“What?” I yelped. “What are you talking about?”

“Shh.” The knife’s edge pinched into my skin, and I wondered if it had drawn blood. “Just answer the question.”

“I…” What kind of answer did he want to hear? Yes? No? How did he even know about this? And if I answered wrong, what would he do? I wasn’t afraid of death, but there were other things that terrified me. But all I could do was guess, and if he already knew about my ideas, then I might as well be honest. “Yes.”

He snorted. “I didn’t believe it when I was told. The little princess wanting to murder the emperor. It’s ridiculous.”

“Do not call me a princess,” I growled.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Would you rather be called Chosen? Or maybe puppet?”

“And what do you know?”

“I know you traded a commoner’s life for a gilded cage.”

“As if I chose that.”

“There’s always a choice.”

“Go to hell.”

He chuckled. “I’m already bound for it, princess. But you’re not. Not yet, anyway. I recommend giving up your plan. I know your little friends put you up to it, but they’re using you, the same as anyone else.”

“The same as you?”

“Of course.”

“Why do you care if I do or don’t?”

“Because you’re not the only one who wants him dead. And you’ll only get in the way.”

“What if I refuse to give it up, then?”

“Are you refusing?”

“I’m thinking about it.”

The hand on my shoulder gripped painfully tight. “Trust me, give this up.”

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll have to follow through with the other half of my orders, and you don’t want to know what those are.”

My blood chilled and I pressed back into the wall. “Whose orders?”

“Does it matter? Just stay out of the way and keep your head down, and you’ll get what you want. Or get in the way and regret it. Your choice, Eujia Levie.”

The blade at my throat vanished, so I rammed my knee upward, but it only passed through air. I stumbled out through the busted door, but the man was nowhere to be seen.

He knew all about our plans and was going to ruin everything. Someone had told. Who else knew? Oh gods, did the emperor? If anyone in the castle knew, then it wouldn’t be safe for me to go back. But the alternative, running and abandoning my family, was unacceptable. No. No, if the emperor had heard, he’d never believe it. Surely, no one in the castle would believe it, either. The meek, fragile Chosen would never imagine doing such a thing.

But this mole of ours would pay.

***

I skipped visiting Yesida, sending him a message on my new glass tablet that I wasn’t feeling well. Only the richest of the rich had these portable things, and I cringed every time I used mine. But Mother insisted that I have all of the latest conveniences, especially ones that allowed me to communicate from anywhere at any time, just in case I keeled over, and it would take someone a few minutes to find me. With the tablet, I could theoretically send for help and save those minutes. Not that it made any difference. It was what it was, whether someone was there with me or not.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Yesida quickly responded with, “No worries. Let me know how you’re feeling tomorrow.”

I tucked the tablet back into my bag and hurried down the streets, careful to take smooth steps so I wouldn’t jar my bag and jingle all those coins too much. I was heading into the slums, after all. Before that, I found a vacant alley where I dug a rough cloak out of my bag and threw it on to hide my nicer clothing.

The silken smooth copper-toned clay walls of the richer neighborhoods, decorated with colorful dangling tapestries, quickly became more and more rough and cracked, then were replaced by simple wooden huts that grew more rotten the further I walked.

I was barely a handful of blocks off the main road, yet the slums stretched from here clear to the edge of the city, spanning perhaps two-thirds of its total size. The true body of Kes Ulra that the emperor and his entourage didn’t want outsiders to see. No, visitors were kept to the areas around the main road and the wealthy district.

I scowled like all the others I passed, keeping eye contact just long enough to establish I wasn’t to be tangled with. The people of this area knew better than to assume by someone’s looks whether they were dangerous or not. They probably guessed—correctly—that I had blades tucked into the waistband of my pants, hidden under the swelling fabric of my shirt. I hadn’t yet needed to use them, thank the gods.

I hated that I didn’t trust these people. My people. But I was an outsider to them, just the strange girl with a threat in her eyes who paid a visit now and then. They didn’t know what I was doing for them, and that was for the best.

I arrived at a larger shack and knocked. An eye peered through the peephole, then the door flew open, and a wrinkled hand pulled me inside.

“You’re early,” Ilena grumbled. “What do you have?”

I started fishing the coins out of my bag to dump them onto her rickety table, and the old woman’s eyebrows shot up.

“How many did you rob blind tonight?”

“Three,” I said.

“Only three? Fucking rich cunts.”

“How many meals will this fund?” My family hadn’t needed to pay for a thing in over fifteen years. I’d been educated on large-scale finances at university, but personal expenses were a mystery to me.

Ilena mumbled under her breath as she counted the coins, organizing them into neat stacks. “We can probably stretch it to two hundred.”

Three individuals’ pocket change would feed two hundred for a day. Gods. And yet… only two hundred, and only for a day. It wasn’t enough. It was never enough.

“I’m going back out there.”

“Don’t push your luck, girl. You—” She narrowed her eyes at me. “What is that on your neck?”

I clasped a hand around my throat. “It’s nothing.”

“What happened? Don’t tell me you started trouble, or I won’t have you coming around these parts ever again.”

I dropped my hand. “Someone told about our plan.”

“To who?”

“I don’t know. This strange man framed me for a theft just to get me alone, then he told me not to go through with the plan. He said there are other people who want Lenan dead.”

“Of course there are. But we have a solid plan. You are not throwing it away because of some madman.”

“We have a mole, Ilena. What if they give you up to the guards?”

“Leave the mole to me. You keep doing what you’ve been doing. And use a different disguise next time. That cover is blown.”

“I can help—”

“You can help by keeping a low profile,” she snapped. “I won’t have you and your family thrown out onto the streets just to have four more mouths to feed.”

We glared at each other for several seconds, but I caved first. “Fine. But we’re changing the plan, and no one else learns about it.”

“Fine.”

We sat for hours arguing over the details while she divvied the coins up into a handful of purses, one for each of our cooks. I didn’t like the new plan we settled on, not one bit, but it was our best shot. I had a feeling it wouldn’t be too difficult to pull off, as long as I could keep up the act.

“It’s decided, then,” Ilena said. “Get back to your castle before anyone figures out you’re gone.”

I left without another word.

Even the streets of the slums were nearly vacant at this hour. There weren’t any taverns where people could drink the night away, after all. No one here could afford it. Those were reserved for the nicer parts of town.

Hell, I thought about stopping by one of them on my way back, but it really was getting too late. The sun would be coming up before long. I walked straight to the castle instead, and my lungs and legs were burning from the trek by the time I reached the outer wall. I passed around the castle’s side, blinked through the wall where no guards were on patrol, blinked again into the vacant ballroom, then paused to take a breath before mustering all my power to blink straight up into the art gallery. I was gasping at this point, but I needed to have one more in me. I walked to the far wall, then passed through it into my bedroom.

I dropped my bag onto my desk chair and collapsed into bed. I needed to change into my nightgown, but a quick rest would have to come first.