Chapter 15: Cecily Unmasked

Jonas stepped in front of me.

"Hold," he said, loud enough to carry. "Nobody touches her."

"Jonas!" Cecily had come out of the tent with her cardigan held shut at her chest. "What are you doing? She's the king's creature now."

"I'm asking a question."

"Come away from her. Please. You're not yourself."

"Did you carry Father's order to the captain's tent the night before the escort left?"

The camp went still.

Cecily's mouth opened, and her eyes filled right on time.

"I would never," she said. "How can you ask me that? After everything we've been to each other?"

"The boy in the cells says a girl in a cream cardigan came."

"There are a hundred cardigans in Redmoor."

"There is one cream cardigan in Redmoor that you wear every day," I said.

She looked at me.

I walked around Jonas and stopped three paces from her.

"You made me tea," I said. "In the pantry, the night the names went up. I didn't drink it. It was bitter, so I left it on the shelf."

"You were upset. I wanted to help you."

"Send a wolf to Redmoor and have the cup tested. I think it holds wolfsbane. Enough to make me slow on the road to the stone."

Cecily laughed.

It was high and bright and it did not last.

"You think I'd poison you?" she said. "Saskia, I love you."

"You put your own name in the bowl," I said.

That was a guess.

I watched it hit, and I knew I was right.

Her face did not crumple.

It went flat, smooth and still, and the sweet bones under it turned hard.

"I didn't put it in," she said. "I asked the Alpha to."

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