"Your parents. They know about the mate bond."
Her words smothered me - an avalanche I couldn't escape from. The rocks settled heavily on my chest, pressing down and cutting off my breathing. I pulled away from her slightly so I could see her face. Surely, she was playing some cruel, practical joke on me.
They couldn't know. Not them. My brothers and I had survived this long because we had no attachments besides each other. There was nothing we cared about, no one we loved, that could be used as bait. And the Kings weren't stupid enough to use the other princes as leverage, in fear of starting a full-on war.
"You're wrong," I said snidely before realizing how much like an ass I sounded. I blanched when her eyes narrowed, hands leaving my shoulders to rest on her waist. She canted her head to the side.
"I'm wrong?"
Okay, when a woman repeated your words back to you as a question, you knew you were in deep shit.
Scrambling to think of something to say, something that wouldn't bring about Z's wrath, I tacked on, "My father doesn't notice anything besides where his bed is in the room. I doubt he would've noticed."
Her puffy lips parted, a rush of air escaping.
"That may be true, but the rest know. Of that, I am certain."
"Did they say something?" I asked anxiously.
The Kings knowing...
That was the equivalent of standing in a battle field, a double-edged sword hanging over all of our heads. We were just waiting for the sword to drop and kill us all.
"That's where you come in," Z continued. Her voice was still icy, but she had once more placed her hands on my shoulders. Progress, though small.
"Me?"
I couldn't stop thinking of the implications behind the Kings knowing. If what she said was true, the seven most powerful men in the kingdom now had something they could use against us, the princes destined to either save the world or destroy it.
And if Z's life was hanging in the balance?
Well...we were sins for a reason, after all. Not one of us would hesitate to watch the world burn to ensure her safety. The Kings would know this and would use it to their advantage.
"I remember Diego..." Her voice choked over his name before she continued on. "I remember that he created a spell that could latch onto a mundane object, such as a flowerpot or a teacup, and you could hear everything from the room that item was in. Could you make something like that? Or more than one of something like that?"
I eyed the crazy girl warily.
"You want us to spy on the Kings?" The disbelief was evident in my voice. And the fear. Because what she was suggesting...it went beyond crazy. It was fucking suicidal.
"That's the only way to know what they're up to," she insisted. From the determined set to her chin and the steel glint in her eyes, I knew there was no talking her out of this. She would either do this with or without my help.
As much as it pained me, I knew what my answer would be. I would follow her through the fire if that was what she so desired. I had been burned before, after all. What was one more inferno?
"You stupid, crazy, reckless girl," I muttered beneath my breath. I rapidly shook my head from side to side, almost as if I could un-hear all the crazy nonsense she had just spouted. At this point, I wondered if she was trying to get herself killed.
Was it to teach me a lesson?
To show me how shitty of a mate I was?
"Will you help me?" she asked.
"Fucking hell," I cursed, piercing her with a glare. "You're crazy and psychotic, you know that, right?"
Her smile was luminescent, splitting her face in half.
"And I think you're crazy too. Maybe that's why the universe made us mates?"
God help me, the world was going to burn because of this damn girl.
SIXTEEN
Z
There were two things that the ladies of the ball liked to do: gossip and drink wine. While I wasn't the biggest fan of the first facet, I was a huge proponent of the latter one.
Smiling coyly at the women before me, I took a tentative sip from the glass. It had a strange, bitter tang to it, but it wasn't horrible. The bitterness was immediately soothed away by something sweet. Berries, if I remembered correctly.
Devlin had given me the drink himself, so I knew it hadn't been poisoned.
Poisoned. I scoffed at the word. Zack had claimed to have poisoned me at the fatal dinner, but I was beginning to believe it was the ramblings of an insane man. At the beginning, I had felt slightly light-headed and had coughed up blood, but the pain had long since diminished. I felt fine.
Poisoned. Zack had been full of shit all the way to his death.
Or had he?
Denial was a funny thing. You could bury the truth beneath layers upon layers of sand, but like with any treasure, it would always be uncovered. I, however, chose to stick my head in the sand, ignoring anything and everything that might have been contrary to what I believed.
I didn't want to think about Zack or poisons, choosing instead to take another sip of the sweet liquid.
I wouldn't have put it past the Kings to attempt to off me during this grand ball in my honor. Poetic justice. Even as I chatted, I kept one eye on the seven men converged in the center of the room. The Mermaid King had his arms wrapped around two petite females. One, I recognized as his wife, or at least one of them, but the second I knew to only be a noble lady. At least for the
