Quilla was late. Zandrue hoped she wasn’t getting cold feet. It would be difficult to blame her if she was; Quilla was putting herself in substantial potential danger.

One good thing about last night’s new arrangement was that it had been easy to get Tianna and Laänne to accompany Zandrue to breakfast this morning. That fulfilled the task of making sure there were witnesses. If no one saw what happened, it would be pointless, and if Tianna really was a Darker, that was doubly good, as they needed word to reach the Darkers, preferably as quickly as possible.

Of course, it still required Quilla to actually show up.

And while it might have been easy getting Tianna and Laänne here, Zandrue would only be able to keep them here so long.

“Have you tried these sugar pastries, Zandrue?” Laänne was sitting in a corner chair by the window. A handkerchief with several of the pastries on it lay in her lap.

Zandrue took several of the pastries from the table for herself. “I have.”

“Aren’t they divine?”

Zandrue shrugged. “Personally, I wish they were sweeter, but they’re not bad.”

Laänne looked aghast. “Not bad? Sweeter? They’re heavenly!”

Humans had no concept of sweetness.

The door opened and a servant stepped aside to let Quilla enter. She walked over to the table and took a dish.

“Good morning, Quilla,” Zandrue said.

“Zandrue.” Quilla selected some bread and pieces of dried fruit. “Tianna.”

Tianna barely hid her scowl. “Quilla.” She moved aside with her own plate and joined Laänne.

Zandrue circled the table to be next to Quilla. She selected a couple pieces of fruit while glancing over at Tianna and Laänne. They were talking softly with each other and not looking this direction. Zandrue selected some more fruit and kept her voice to a whisper. “Ready for this?”

“Almost. Just give me a moment.” Quilla’s eyes were a bit red, like she had been crying, or more likely, hadn’t gotten much sleep.

“I’ll take your lead then,” Zandrue said. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Quilla nodded.

Zandrue took her plate of food and joined Tianna and Laänne.

“Zandrue,” Quilla called after her.

Here went nothing. Zandrue turned around. “Yes?”

Quilla poked at the food on her plate. “We see so little of each other these days. I’ve barely seen you at all since the funeral, and that was nearly three weeks ago.”

“I saw you yesterday,” Zandrue said.

“Yes, but that was for just a couple minutes.”

Zandrue shrugged. “I’ve been busy.” She turned back to Tianna and Laänne.

“I was thinking maybe we could get together for dinner tonight,” Quilla said.

Zandrue looked down at Tianna and rolled her eyes.

Tianna smirked.

Zandrue sat down beside Tianna and looked across the room at Quilla. “Sorry, I’m busy tonight.”

“How about tomorrow then?”

Zandrue looked at Tianna and Laänne, who were both looking to the side to hide their smirks. She looked back at Quilla. “I’m probably busy then too, but I’ll get back to you. The next little while is going to be busy, what with New Year’s coming up and all, but I’m sure we can arrange for something next month.”

Quilla slammed her plate onto the table, rattling the cups and dishes there. “You’re ignoring me.”

Zandrue sighed and mouthed to Tianna, “She’s so needy.” Out loud, she said, “No, I’m not ignoring you, Quilla. Like I said, I’ve just been busy.”

“Busy? Doing what exactly? Spending all your time with Princess High and Mighty? Princess I Get Everything Handed to Me on a Silver Platter so I Don’t Have to Do Anything Myself?”

“Oh, is that what this is about, Quilla? You’re jealous?”

“Jealous?” Quilla came around the table and partway to Zandrue. “I wouldn’t be caught dead hanging around with Annai the way you do.”

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“I happen to like Annai.” She gestured to the other two with her. “And Tianna and Laänne here. We have fun together. I’ve tried to invite you to come to our concerts.”

“Bullshit.”

“Excuse me? You were right there when I invited you.”

“Not that. You couldn’t care less about Annai or her sycophant friends. You’re just using them to climb the social ladder. Just like I’m starting to realise you did with me. Remember, you wouldn’t even be in this Palace without me. You gave me support over Garet’s death just long enough to get in here and then you abandoned me as soon as the next opportunity presented itself.”

Zandrue handed her plate to Tianna and jumped to her feet. “Maybe I just wanted to get away from an eternal complainer who whines non-stop about how unfair the world is to her instead of actually doing something about it. All you want, Quilla, is for everyone else to do everything for you. First, it was Garet and that fool doted on you. When he died, you just turned to the nearest alternative. But I’m not Garet. I’m not a lovesick puppy.”

“Oh, and Princess Bitch is so much better than that, is she? She who runs to Mommy any time she needs anything?”

Tianna dropped both her plate and Zandrue’s onto the couch and stood up. She strode past Zandrue and slapped Quilla across the face. “How dare you talk about Annai like that! She is a thousand times your better.”

Zandrue grimaced. She hadn’t really planned on anyone else getting involved—especially physically—in this argument. The plan had been for Zandrue to slap Quilla and for the two of them to then get into a physical fight. In many ways, Tianna getting involved was better, but Zandrue would have pulled her punches and gone easy on Quilla. Tianna almost certainly wouldn’t.

Quilla reeled from the slap. She put a hand to her cheek. “Like I said, a sycophant. Following Annai around, praising every little thing she does, begging for every little scrap of attention and recognition you can get.”

Tianna sneered at her. “And you’re one to talk. You accuse Zandrue of using you to get in here, but that’s all you did with Garet. You were just his Eloorin whore.”

Quilla smiled maliciously. “At least I got to share his bed. You can only dream of fucking Annai.”

“You bitch!” Tianna launched forward, shoving Quilla back into the table, which slid back with the impact. Some of the bread and fruit toppled to the floor.

Quilla tried to regain her balance, but Tianna dove on her. They both fell on the table, which collapsed under their weight. Bread, wine, fruit, and cheese flew through the air. Cups and dishes shattered on the floor.

Zandrue rushed forward. Tianna was on top of Quilla, slapping and grabbing at her face and neck. Quilla shoved her off and rolled over on top of Tianna. Zandrue grabbed Quilla, wrapping her arms under Quilla’s shoulders. She pulled her back away from Tianna. Tianna kicked Quilla in the stomach, and Quilla gasped.

Shit. Zandrue hadn’t meant to give Tianna that opportunity.

“Guards!” Laänne called from her seat.

Quilla tried to struggle free of Zandrue’s hold. “Get the fuck off me!”

Zandrue allowed her to wriggle free.

Tianna came at Quilla again, but Quilla easily knocked the smaller woman aside. Tianna stumbled over a wine pitcher and fell on her back. Zandrue rushed over to Tianna as two Palace guards hurried into the room.

“Take that Eloorin into custody!” Tianna screeched.

The guards took hold of Quilla’s arms. Quilla made only a brief show of struggling before submitting.

Tianna pulled herself to her feet with Zandrue’s help. “You’re out of here, you fucking whore!”

“Take her away from here to somewhere secure,” Zandrue told the guards. “Inform Princess Annai about what’s happened.”

“My Lady,” one of the guards said. The two of them led Quilla from the room.

Zandrue turned to Tianna. “Are you all right?”

Tears were forming in Tianna’s eyes. They began to fall as she closed her eyes. She fell forwards into Zandrue’s arms, and Zandrue hugged her tight.

After a few moments, Zandrue led Tianna back over to the couch. Laänne was still eating pastries, but she leaned over to move the plates of food on the couch aside. Then Zandrue helped Tianna sit down. Zandrue sat beside her and Tianna lay her head on Zandrue’s shoulder and sobbed.

Laänne popped another pastry in her mouth and slid her chair over closer to Tianna and Zandrue. “That was...interesting and disturbing.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t very welcoming of you at first, Zandrue,” Tianna mumbled amidst sobs.

“That’s all right. You’re just protective of Annai and want the best for her. I understand.”

“I just love her so much.” Tianna broke into heavy sobs.

Zandrue stroked Tianna’s hair and looked to Laänne. “Does Annai know?”

Laänne shook her head. “Annai’s sincere when she calls them sisters. She sees their relationship as nothing more than friends who are as close as sisters. If she knew the truth of Tianna’s feelings, she’d...well, she’d be pretty disgusted probably. She’s expressed nothing but disgust at Gabriella’s relationships with women, and more recently, Felitïa. She must never know.”

Zandrue nodded and continued to stroke Tianna’s hair.

When she’d first arrived here, she’d revelled in the luxury and high life. She’d loved having access to fine food and wine, loved having servants to do her hair and make-up, to clean up after her. Part of that joy, however, came from being able to snub her nose at pompous royalty. But after a month and a half here, the thrill had passed. She was ready to leave.

But leaving wasn’t an option. She was committed to rooting out the Darkers. More than that, she’d started to like some of the people she was trying to pull one over on. Annai was full of herself and her belief in her own self-importance, but she wasn’t all bad. And Zandrue really liked Laänne. As for Tianna, seeing her now like this, she was starting to feel pity and concern for her as well.

A large shift from just yesterday morning.

But she was also beginning to think Tianna really had just been on an innocent trip to plan a surprise for Annai yesterday morning and had been spooked by Zandrue. It was beginning to look like Tianna wasn’t a Darker after all.

It would explain why Zandrue hadn’t suspected it before yesterday morning.

Oh well. It was up to Quilla now. Zandrue just hoped she’d correctly predicted Quilla’s punishment. In all likelihood, the Queen wouldn’t get involved in this situation, but if she did, and she got overly vindictive, Quilla’s life might be in serious danger before she even got started on her already dangerous task.