𝚂𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚍 ✔

Chapter Forty-Seven

"At her own family's Ball?" Sheera gripped Merona's hand. "By the Goddess are we not safe anywhere?"

"What makes you think it was her?" Rheda eyed me curiously.

Merona was visibly shaking, not even listening to the conversation at all. Her eyes had glazed over and all she did was stare at Sheera's arm while she chewed at the nails on her free hand.

"Earlier, I watched a misunderstanding unfold between Thomas and Castellana. It appeared, to me, as if she had assumed he was on his way to ask her to be his first dance of the night, but right before he was almost in front of her, he turned and asked Marjorie instead. Something she did not take well." I tore my eyes from Merona to face Rheda, "She's been gone for almost thirty minutes now."

"She is quite vindictive, but still, to brutally attack someone at her parents Ball is rather much, don't you agree?" Sheera did not seem convinced, though she was considering it.

"I agree that there is a lack of evidence to confidently say it was her, cousin. However," Rheda looked around the room then back at us, "this is the second attack to happen in such a short span of time. Not only that but they both have something in common that rules out the possibility of them having been mere coincidences."

"The victims of both events were Thomas' suitresses." I muttered, having already recognized the similarity.

"Are you saying we were targeted?" Sheera's eyes grew wide and her brows angry. "That what happened to Emma and I had not just been bad luck?"

"It is starting to seem that way." Rheda sighed. "If Castellana is not the one behind these attacks, then it is at least someone in this very room. Someone who deemed you all obstacles."

Merona started shaking even worse, as if all her fears had been validated. She had expressed earlier in the night that she had a gnawing feeling, one she could not shake that made her feel as if anyone in the room could attack her at any moment. So, to be told that we all were, potentially, not safe, so long as we stayed in the competition, only added to her torment.

But I understood how she felt because after Rheda had said it, my skin felt lit a flame, as if everyone in the room had all turned their eyes on me at once. That amongst them stood someone willing to kill us if we continued to stand in their way.

"None of you were the intended victim that day." I blurted out, hoping to lessen the burden on them all. "It was me. Whoever it was sent those men to rape me and if that was not possible then I was to be killed."

Rheda watched me for a moment, "So that is what you and mother were talking about earlier. How did you find this out?"

"Is that why the queen asked me to leave before you?" Sheera's green eyes had softened, but her face remained tight.

"No, the Queen had wanted to talk about something else." I shook my head, "Henry was the only one who thought to tell me."

"Since when had you and him become friendly enough for him to reveal such secretive information? That is not something easily shared." Sheera raised a brow, then her eyes widened as if she had realized something. "Have you-"

"Better yet," Rheda came to my rescue once again, "how did they find this out?"

"A letter was found at the bandit's camp; in it the necklace Thomas had given me as a gift was described in detail so that they could identify me without issue." I swallowed hard, "Not long before our departure, Castellana caused a huge scene in the drawing room about me wearing it and I had angered her countless times leading up to the attack as well. Though, again that could all be simply coincidental."