The King's Queen

Chapter 53

"This door was closed yesterday," she whispered. "I'm sure of it. My room gives me a clear view of this shed and it's never been open before."

"Maybe it was the wind?" I wondered.

"I don't know, but I'm getting a bad feeling about this," she murmured as she took a step back.

Garrett promptly took charge and told us to stand back while he searched the shed. According to him, there were no foreign scents around. If someone had been there, he would have known.

After checking the perimeter of the shed, he used his foot to nudge the door open wider. Nothing more than darkness, silence, and the faint fragrance of herbs greeted us as we peered inside.

As the door inched open, my vision gradually adjusted to the dark. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the shed. An assortment of tools hung from the racks inside, and the workbenches were empty.

All except for the last one.

"Angel Eyes..."

Garrett and I glanced at each other, and I felt the color dissipate from my cheeks as we stared at the single blank sheet of paper resting on top of the bench. When I had visited Lady Freya at the Western Palace, she had scribbled something in an unknown language on a piece of paper and given it to me.

Even now, I'd been unable to interpret it. The cryptic hieroglyphs drawn on the paper in front of us were the same as the ones from back then.

Cyrena examined the symbols, but couldn't make sense of them either. So it was something that not even an Origin like her knew about...

Could this be connected to Lady Freya? Perhaps the person who left this paper here had come in contact with her just like I did. But no-one could enter the Western palace without the prinarch's permission and Lady Freya had said it herself that she never received any visitors.

This entire situation was unsettling. Someone had been here, but they hadn't left a scent or alerted us to their presence. One thing was certain: the manor was no longer safe.

Present time

"Where did this come from? He questioned, solemnness now replacing the former curiosity that danced in his eyes.

"I brought it here," I informed him, eyeing the box as he kept shifting it further away from me with each passing second, as if the plant would jump out and attack me.

"Why are you trying to give me a heart attack?" He threw a vehement scowl at the plant. "You should avoid this thing. It's poisonous."

"Exactly."

Uncertainty filled his expression, while he possibly entertained the thought that I'd gone crazy. "What do you mean?"

I couldn't help but smile a bit at his reaction. "That's the reason why I brought it here, Ash. I want to build up my immunity to Nightshade."

That night at the Origen Association, Luca had said he was resistant to Nightshade. If I was immune, too, then it would no longer be my weakness.

In this game of heirs and power and the continually woven web of lies, I couldn't afford to have such an obvious Achilles heel.

Ashton silently listened to my explanation. He looked torn, knowing that I was right, but believing that my plan was way too risky to be put into action. If I didn't do this right, I could end up accidentally killing myself.

"How do you know so much about Nightshade?" I asked him.

Ashton sighed and carefully placed the Nightshade back in its box. "Because of the De la Vega family. My cousin Circe is mated to a someone from that family. They're one of the oldest Origen families and their bloodline is the purest of all Origen families because they only mate with Alphas. I spent a few weeks with them. Because of how closely connected their bloodline is to the Origins, they get affected by Nightshade, too... but it's not as severe for them as it is for you. For them, it's more like an allergy."