“Good, the boys are gone,” said Adelin. The younger girl had a wicked look on her face. “Now you can tell us all about the boys in the capital.”

Megan hadn’t even noticed them leave, she’d been so wrapped up Beth’s telling of her sister Alix’s most recent string of suitors. Seeing her old friends had made her forget how much she missed the capital and how awful the past two weeks had been since she’d left.

She shot Beth a helpless glance, but her friend’s forest green eyes were staring back at her eagerly. Gossip fiends these girls...

“Oh yes!” said Beth. “Tell us about Antoine.”

“Oooh who’s Antoine?” asked Adelin.

Megan felt flushed and instantly regretted including him in her letters.

“Antoine Doryan,” said Beth. “The duke’s nephew, he’s in love with her.”

“Oh come on now,” said Megan. Antoine had been at court for a few years with his father, and had been courteous with her when she’d first arrived. “It wasn’t like that. He was only being gentleman.”

“And if only he’d been a little less so,” said Beth.

“What did he look like?” asked Adelin.

“He was tall,” said Megan. “He had long, brown hair and the bluest eyes I’d ever seen. And he was strong too. You could feel it when you danced with him.”

“So did you kiss him?” asked Beth. “You said you were going to?”

Sometimes Megan wished her friend would forget something she read once in a while. She shook her head. “Almost.”

The Aldrimar sisters were sitting, watching her, rapt in attention.

Megan continued. “He invited me to attend a ball with him a few weeks after we arrived. We danced, and ate and he was very gallant. There were a few times while we danced I thought he was going to, but he never did.”

“Aww,” said Adelin. “What a jerk!”

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Megan laughed. Adelin Aldrimar was two years younger than Megan, and had always had a knack for making her laugh.

“He wasn’t being a jerk, Addy,” said Megan, even though she couldn’t help agree with the younger girl. “He was just being a gentleman, like I said. What about you two? Surely something interesting happened while I was gone.”

“Well,” started Beth.

“No,” said Adelin. “Not here. We can tell her later.”

“Tell me what?” Megan looked between the two golden haired sisters. “What’s going on.”

“Are you done eating?” asked Beth.

Megan nodded. All three of them had finished eating a while ago, and had just been sitting and chatting at the table.

“Good,” said Adelin. “Let’s go.”

Looking out the great window of the Aldrimar’s library reminded Megan of just how different this place was from the capital. From here, one could still see unbroken forests and untamed, hilly countryside, while in Zael, the King’s Palace, one could only see the city and the sea. She’d used to think Zaksburg was a large city, but it was little more than a sleepy hamlet by comparison. Still, she loved this view. The Aldrimar’s library had always been one of her favorite places to play, and many of her fondest memories happened in this room.

She heard the creak and clack of a door slamming shut on the balcony above. Adelin stuck her head out over the banister, and called out “All clear.”

“What’s going on?” asked Megan. “Why all the cloak and dagger?”

They had snuck all the way from the great hall, and neither girl would tell her why.

“It all started a few months ago,” said Beth. “Father sent Henric a book, and ever since he and uncle Zak have been all kinds of secretive about it.”

“Yeah,” said Adelin as she made her way down the spiral staircase. “They pretend like there is no book. But even Samael’s in on it.”

“Oh?” asked Megan. “That’s... weird?”

“You don’t know the half of it,” said Beth. “They’ve been disappearing, saying they’re going hunting but not bringing any bows or spears. And a few weeks ago, Henric came back from one of their trips with a tattoo on his hand.”

Now that she mentioned it, Megan had noticed the vaguely eye-like marks on the back of Henric’s left hand in the armory.

“It’s the same tattoo Zak and Sam have,” said Beth as her sister flopped into one of the library’s comfortable, overstuffed chairs. “Father had it too, and none of them will tell us what it is.”

“I’m sure you’re just being paranoid,” said Megan.

“Not at all,” said Adelin. “I overheard them talking once, planning something, and they stopped as soon as they knew I could hear them. There’s something they don’t want us to know.”

“I guess,” said Megan. She had been meaning to ask him about the tattoo. “Maybe.”

“And now that you’re here, you can help us,” said Beth.

“Yeah!” said Adelin.

“Help? How?” asked Megan.

The Aldrimar sisters exchanged glances and nodded.

“Henric might tell you,” said Beth. “Or Mathev. And you can get things out of him right?”

“Of course.” Megan’s twin brother had never been able to keep a secret from her, usually offering them up willingly. “I mean, if he tells me anything.”

The sisters grinned pretty, mischievous grins.