Finding Her Magical King novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Cell

They put me in the oldest cell in Highcastle, under the north tower, with a stone bench and a drain in the floor.

The iron on my wrists was heavy, and it stung against the thorn mark.

I sat on the bench for a long time with my knees pulled up.

Nobody came, and nobody brought my cat.

Then the lock turned, and Lord Thrale stepped in alone, carrying a stool.

He set it down in the middle of the cell, sat on it, and took an orange out of his coat.

"They've left us," he said. "Nobody will hear. I find that restful."

He began to peel the orange with his thumbnail.

I did not recognise his face.

It was the same silver hair and the same pewter ring, but the warmth had gone out of the whole thing, and something flat and patient looked out of it.

"You forged the order," I said.

"That's what the king told you?" He pulled off a strip of peel. "Yes. It was a good forgery. I was proud of it."

My hands closed into fists inside the iron.

"My parents were your friends."

"Your parents were a nuisance." He ate a segment. "I wanted the Crown Council cut from fourteen seats to three, with myself in one of them. Your father was the court's senior witch, and a king's witch must sign such things. Alder said he would go to the king and tell him what I was up to."

"So I wrote a letter in your mother's hand and your father's, saying they meant to poison the king. The king signed it because he knew who wrote it and was afraid to say so. I had the assent of the heir stamped myself."

"You said they were your friends."

"They were. I liked your mother. She laughed at everything." He sucked orange off his thumb. "I came to the motel because I wanted to see your face when I told you the same thing, and you believed me. It was very pleasing."

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