Prim looked at the princess expectantly, waiting for her to agree with the unspoken plan, but Kallia shook her head, her mouth a tight line.

Prim dropped back onto the chaise and groaned. “Why can’t we just ask him? Are you seriously not going to do anything about the fact that he was willing to let a stranger manhandle you for months so he could steal you from his little brother?”

“Manhandle?” Dante purred, placing a hand on either shoulder this time and brushing his fingers over the exposed skin of her collarbone. Fuck, how could he have her stomach flipping at a time like this?

Kallia eyed them and her mouth twitched up. “Maybe you should send him a gift for introducing you two.”

Prim hadn’t thought about it like that. Maybe she should.

Then a sick thought twisted her heart.

She gripped Kallia’s hands. “Does this mean Neros killed Roan?”

The princess immediately shook her head. “Why would it?”

Prim stared at her friend as if it was obvious. “His murderer must have been involved with the plot against you.”

Dante squeezed her shoulders as Kallia’s face turned soft. Pitying. Prim’s chest tightened.

Kallia took her hand. “Sweetheart, I know you were in shock when you found Roan. We let you question those people to help ease your mind. But the guards reported how he died to my parents.” Her grip on Prim’s hand tightened. “There was no murderer.”

Fucking Sarasha. “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about!” Prim said, snatching her hand back.

Kallia frowned. “Who?” she asked softly.

“Sarasha. She’s the one who told your parents that, right?”

Kallia brought her attention to Dante as if looking for support. He said nothing, only rubbed his thumbs over the back of Prim’s neck. The princess sighed. “No, sweetie. The other kerns made the report. He was in a locked room, the dagger used was his own, there were no signs of a struggle or an intruder.”

Prim didn’t have it in her to argue with Kallia about this, though the princess knew Roan just as well as she did--knew he would have never done that. He would have never abandoned his duties. He would have never abandoned his friends.

Though she also thought he’d never betray Dante’s secret and he’d done that.

She ignored the piercing, worried look on Kallia’s face and focused on the smooth edge of the stone table in front of them, cleared of the snacks it usually bore and instead displaying a vase of light pink flowers. Then she changed the subject back to the matter at hand. “We should confront Neros.”

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Kallia nodded. “Tomorrow, I will invite him to have a chat.”

A knock sounded at the door and Dante strode across the room to answer it. After the guard cleared it with Kallia, Blukke entered in his normal clothes to stand next to Dante in his guard uniform. The latter shut the door behind him and quietly spoke to his friend before both men joined the women on the chaises.

“He’s up to speed,” Dante announced as he took a seat on the edge of the adjacent chaise to Prim and reached his arm across the gap between them to place a hand on her knee. Blukke sat across from them. “If I may make a suggestion?” Dante directed the question at the princess.

Kallia smiled gently at him. “You can always speak freely. You’re one of us now. You don’t have to ask for permission.”

Prim’s frustration with the princess turned into gratitude for accepting Dante completely--for trusting Prim enough to accept Dante completely despite his past--and she leaned her head on her shoulder.

Dante cleared his throat. “I think it would be best if no one else was present. Just us four. And Bristol, I guess, if you want her. But not the escorts.” He glanced sidelong at Prim, swallowing. “Not Sarasha.”

Prim straightened, furrowing her brows. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Dante squeezed her knee. “I know you like her. I’m not questioning your judgment. I just think we should be better safe than sorry.”

Prim didn’t bother to tell him her opinion of the guard had changed. She’d never trusted the fae completely, anyway. It wasn’t Prim who had shared their secret nights together with her, but Roan.

Instead, she just voiced her agreement. Then turned to Kallia. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be alone with any of the Lanhami.”

Kallia sucked her cheeks in a face of annoyance. “Torra isn’t going to hurt me.”

Prim took the princess’s hand. “I’m sure before this conversation you thought Neros wouldn’t, either, right?”

Kallia offered a mischievous smile. “I never gave it a thought because I had no interest in being alone with him. Torra, however, I made a point to watch and found that she’s as sweet on the inside as she is on the outside. And that she was just as interested in me as I was with her. She’s not going to hurt me.”

Prim saw the two men exchange a look but she kept her focus on the princess. “How can you say that when she’s cheating on her fae back in Lanham that she’s likely going to marry as soon as she gets back now that she’s sixth in line? That’s certainly not sweet.” Prim hated to throw that in Kallia’s face, but she needed the princess to understand it wasn’t safe to trust any of the Lanhami after Neros’s betrayal. They could all be in on it.

Kallia shook her head, squeezing Prim’s hand, that sly smile still on her face. “Your gossip was wrong. She has no fae. She never did. She’s completely unattached.”

Prim sighed. Well, shit. “At least wait to entertain her again until after we talk to Neros and find out if she’s involved.”

Kallia glanced at the two men, obviously recalling she made them prove their trustworthiness by spending a night in the dungeons. Torra was getting off easy. “I suppose that’s fair.”

The four decided they would have Neros come early in the day, Blukke using his gift to subdue the prince while Dante determined his truthfulness as they questioned him. If they didn’t find the answers, they’d send Dante and Blukke back to the Bench to search the papers again, now knowing they should be looking for a four hundred thousand gold proposal for an assassination. Kallia would decide what to do with Neros after their talk.

Prim, however, had her own plans for after the interrogation. Now that she knew that no one cared about finding Roan’s murderer but her, everyone else believing the lie that there wasn’t one to find, she’d seek out the only person she could think of who might be able to help her with her investigation, ignoring the knot in her stomach begging her to stay away.