Chapter 6 — The Lie He Loved for Forty Years

Adrian emerged from confinement fifteen days later with shadows beneath his eyes and a tremor in his left hand.

He came to the Winter Solstice banquet anyway.

The court watched him cross the Hall of Stars with Seraphina on his arm. Music swelled. Hundreds of candles flashed against mirrored walls. The Crown Prince smiled as though he had not lost his Exchequer seat, defended an accused thief, or screamed another woman’s name in his sleep.

Seraphina smiled too.

Only her fingers betrayed her. They tightened around Adrian’s sleeve each time his step faltered.

Julian and I sat three places below Prince Lucien.

"Your former husband is staring at my hand," Julian murmured.

I had been removing the shell from a river crab. "Perhaps he wants one."

"I meant the hand you are holding."

I looked down.

At some point beneath the table, Julian’s fingers had laced with mine.

"That is your hand," I said.

"So it is. Shall I ask for it back?"

"You may submit a written petition."

His thumb brushed once across my knuckles.

Across the table, Adrian set down his wine too hard.

The stem snapped.

Conversation died around us.

"My brother appears to be enjoying married life," Adrian said.

Julian glanced at the broken glass. "More than some."

Seraphina went pale.

Before Adrian could answer, she looked toward Lucien.

It was quick, but Julian saw it.

"Your wife seems troubled," he said to Adrian. "Perhaps you should watch her instead of mine."

Lucien lifted his cup, hiding his mouth.

Seraphina’s spoon struck her plate.

King Rowan demanded music, and the orchestra obeyed. Conversation returned in careful fragments, but Adrian’s attention no longer rested on me.

He watched Seraphina.

After the banquet, Julian and I left through the moon gallery. Snow pressed white against the high windows.

Adrian stepped from behind a pillar.

"A word, Lady Evelyn. Alone."

Julian did not release my arm.

"No," I said. "Whatever you wish to say can survive my husband’s hearing."

Adrian flinched at the word husband.

"You arranged Cedric’s disgrace," he said. "You planted something in Seraphina’s wedding incense. Now you parade Julian before me. What game are you playing?"

"A game requires uncertain rules. You have been painfully predictable."

He came closer.

"You chose him to punish me."

Julian shifted, but I touched his wrist. This was mine.

"Adrian, do you truly believe every choice I make begins with you?"

"I remember how you deceived me."

"You remember one life."

The words struck him harder than a slap.

"How many were there?"

"Enough for me to learn that your certainty kills more efficiently than poison."

His face drained of color.

"In the life you remember, you locked me in St. Orla’s Tower for forty years," I said. "You called it justice because you never once asked whether your memories began at the beginning."

"You lied about the medallion."

"I did. And for that lie, you erased my name, dissolved our marriage, and gave my life to stone walls. If you want to punish me again, first learn what you are protecting."

Snow hissed against the gallery windows.

Adrian looked past me to Julian. "And you believe her?"

"I believe ledgers, chemical reactions, and men who panic when warehouses are searched," Julian replied. "Conveniently, my wife brought me all three."

"What poison?"

"The one burning in your rooms. The one mixed into your wine or medicine when incense is not enough. The one that killed you slowly in a life you do not remember."

"You expect me to trust you?"

"No. Trust has made a fool of you. I expect you to verify."

I gave him instructions.

Seal the Crown Prince’s residence before warning Seraphina. Replace every brazier with clean silver. Separate the ash from his study, bedroom, and chapel. Collect his wine, tonic, and sleeping draught. Summon three experts who owed loyalty to different patrons.

"One royal physician," I said. "One apothecary chosen by the Queen. One military toxicologist from my father’s regiment. Do not tell any of them what the others find."

Adrian stared at me.

"And if they find nothing?"

"Then arrest me for poisoning the heir."

Julian turned sharply. "Evelyn."

"If they find nothing," I repeated, "I will enter the palace prison willingly."

Adrian’s old arrogance returned just enough to steady him.

"You will come with me."

"Gladly."

He sent a guardsman ahead with sealed orders. By the time our carriage crossed the river, no servant could leave the Crown Prince’s residence.

Seraphina had returned before us. Adrian greeted her in the entry hall and kissed her cheek.

"My father wishes to discuss Cedric again," he lied. "Wait for me in your chamber."

Her gaze moved to Julian and then to me.

"Why are they here?"

"Lady Evelyn has made an accusation. I intend to disprove it."

Relief softened her mouth.

"Of course."

She touched his face with such tenderness that even I might have believed her once.

Then she went upstairs.

The examinations lasted two hours.

For the first half hour, Seraphina played the obedient bride. Then a bell rang upstairs. A maid appeared at the landing to say the Crown Princess wished to retire to the Queen’s apartments until the accusation was resolved.

Adrian looked toward the stairs.

"My wife remains in her chamber."

The maid hesitated. "Her Highness says she feels unsafe."

"Then double the guard."

It was the first order he had ever given against Seraphina.

The royal physician tested Adrian’s wedding-night ash. The Queen’s apothecary heated residue from his sleeping draught. The military toxicologist placed a drop of reagent into wine taken from a locked cabinet in Seraphina’s sitting room.

Three separate dishes produced the same black crystalline bloom.

Adrian said nothing.

Julian placed the sealed control sample from Bell & Briar beside the dishes. It contained the wedding incense before Seraphina burned it. Under heat, it produced no crystals.

"The perfume itself was clean when it left the merchant," he said. "Something was added inside this residence."

Adrian’s gaze fixed on the three black blooms. "Could you have altered the control?"

"Yes," Julian said.

Adrian looked up, startled by the answer.

"That is why the merchant retained a second sample under his own seal. Your guards collected it an hour ago. It gave the same clean result."

He ordered the experts into different rooms and questioned them one at a time.

Their language varied. Their conclusion did not.

A compound of heart-active herbs and mineral salts had entered his body repeatedly. The doses were small, designed to produce weakness over months or years. Without a periodic counteragent, the damage would accelerate.

"Since when?" Adrian asked.

Dr. Fairfax looked at the sample taken from the bridal chamber.

"This residue is at least as old as your wedding night, Your Highness. That is the earliest sample we possess."

Adrian gripped the edge of the table.

"Search everything."

The guards opened cabinets, dress boxes, jewel cases, and escritoires. Seraphina shouted from upstairs when they entered her rooms.

In her dressing chamber, a maid found three gowns with narrow inner pockets sewn into the sleeves. Two were empty.

The third contained a ring of blue wax no larger than a fingernail.

It matched the wax Julian had seen on the antidote bottle beneath the yews.

A guard also found a false bottom in Seraphina’s wine cabinet. The compartment was empty, but a circular stain marked where a narrow bottle had stood.

Julian measured it with a strip of paper.

"Same width as an apothecary counteragent vial," he said.

From upstairs came the crash of breaking glass.

Seraphina had stopped pretending to wait calmly.

Adrian rubbed it between his fingers.

"What was here?"

No one answered.

He looked at me.

For the first time in any life, there was no accusation in his eyes.

Only terror.

"In the life you remember," I said quietly, "Seraphina stayed beside you for forty years. You believed that proved she loved you."

His lips parted.

"What did it prove?"

"Ask her."

Dr. Fairfax lifted one of the black crystals with silver forceps.

"Your Highness, this poison has been fed to you since your wedding night."

Adrian closed his hand around the blue wax.

He crossed the corridor and dismissed the guards outside Seraphina’s chamber.

Then he pushed open the door.

"Tell me," he said, "which of my deaths do you remember?"