Blood for her Crown

Chapter Thirty-One

Grace

The hallway was empty, as expected.

They stood at the very end of the hall, which only led to the shabby door they had entered through and a small window overlooking the sea.

Harriet had used her abilities to hide herself and Grace before they walked through that door, just in case a guard was nearby. So, from that point on, they couldn't see each other or themselves, just Kaden.

This was her mother's wing. None of the doors there were guarded because no one would have any business leading them in there. The guards were aware that Kaden was regularly wandering these halls, but they paid little attention to him. They hadn't when she had done the same, either. The only guarded door was the one in the main corridor that led into these quarters.

Kaden started walking toward the massive oak door. Grace looked around as she followed, at the wine-red walls with the wooden panels and the matching carpet covered in dust that shimmered in the faint light that shone through the window after every step. On the table in the middle of the foyer, she noticed a vase with flowers—white peonies. Kaden had to have placed it there. Every year, their mother would plant many of those in the garden. She would have loved it.

Kaden had reached the door at that point and opened it. The guard to the left didn't even blink.

While her brother held open the door for three seconds longer than necessary so that she and Harriet could slip through, he asked the guard if he had seen Bastien.

Apparently, he was in the kitchen. The opposite direction of where they were supposed to go.

Without saying anything, Kaden turned down the hallway to another staircase leading down to the servants' quarters and the kitchen. With nearly every door in the hall guarded, Grace couldn't ask him what he was doing, so she had no choice but to drag Harriet along after him.

She smacked her brother's shoulder to stop him as soon as they stepped through the door and onto the first steps. "Where are you going?"

He spun around. In the faint light, she could barely make out his searching eyes. Right, he couldn't see them...

"We need to talk to him before we do this," he simply said.

"What for?"

"There is a situation I might not have been completely honest about..."

He turned back around and raced down the stairs before she had the chance to process his words. What was he talking about?

When Harriet moved forward behind her and nearly crashed into her, they nearly tumbled down the staircase together.

"Watch it," Grace hissed.

"Watch what? "The empty space in front of me?"

Fair enough.

Grace rushed down the slightly creaky flight of stairs, looking for Kaden, whom she had lost sight of. She saw light gleaming under the kitchen door and headed towards it. Realizing she couldn't just barge in there in case anyone else was inside, she listened first instead.

She overheard Kaden and another male voice quietly discussing something. The second voice had to be Bastien. No one else spoke apart from them, so Grace knew she could go in.

Kaden turned as he heard the faint creak of the opening door. "Harriet, you can reveal both of you. Nobody is around."

Within the blink of an eye, Harriet appeared in front of her in all her glory, her arms extended as if she were a court jester. Bastien, despite probably knowing about this, stared at them wide-eyed.