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MADAME, the headmistress of the female Windborn ward, stomped her foot and the sound hit Meretta like a shockwave. Instead of curling into herself, Meretta straightened and set her jaw with utter defiance.
“I don’t care where that brat has gone. She had business with her Majesty. That’s all you need to know,” Madame roared.
“It’s been three days!” Meretta persisted. “I demand an audience!”
Madame scoffed with outrage. “I will not have you speak to me like that, young Windborn.”
Meretta flinched when Madame abruptly turned to leave and her arm flung wide, dangerously close to Meretta’s head.
Meretta gulped down further retort, digging her nails into her palms as tears stung her eyes. Madame wasn’t going to be any help. The bracelets about her chubby wrists strained as Madame clenched the door and slammed it behind her. There was a moment of silence that amplified the small, but terrifying click as Madame locked the door.
“You think that’s going to stop me from finding Azrael?” Meretta shouted and her voice broke.
When only silence was her response, she swirled toward the small chest next to her bed. She opened it and carelessly dumped the contents on the ground. Jewels and trinkets clattered to the floor, all gifts from suitors. She’d hidden them from Azrael as they’d accumulated. Azrael had no such treasures to her name, nothing save a smashed Dark gem.
Meretta ripped out the velvet lining to reveal the secret compartment. A suitor would never would have gifted her the item she’d hidden inside. She’d dealt with Michael for this.
Meretta still felt guilty for stealing Azrael’s undergarments as the payment, but every horror story she’d heard from whispering servants, or visiting mistrals, aroused a growing awareness that Azrael was in danger. Hybrids were rumored to contain evil powers, and some even bartered in the trade of their blood. She cringed and gripped the box. Did Azrael know that?
She turned the knob and opened the secret latch, revealing the silvered lock pick. A smile crept across her lips. She’d hoped to never require this key, but now that the moment was here, her heart thrummed in her chest like an excited child.
Key in hand, Meretta ran to the door and pressed her ear against it. Silence. She shoved the pick into the slot and the lock gave way with a sharp tick. Sighing with relief, she tucked the pick into her robes. Even though she’d practiced a hundred times on any lock she could find, she’d never once tried to pick the Queen’s door. Only a fool would try such a thing. But if worrying for Azrael made her a fool, then so be it.
Creaking the door open, Meretta peered into the dark halls of the female Windborn ward. Madame had stomped off to only-the-Divine-knew-where, and likely would make rounds to return. Meretta closed the door, making sure to lock it before breaking into a run.
The threading of her soft moccasins strained against her tiny feet as she silently sped through the halls. It was one of the few suitors’ gifts she truly appreciated.
Her breath came in deep gasps as she raced through the male Windborn ward. Silent forms tossed and turned on their bed sheets and she didn’t dare stop to find out if she’d been seen. She pushed herself onwards and bent her head down like a galloping horse. The faster she found the Queen, the faster she would find answers. No matter the cost, she had to find out what happened to Azrael!
She slowed when the Queen’s dark, ancient doors loomed like beacons in the shadows. She scanned the runes and felt their fear and hesitation at her approach, or maybe they only reflected her own? She shook her head, not having time to ponder the mystical nature of the Queen’s chambers.
The doors would be locked this time of night. Meretta wrapped her fingers around the pick and held her breath as she slipped it into the keyhole. It turned, but resisted.
“Come on!” she quietly urged.
She angled the pick and it pushed in a little farther. Meretta placed her ear against the wood hoping to hear the lock’s inner workings. To her relief, there was a slight click and the lock shifted. With that small sense of victory, she pushed the door open.
Meretta poked her head inside and her elation turned to shock. Servant girls jumped to their feet and pulled at blades strapped to their thighs. Before she had time to draw breath to scream, a cold blade was already grazing her throat.
Even if they looked like angels with their blonde curls and blazing green eyes, the Queen’s handmaidens were not to be underestimated. They turned to the Queen and waited for her command.
“M-Majesty,” Meretta stammered. “I’m sorry to disturb you.” She hadn’t been sure how the Queen would react, but she hadn’t considered she’d be mistaken for an assassin.
“Why have you come, child?” the Queen asked, barely allowing her gaze to rise from the array of letters strewn across her bedsheets.
At a short nod from the Queen, the handmaidens released her and Meretta drew in a short gasp of air. She waited for the black dots in her vision to clear before approaching the Queen. “Please forgive my intrusion. I have come seeking Azrael’s whereabouts. I have not seen nor heard from her for three days.” Against her better judgment, Meretta lifted her gaze from her feet and took in the full force of the Queen’s intense stare. “Not since she was sent to see you, Majesty.”
The Queen’s features softened. “I will tell you what has befallen Azrael, if you tell me how it is you’ve come to my chambers.”
Meretta blushed. “Majesty?”
The Queen scooted to the edge of the bed and swung her legs over the side and a few letters with a red-waxen royal seal drifted to the ground. “My chambers were locked.”
Meretta swallowed as an invisible force pressed against her chest. Azrael had warned her of the Queen’s magic. Meretta had never believed it, but the compulsion to tell the truth now made her question that doubt. “One of the Windborn boys has a connection to some of the older engineer graduates. I bartered for a lock pick...”
The Queen laughed and Meretta shot her gaze back to the ground. “Michael, no doubt,” the Queen observed. “He will make a fine politician one day. He has the black-market skills for it.”
Meretta nodded and wound her trembling fingers around one another. “Yes, Majesty.”
The Queen rose and glided to Meretta. Whether it was magic or nerves, Meretta’s knees had gone weak. The Queen’s fingers pulled Meretta’s chin so that she had no choice but to look at her. Nausea set in as she searched the Queen’s eyes, unable to make sense of the golden specks that glimmered in the backs of her pupils.
“Azrael has undergone the first trial of the Acceptance,” the Queen said as the golden storm in her gaze eased into darkness.
Her nausea was replaced by a spike of adrenaline. “Azrael’s to become Queen?” Meretta breathed. “But, she’s a hybrid.”
The Queen’s magic released her like a vice being unlocked and Meretta fell to her knees.
“The Divine choose who they deem fit.” The Queen shifted her weight onto her hip. “You wish to know where she is? I assure you, she’s well. Unconscious while she heals.”
Meretta blinked up at Queen Ceres. “Is she in pain?”
The Queen frowned. “We’re not sure. Her healing isn’t progressing as we’d expected.” The Queen tilted her head, raising one brow. “Do you wish to ease her into health?”
Meretta burst into a wide smile. “Oh, yes! Please, let me be with her. I will watch her day and night. I promise, I’ll do everything I can to help her get better!”
The Queen hummed. She stroked a silver painted nail across her chin. “Perhaps.”
Meretta smiled. As the days had gone by, her fears had escalated. She’d imagined a suitor had come to claim Azrael with an offer the Queen couldn’t refuse. Or perhaps she’d offended some high lord, or the Queen herself, and was in secluded punishment. But that she would be healing from the first trial of the Acceptance? Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined that as a possibility.
Meretta bowed her head to the cool floor with poise and reverence. “I am but your humble servant, Majesty. I’d do anything for Azrael. You won’t regret it.”
The Queen chuckled. “You have caught me in a time of change. Any other day, I would balk at such an offer. The Inner Sanctum is for only the chosen few. But today...I believe in miracles, and I believe Azrael needs you. You shall tend to her. But first, there’s someone I wish you to meet.”
Meretta raised her face with elation. “Of course. Who?”
The Queen offered a wry grin. “I’ll let him introduce himself.”