Chapter 4: Verity

In the morning I walked into the Registry through the front door.

I wore my own grey clerk's dress, which a maid had rescued from a laundry bag in the street.

I had the King's writ in my hand.

Cassian walked half a step behind me.

Two guards walked behind him.

The great hall of the Registry is a hundred clerks at long desks under a ceiling painted with the Moon.

All hundred stopped writing.

I had eaten lunch beside most of them for seven years.

Not one of them met my eyes.

"Miss Wrexham," said Tull from the gallery, in the voice of a man greeting a favourite niece. "How good of you to call."

"High Registrar."

I held up the writ.

"By the King's hand and seal," I said, loud enough for the back desks, "I may inspect any bond I judge to be bought."

I let that settle.

"That includes the lower vaults. Your keys, please."

Nobody breathed.

Tull came down the stair slowly, one hand on the rail, and looked at Cassian.

"Majesty," he said. "Of course. Whatever the Crown requires."

He took a ring from his belt and set it in my palm.

His small clean fingers were warm.

"The lower vault is damp," he said. "Mind your step."

It was the first time in my life I'd been afraid of that smile.

I did not let it show.

"I'll mind everything," I said.

I turned to go, and a woman stepped out from behind a pillar and stood in my way.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Fated Mate Was a Lie, Now the Alpha King Wants the Truth from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.