Her Cinder Throne (Completed)

Chapter 36

Mistress led her to the side of the servant's quarters. A bit of grass and some trees stood between the building and the one next to it, and it was relatively quiet and out of the way. It wasn't until they were out of sight from the main walkways that Mistress finally turned and opened her mouth.

"It came to my attention that you went to the dungeons last night," she said.

Cole's head cocked to one side. "How did you know that?"

"Nearly throwing your cover is not part of the plan, Miss Glassad," Mistress said. "I heard the prince caught you as well?"

"Are you speaking for Tanwyn?" Cole asked, suddenly annoyed. "If he wanted to speak with me, he could have come himself."

"Our master gave you the plan, and you are to stick to it. The prince is suspicious now, and it will be very hard to glean anything of use from him now. You will have to back away from him and wait until his birthday ball arrives. If you do not have all the information you need, then it will be your own fault."

"I'm sorry, did you say 'our master'? Tanwyn is not my master," Cole said, ignoring the rest of the scolding.

Mistress sniffed and smiled coldly. "You entered into an agreement with him, did you not? We are under his power, whether we like it or not. He is our master and it is in our best interest to follow his orders so that we might get the rewards we sold ourselves for."

Cole grimaced. "He's holding my mother over my head," she said. "I have no choice."

"And I have no choice but to organize everything in the human world for Tanwyn, but I need to see Thijs ruined and broken more than I need my dignity."

Cole exhaled and crossed her arms. "Well, have you finished scolding me for him, then?"

"Not quite," Mistress said through tight lips. "Don't try to get your reward without Tanwyn again. He is a fae, try not to forget. If you foil his plans, it won't be pleasant. Not only will he search you out, but you'll have all the rest of us who have their hopes pinned on this assassination coming after you as well."

"Fine. But I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing," Cole said.

"Tanwyn said that he will be coming to visit you tomorrow. Please keep out of trouble until then."

Cole gave a begrudging nod, and when Mistress was satisfied that she was sufficiently penitent, waved her on to leave.

"We'll leave separately to try and mitigate the suspicion. Tell them that I only wanted to fit you for a proper cap to cover that disgusting hair of yours."

Cole ran a hand subconsciously over the stubble on her skull. It hadn't grown much in the time she'd been with the prince, but the regular meals had helped it a bit. Still, she felt very out of place around the other girls with long braids, and Mistress pointing the weakness out brought a flush to her cheeks.

Cole turned on her heel to try and leave before Mistress saw the effect of her words, but as she was walking she remembered that she needed to warn Tanwyn.

"Wait, Mistress," Cole said, grimacing as she turned back around. She wanted anything else but to go back to the old woman, but if she didn't want to be caught as a spy, she needed to make sure Tanwyn knew of the Crystal.

"Tell Tanwyn to meet me in the bamboo field from before. It's too dangerous to come into the palace. They have ways of knowing when magic is used."

Mistress' lips pressed together and she drew in a long breath. "Just what we needed," she muttered. Louder, "Thank you, I'll tell him."