He comes close, tries to take my hands, but I don’t let him.

Instead, I grab his shoulder and look him in the eye. “I need you to go out there and find out what happened to my father.”

His mouth opens and closes.

“I want you to find out how he died.”

“You… don’t know?”

I shake my head. At this moment, lying is easier. I doubt I would be able to relate what really happened, and I don’t need to add to his confusion.

He pulls me into a hug. “That can wait, Val. You’re upset.”

The hug nearly undoes me, but I push my emotions down and allow my mind to keep control of the situation. Calmly, I take a step back.

“Yes, I’m upset, but this is important. I need you to find Emerito. He will know.”

Jago’s light brown eyes scan my face. He’s known me all my life, and he doesn’t fail to see what I want him to see. “All right, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Thank you.”

He slips out the door. I engage the lock and go back to pacing. Thirty minutes later, as I’m on the verge of losing my mind, he returns. I throw open the door before he even knocks. His hair is standing on end, and his entire demeanor is worse than before.

“It’s bad,” he says .

Whatever he heard can’t be worse than the truth, so I’m ready to hear it.

“Sit.” I point toward an armchair in the corner near the balcony.

Jago collapses in it and runs stiff fingers through his hair, making the disarray worse. “Maybe you should sit, too,” he suggests.

“No, I’m fine. Please, tell me everything.”

He nods and begins. “I found Emerito on his way to the main council chamber. There’s an emergency meeting happening right now. He didn’t want to talk to me, but I insisted.” He pauses, swallows audibly. “He told me that… Orys Kelakian killed the king.”

I wait for more, but Jago is scrutinizing my face again, trying to read it as he does so well.

“You already knew,” he says.

I nod.

“Then why did you send me out there?”

“What else did Emerito say?”

“He said they don’t know how the sorcerer got in, and that Orys could possibly be associated with the veilfallen. Though, they don’t think so. They have sent the Guardia Real in search of him. Amira has vowed to destroy him and all the rest.”

Jago is still talking, but I’m not listening anymore. I press a hand to my throat, finding it difficult to swallow. They’re spinning a lie as I feared, like clever spiders wishing to tangle all in their web. The question remains… Is Amira part of it? Or a victim like our father? And is Orys truly not associated with the veilfallen? Or is this a ruse to divert attention from the rebels?

“Val, are you listening?” He pushes to the edge of the armchair.

Snapping out of it, I kneel in front of him and take his hands in mine. “You have to listen to me,” I whisper.

There’s fear in his features as there should be. No doubt, his face reflects what he sees in mine .

“Why do I have the feeling I’m not going to like this?” he asks.

“It’s all a lie,” I say. “Well, most of it. Orys did kill my father. The sorcerer is back. I saw him.”

“Puta madre!”

“But it was Amira who let him in.”

His mouth falls open.

“She allowed it to happen, and I don’t know if she did it of her own volition or if Orys compelled her.”

“Oh, Val. That’s… I just can’t…” He squeezes my hands.

He believes me! My surprise lets me know that I was expecting Jago to tell me I’m crazy. I’m so grateful for his trust in me.

“She must have been compelled,” he says. “There is no way Amira would do that. Is there?”

“I want to believe that.”

“But?”

I walk away and run my hands through my hair in frustration. “Earlier today, I overheard her talking to Father.” I’ve been turning this over in my head a lot. “They were talking about some sort of secret that he had just divulged to her, and that he made her promise not to share with me.”

“What kind of secret?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know, but it seems to have something to do with the fae.”

“The fae?!” His blond eyebrows draw together.

Sparing no detail, I tell him everything I overheard.

“Very strange,” he says when I’m done. “And it lacks sense in the way that jousting in the nude lacks sense.”

If he knew my mother was fae, he wouldn’t think so. I’ve been lying to my best friend for years. I’ve wanted to tell him so many times, but Mother and Father made Amira and I swear we would never tell. Even now, when I feel there’s no one else in the world I can trust, I’m not sure I should tell him. I’m afraid he will hate me, and if he does… I’ll be utterly alone.

We’re quiet for a long moment, then I remember to tell him the rest. “She took my Plumanegra key.” My hand goes up to my neck of its own accord. I find that I miss its weight.

“Wait. What?” He takes a moment to process this new bit of information, then works things out by speaking out loud. “She’s afraid you’ll try to challenge her, afraid you’ll reveal the truth of what happened, but…” He trails off, then adds, “That makes no sense. ”

For the first time since I heard the thrum of Orys’s magic, my mind takes over my emotions. “Yes, it makes no sense,” I echo. “Everyone knows I am Simón Plumanegra’s daughter. I don’t need the key to prove that to the council.”

“Exactly, and that’s not the only thing the key does, Val.”

My heart jumps to my throat as the realization hits me, then I’m running out of my bedchamber. I have to check the vault.

As we get close to the Plumanegra vault located at the heart of the palace close to Father’s study, I hear voices ahead. Putting a hand up, signaling Jago, I slow down. I recognize my sister’s timbre.

“It’s Amira,” I whisper. “Hide!”

He heads to the first door to our right, and I follow.

“It’s locked.”

My heart pumps so fast that I feel it will knock a hole in my chest. She can’t find us here. I backtrack, running on tiptoes. I turn the next door’s knob. It opens. We rush inside. The room is dark, and I sigh with relief as shadows envelop us. I don’t close the door all the way and watch through a narrow crack as Amira walks down the hall, Emerito at her side .

“It should have been in the vault,” she says.

“Maybe it’s in her chamber.”

“We’ll have to look when she’s not there.”

The sound of their steps fades away. I press my back to the wall and slide down to the floor. My knees are too weak to hold me.

Jago sits across from me, peering at my face through the gloom. It looks like we are in one of the many waiting rooms that can be found in Nido. I’m not even sure I’ve been in here before.

“What is she looking for? Do you know?” he asks.

“There’s only one thing I’ve ever kept in that vault.” My mind races as I try to figure out this puzzle.

“What is it?”

Not even Jago knows—only Father and Amira. They’ve always known there’s only one thing I consider precious enough for safekeeping.

“My mother’s necklace,” I say.

“What necklace?”

I lift my gaze from the floor and meet Jago’s for only a second. I want to tell him everything.

“What necklace, Val?” He repeats his question.

“Um… you might have seen it a long time ago. It belonged to my mother. She gave it to me.” I shake my head. “No. She didn’t exactly give it to me. She… I don’t remember.” I scratch my head, finding a hole in my memories.

Gods, it hurts so much thinking about all of this.

“Why would Amira want it?” Jago asks.

“I don’t know.” And it’s the truth. I don’t have the faintest idea why she would go as far as to take my Plumanegra key to open my private nook in the vault. Does she want it because the necklace is of fae origin? Does it hold some kind of espiritu ?

Jago rubs his jaw, thoughtful for a moment. “It has to be important. Why else would Amira be so secretive about it?”

I nod.

“Do you think it has something to do with the conversation you overheard? The secret your father told her?”

“I have no idea.”

We are quiet for a moment longer, then he asks, “Where is your guard?”

“Amira relieved him from his duties. She said I’m free to do whatever I want.”

“Strange. I don’t want to seem paranoid, but he’s new here. Maybe he has something to do with all of this?”

I consider this, but it doesn’t ring true. “I don’t think so. He defended me, Jago. If it wasn’t for him I would be dead, too. He’s only doing his job. Amira threatened to end his career. She’s the queen now. He has to do what she says.”

“Queen Amira,” he says. “It sounds so strange.”

I press both hands to my face and tell myself to be strong. Whatever is going on here, I have a feeling this is just the beginning.

“You know the next logical question, right?” Jago says carefully. “Um, where is the necklace?”

Lowering my hands to my lap, I meet Jago’s gaze. They are inscrutable, and his face is all sharp angles and hollows due to the lack of light. A bitter taste fills my mouth as, for the first time, an awful thought enters my mind. Is Jago also part of this nightmare? What if he—

No, it can’t be. This is Jago , my heart says.

Your own sister betrayed you , my brain replies.

Jago jumps to his feet. “You know what?” He waves both hands. “I don’t need to know. Don’t tell me, all right? ”

My shoulders slump in relief, but he doesn’t notice. He is too busy staring at his feet as he thinks. “Unless it’s in your room? Because Amira and that asshole are probably headed there.”

“It’s not there,” I say, then decide that, in case they try to get to Jago, I need to lie. “In fact, I don’t know where it is. I lost it a while back.” I haven’t worn it in a while. Amira hasn’t seen it in a long time, so the lie will stand.

“You lost it?”

I rise to my feet. “Yes.”

“Then you’re screwed.”

“Why?”

“You don’t have what she wants, they want, whoever, so you’ll be of no more value to them. Then your next-in-line status might sign your death sentence.”

He’s right, of course, but they killed Father and stole my Plumanegra key. I can’t let them have the necklace, too.

Jago’s next words are urgent. “We need to get out of here, Val. That thing is more than just a piece of jewelry, or they wouldn’t be doing all of this to get it.”

That is one of the thoughts that has been circling inside my head from the moment I was able to get my emotions under control.

Mother was always fiercely protective of that necklace. I had long assumed it was because it came from her homeland and held some sort of sentimental value. But what if there’s more to it? Suddenly, I recall the words Father shared with me when I told him I wanted it days after her passing.

“ Keep it, amor. It’s just a trinket, after all. ”

Wouldn’t he have known it was important? Mother told him everything, right? I have no idea. Honestly, I know nothing about their relationship besides second-hand accounts. Father never talked about her, and as a child, I didn’t possess the maturity to grasp the nature of their connection.

“Jago, I can’t leave,” I say at the brink of tears.

My entire world has collapsed around me, and I have no idea what to do next. My life is in danger. I see the logic in Jago’s words, but I can’t leave Nido. Not now.

“I have to stay,” I add with conviction.

“You can’t.”

“I must. I can’t let them get away with murder, with usurping the throne, if that’s what’s happening.”

“Don’t be foolish. You have no power here. Amira holds all the cards.”

“Perhaps, but if I run, I won’t be able to live with myself. I have to expose the truth and show everyone Orys is behind all of this.”

Because he has to be. I can’t accept Amira isn’t the person I believe her to be, and I’m determined to prove it to myself and anyone who dares doubt her.