How to Poison Your Husband [COMPLETE! Cozy Romantasy With A Dash Of Murder]

Step 10c: ...because you did something stupid

The Captain of the Guard leapt to obey Queen Ysette, as did two of the others. The shortest guard—the one who had looked especially chagrined at barging in on Lillian unannounced—shuffled on his feet.

"Um... er... Your Highness?" he piped up. "Under what grounds are we imprisoning La—er, Queen Lillian? I know the jester was involved in the King's murder. But Queen Lillian—well, I feel as though there ought to be more of a justification—"

"The justification is that if you don't arrest her, you'll be losing fingers and other unfortunate bits before I'm through with you," Ysette hissed. "Is that sufficient?"

"Ah. Right. Yes! Excellent justification. Excellent," the unfortunate guard babbled, stumbling to obey. "Righty-o! Arrest her. Yes. Carry on!"

Ivelle barely registered the walk to the dungeons. Despair settled over her like a waterlogged cloak, chilling her skin with the inevitability of soaked fabric. Again and again, her thoughts circled back to the moment in Lillian's bedroom when she'd shouted Eirifold's name and he'd finally looked up at her across the detritus littering Lillian's desk.

No hint of warmth had penetrated his gaze.

He'd looked at her like she was nothing to him. Like he hated her.

It was exactly the same as the look on Saffron's face the night he'd shot her mother.

He thinks I betrayed him, Ivelle thought, and the sick feeling rose in her stomach until it threatened to choke her. He thinks I'm a murderer...

"What happened to your arm?"

Lillian seemed to have recovered from her earlier bout of torture. She gazed at Ivelle's arm with distaste tinged with worry. Dimly, Ivelle realized the bandage had come dislodged from her shoulder. A trickle of blood was making its way down her bicep.

"It's fine," Ivelle muttered.

Thinking of her injury made her remember Ash's wounds, and her heart sank further. She had to be the worst friend in the world. She hadn't even remembered to find Ash before being dragged back to prison. Was her crow also suffering? Had Ysette gotten her hands on him too?

They descended the stairs beneath the flickering torchlight. "Move," snapped the captain, shoving Ivelle into the cell block. She stumbled forward, misery making her clumsy. It was only when she was halfway across the cell block that she realized the dungeon was not as empty as she'd thought.

"Mariel? What are you doing here?"

The princess of Estrella looked like she had gotten into a battle with a tumbleweed and lost. Her cheeks were scratched, a bruise had started to spring up on her temple, and strands of hair were escaping from her carefully-maintained braids. She shot Ivelle an irritated look across the cell block. "I made it halfway across the city, but the guards found me and dragged me back. What about—" She broke off as she caught sight of Lillian. "Why is she here?"

"Enough chitchat!"

Queen Ysette's earlier display seemed to have profoundly unnerved the Captain of the Guard. His face dripped sweat, and his hands shook as he snapped shackles onto Ivelle's wrists. "Before you even think of trying to escape again, know this!" He wagged a threatening finger. "The spells on the locks have all been magically reinforced. Your magical handcuffs are bespelled to explode if you go past the threshold of this cell block! Let this be a lesson to you: no one escapes His Highness' dungeons!"

He hurried away, perspiration dripping in his wake.

"Adorable." Lillian studied her nails. "The poor man is scared out of his mind."