The Rebel Prince (The Season Series #3)

Chapter 16 - Part 1

It did not take long for Dulciana to deploy Ana-Cristina to intercept me, but I'd expected as much. I was in her way again, now that I was very inconveniently alive.

I'd finished my breakfast in silence, the room finally tilting to a stop around me now that there was food in my belly. I left the empty dining room, finding my way back outside into the sunshine, wondering which royal sibling would be the first to accost me. The king's shouting fury had echoed through the royal tower, confirming my suspicions that Frederico wouldn't be the first, not if he was aiding his father in disciplining Armando.

My second guess had been the correct one. Perched beside one of the fountains in the garden just outside my tower, Ana-Cristina had changed from the dress she'd worn to breakfast, now garbed in an enticing concoction of shimmering sapphire, accenting her narrow waist and ample bosom.

A pretty, gift-wrapped princess, sent to get rid of me as a threat to Dulciana's throne.

"Are you all right?" Ana-Cristina asked, setting down the book of love poetry she'd been flipping through in an attempt to act nonchalant.

I smirked, but kept walking.

I wanted to see how desperately Dulciana wanted me out of her way.

As expected, Ana-Cristina hurried to catch up to me, calling out for me to wait. I ignored her, already three steps up towards my suite when she caught my arm.

"I thought I'd offer you a palace tour to cheer you up," she said, breathless from having run in such a tight corset to catch me.

This again, I thought. Did she only have one trick to woo her suitors? The dangerous smirk still graced my face when I turned to face her.

"Perhaps some other time," I said, pulling my arm from her grasp.

"I heard what happened," she said, stilling my feet as I climbed. I turned to her, ice and stone in my gaze. She swallowed and I fought to keep from laughing.

Mother's glare worked so well on strangers.

"I'm very happy you're alive," she continued warily, before slipping back into her role of seductress. "I thought I'd show you something that could help you, if ever you found yourself in such a situation again..."

Such a situation. Did she mean the poison or the assassins? My thoughts jumped immediately to the empty glass vial of rosy liquid, now sitting in my jacket pocket. If she was about to show me where the royal family kept their supply of panacea, it would be a mistake to turn her down. But after last night's events, I didn't trust her not to be leading me into yet another trap.

"Come," she said, reaching for my hand again. I twitched it out of her reach.

"If you really know what happened last night, you'll understand why I'm disinclined to follow you, or any member of your family," I said, nothing friendly in my tone. She swallowed again, but persisted.

Dulciana wanted me out of the way very badly, it seemed.

"I want to help you protect yourself," she said. "We have quite the number of poisons to choose from, some that would be enough to fell an attacker with a simple puff of powder."

The attackers in the alley, that was the attempt on my life that she knew about. Interesting, considering it was the one that Dulciana could most easily distance herself from by explaining it away as a random attack by disgruntled commoners.

Which had me wondering whether Ana-Cristina knew anything about any of Dulciana's plans...

"Did you know that she's planning on selling you to one of the duques to back her claim to the throne?" I asked.