AS SOON AS Claudette steps into the room, Maisie knows something is off with her.
A deep frown is etched onto her face; her skin is slightly pale and her forehead is glistening with beads of sweat, giving her an almost sickly look. Every time Maisie tries to catch her gaze, Claudette's eyes dart away nervously.
"Why are you acting like you just robbed a bank?" Maisie asks jokingly, not missing the way Claudette flinches at the sound of her voice.
"Just not feeling too great," she replies, still not looking Maisie in the eyes.
"Maybe you should lay down?" Maisie suggests, waving to the other couches dominating the room. Maisie herself is lounging on the comfiest one, boots off and head resting on a fluffy pillow. Claudette sits daintily on the couch closest to Maisie's feet, rubbing her hands against her jeans and sucking in a deep breath.
"What's really wrong with you?"
"Well..." Claudette gives her a long look before blurting out, "I know who you are."
"Okay." Maisie shrugs nonchalantly, folding her arms behind her head.
"What," Claudette says flatly, the word not even coming out as a question. The assassin gives her a smile, half mocking, half genuine.
"You're a smart girl, I knew you'd figure it out eventually."
Claudette slumps back against the couch, letting out an exhausted sigh. They're both quiet for several minutes and with the silence comes a soothing familiarity. Maisie doesn't know when she became so used to Claudette's presence but she realizes that she doesn't mind being around her. She doesn't completely trust her of course, but Claudette's company doesn't irritate her like her sisters did back at the manor. In fact, she sometimes enjoys being around the leader of the Flora and Fauna.
"You're okay with me knowing?" Claudette finally asks, confusion lacing her voice.
"Are you going to tattle?" Maisie sounds amused but she knows Claudette can detect the underlying threat in her words.
"No but if anyone finds out we knew..." She sits up straighter, staring intensely at Maisie. "Aiden and Hunter are my family. Finding you was my idea and I don't want them to go down with you when you get caught."
"When?"
"You think you can kill the entire royal family, throw the country into complete chaos and actually get away with it?"
Maisie smirks. "I've been getting away with the things I've done my entire life. What's a little more?"
The other girl is silent, her face twisted with some emotion Maisie can't identify. For a brief second, she contemplates killing Claudette. She has no use for her anymore and she knows Maisie's secret. Why keep her around? She had gotten rid of Eleanor as soon as she stopped being useful — so what was keeping Maisie from giving Claudette the same fate?
Maisie studies her carefully, looking closely at things she never really bothered to pay attention to before; untamable curly brown hair, light brown skin, the splattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Narrowed eyes, pursed lips, furrowed brows. Fire in her gaze and a wary strength in her bones. A revolutionary in the body of a young girl.
"I don't care what you do, as long as you don't drag us down with you," Claudette murmurs eventually. "And when you're done, we never cross paths again."
For some reason, that doesn't sit well with Maisie. But she agrees to it anyway with a nod and a forced smile.
"Okay, now that the heavy stuff is out of the way, I have to say — your boots are tiny. What size shoe do you wear?"
Maisie watches Claudette pick up her right boot and then closes her eyes as she leans back against the pillow, laughing. "Five."
There's a long pause, some faint noise accompanying it, and then she hears the boot fall back against the floor. Before long, exhaustion overcomes her and Maisie falls asleep, faintly snoring.
Claudette quickly exits the room soon after.
✦ ✦ ✦
THE ALLEYWAY IS empty when Claudette finally arrives, her heart pounding and hands trembling.
She can't help glancing over her shoulder for a purple cloak and a curved blade, expecting the assassin to have already figured out her plan. Her betrayal.
"Deep breaths, Banks." The voice comes from out of nowhere, although it's too deep and too male to be the one she feared would come. A figure steps into the alley, illuminated by the streetlights, and Claudette realizes she's nearly hyperventilating. Her chest is heaving and her vision is starting to go blurry as the officer glances over her warily. "Hey, you're doing the right thing."
"Right," she whispers, leaning against the brick wall next to her.
"Did you do it?"
This is it, the moment she switches sides, the moment she trades in the assassin for immunity. The royal council and the police force know she's been in contact with Maisie — how exactly, she's not sure — and she's graciously been given a way out.
Tell us what you know about Mauve and you don't have to go down with her.
Save your two friends and your group full of wannabe rebels.
She had it coming — she killed your queen, your king.
He wasn't my king, Claudette wanted to say, but the words were stuck in her throat.
All you have to do, they said, with sinister smiles hidden behind soft voices, is find a way to put this tracking device on her.
And she did.
"Yes."
Sorry Maisie.
"It's in her boot."
✦ ✦ ✦
