Chapter 2They Stole My Twin's Crown

"The Winter Wing," the captain said through clenched teeth.

I ground his face against the stone again.

"A liar doesn't have much use for a tongue."

His courage collapsed.

"She disappeared three days ago."

His voice shook.

"His Majesty ordered the matter sealed so it wouldn't disrupt the coronation."

Three days ago, pain had ripped me out of sleep.

Elara hadn't simply walked out of the palace on her own feet.

I picked up the fallen sword and touched its edge to the maid's cheek.

"Who saw her last?"

"Harriet Greaves."

The maid started sobbing.

"She took people down to the Winter Wing to question her."

Harriet Greaves arrived before I had to go looking.

She came through the courtyard gate with servants and guards behind her, a long barbed whip in one hand.

Three years ago, that woman had knelt in front of me and sworn she'd protect Elara with her life.

Now she wore Elara's pearl hairpin and a robe cut from silk out of my sister's dowry.

The moment she saw me, she swung the whip.

"Lady Elara! You dare touch the Empress's people?"

I moved aside.

The lash shattered a flowerpot behind me.

Greaves laughed.

"Kneel. Hold out your hands. Today I'll teach you the manners Her Majesty should've beaten into you long ago."

My eyes stayed on the pearl pin.

"Rosalind gave you that?"

She touched it proudly.

"Not just the jewelry. His Majesty took your dowry vault too. It all belongs to the Empress now."

"And the Shadow Guard?"

Her satisfaction deepened.

"Lord and Lady Ashbourne got the command seal off you and handed it straight to the Emperor. The traitors who wouldn't submit were killed. The rest scattered."

So that was why Elara had been left with nothing and no one.

I lowered my eyes.

Greaves thought I was frightened.

She stepped closer and reached for my hair.

"Her Majesty is Lady Ashbourne's own niece. She was lost as a child and suffered for years. Your parents took her in because they owe her.

"You wouldn't step aside. Whatever's happened to you since, you brought on yourself."

Rosalind was my mother's niece.

That explained why my parents had started treating a stranger like blood.

It didn't explain why the debt had to be settled with my sister's life.

Greaves lifted her boot toward the back of my knee.

I looked up.

Caught her ankle.

And threw her to the ground.

Before she could scream, I took the barbed whip from her and looped it around her neck.

I dragged her across the courtyard to the stumps where Elara's pear trees had stood.

Her expensive silk tore against the stone.

"You're insane!"

"Am I?"

I tied her to a stump, pulled the pearl pin out of her hair, and drove it through her sleeve into the wood so she couldn't move.

"You wear Elara's clothes."

I lifted the whip.

"You wear her jewelry.

"And you use the same punishment that was used on her."

I smiled.

"You must be very pleased with yourself."

The first lash landed.

Greaves screamed.

Then came the second.

"How many lashes did she take?"

She refused to answer.

I set the whip handle against her knee and forced the joint sideways.

Her scream tore across the courtyard.

She nearly fainted.

I had water thrown in her face.

"Don't pass out."

My voice stayed gentle.

"Miscount by one lash and I'll have a bone broken and set again before we go on."

That finished her.

"A hundred and twenty-seven!"

She sobbed so hard she could barely get the words out.

"His Majesty and the Empress ordered it. I only did what I was told."

I smiled.

"A hundred and twenty-seven."

I let the number settle.

"I'll remember it."

Then I raised the whip again.

"Ten of them come back to you today. The rest we'll settle slowly."

A palace herald shouted from beyond the gate.

"His Imperial Majesty arrives!"