After seeing the Lanhami guard in the hall and the escort telling her that Kallia was entertaining, Prim knew Prince Neros had called on her last night as a test to see if the escorts would allow him to visit. She’d fallen for it. She’d allowed it, giving him the confidence to try it on Kallia tonight.

To be alone with the woman he’d tried to have assassinated.

Prim didn’t hesitate to lope into the locked room. She didn’t wait for Dante. She didn’t even think to have someone fetch Blukke so he could disable the prince’s lightning gift—which was surely useful for more than lighting candles.

But it wasn’t Prince Neros Kallia was entertaining.

Prim’s eyes fell upon the familiar nude form of the princess glowing in the moonlight, but it was writhing in a way she’d never before seen as Kallia kneeled over the obscured face of a naked young woman laying on her bed with legs spread and knees up. Delicate hands gripped Kallia’s thighs as the princess’s own squeezed the woman’s breasts below her.

Prim didn’t need to see the face to know who it was. The vagina on display precluded it from being Neros or Egan. The dark fiery red hair spread out on the bed between Kallia’s knees only confirmed it was Princess Torra.

Kallia’s eyes widened as she noticed Prim, and she immediately stopped grinding. “Get out!” she screeched.

Torra twitched as if she was trying to see who Kallia was talking to, but the Wassalian princess’s body prevented her from sitting up.

Prim loped back into the entertaining suite, finding Dante about to ram the door down. “Stop!”

Dante whirled to find her, his body sagging in relief. “What—“

“It’s not Neros in there,” she said in explanation. Then she snorted. She was going to be in so much shit for interrupting that. Prim stalked to a chaise and sat down, crossing her legs. Surely that killed the mood and Kallia would be out soon to yell at her.

Dante joined her, his brows furrowed as he spoke quietly enough the escorts couldn’t hear. “What’re we doing? Shouldn’t we be finding Neros? Telling the king and queen?”

Prim shook her head. “We tell Kallia. She decides what we do from there.”

Dante squeezed her hand, sighing. “I don’t feel so bad for stealing his harvest now.”

Prim laughed, squeezing his hand back.

Dante’s returning smile melted her heart, then he got serious. “I sent your night escort after Blukke. Do you want me to get Bristol?”

No. Kallia was certainly not in need of a healer. They could catch the other handmaiden up with the rest tomorrow. Prim shook her head.

Kallia’s bedroom doors opened and a red-faced, frantic Princess Torra rushed out in an askew dress, glancing at Prim out of the corner of her eye as she passed to exit the suite.

Dante made a quiet noise of understanding.

Kallia stormed out next wearing a robe and walking straight for Prim. “I’m glad to see you’re up from your coma, but what the fuck?” Kallia yelled the last three words, the princess’s escorts in the suite straightening but keeping their eyes averted.

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Prim winced, tucking her hands under her legs. “I thought it was Neros in there,” she explained.

The princess threw her hands up. “So what if it was? Am I not allowed to entertain whomever I please?”

Prim grabbed Kallia’s hands and pulled her down to sit next to her, scooting over as she did so. Dante chose to stand rather than remain on the now too-crowded seat. “Dante found the original order for the plot against you.” Prim lowered her voice, leaning into the princess so the escorts wouldn’t hear. “It was Prince Neros.”

Kallia recoiled. “What?” She flicked her eyes to Dante for confirmation, but not before demanding her escorts leave, which they begrudgingly did.

Now alone, Dante nodded, pulling two pieces of parchment from his pocket and handing them to her before positioning himself behind the chaise so he could read them again, too. Prim watched Kallia’s face as the princess compared Sol’s order to Neros’s request for Prim to give him a tour. The princess’s eyes widened with shock, then her brows furrowed in confusion.

“This says unharmed.” Kallia brought her attention to Dante. “Surely that’s not normal for an assassination request?”

Prim blinked, remembering a similar conversation she’d had with Dante when they were traveling. She’d asked if it was normal for someone to want either an assassination or a kidnapping.

Prim plucked the paper from Kallia’s hand, reading it through again. Diversion. Diversion.

Dante had been taking her to Kensut where they would find instructions to go to another city, then another. Maybe it wasn’t to hide the person at the top. Maybe it was just to fill time, keeping Kallia away from Hogard for months.

Long enough for the twins to be born.

Prim squeezed Kallia’s leg. “I didn’t tell you about last night.” Prim explained Neros’s visit and everything he said. “I bet anything when the avians Roan sent to follow the trail get back, they’ll say the last location had instructions to return you home.”

Neros didn’t want Kallia dead. He wanted to marry her so he could be king. He only wanted her gone until he became eligible.

Dante laid a hand on her shoulder. “You think there’s a second client.”

Prim wondered how she’d ever gotten on without Dante’s strong, calming, supportive presence. She couldn’t remember. She couldn't imagine having to go back to that life once he was back in Pregg.

Prim smacked the order, nodding.“This says nothing about paying a hundred thousand golds for an assassination.”

Dante sighed from behind her. “I’ll go through all the papers at the Bench again. But it’ll take a couple of days.”

Kallia slumped into the chaise, huffing a breath. “I can’t believe a prince would do this.”

Prim could. Neros seemed like the kind of guy that would do anything to get what he wanted. For better, like being the perfect husband, or for worse, like having his potential bride kidnapped. But something was off. She started second-guessing herself.

Prim reached her hand up to place it on top of Dante’s still on her shoulder, then tilted her head back to look up at him. “But the paper Somanti offered you listed both jobs on one sheet. As options. And was stamped, right? That means he had to have ordered both. Was it Neros’s stamp?”

Dante licked his lips. “I wasn’t sure at first, but now that I’ve been thinking about it, I really think it was a star in a circle. But I think you’re right. It makes sense that Neros would order the kidnapping. It doesn’t make sense that he’d order an assassination. He would have nothing to gain from that.”

The three sat in silence, processing. Who would have something to gain? The next in line for the throne, Prim supposed. But that would be Kallia’s sweet uncle who was only seen once every few years and was more interested in beekeeping than politics. No, there had to be someone else. Some other motivation besides ruling.

“If the stamp was the same, they either had to be working together or someone added the assassination option to the page after the fact without Neros knowing about it,” Kallia offered.

Prim shot up. “Well, we have a really simple way of finding out.”