I settled into the chair beside Kael's bed, watching him sleep, and began planning for every possible contingency. Because if I'd learned anything in my time in Shadowmere, it was this: hope for the best, but always, always prepare for the worst.
"My Lady," Mira said softly after an hour had passed. "You should rest too. You've been awake for over twenty-four hours."
"I can't. Not yet. Not until I'm certain he's stable." I took Kael's hand, feeling the warmth that had returned to his skin, the steady pulse beneath my fingers. "Besides, I need to think. Need to plan."
"What's there to plan? We know who the traitors are now."
"We know Darian and Isla. But they're not the only ones. There are others. People we haven't identified yet. People who might be even more dangerous because they're still hidden."
A knock at the door interrupted us. I tensed, hand going to my knife, but Captain Thorne's voice came from outside. "Princess, I have Isla. She's confessed to everything. You need to hear this."
I glanced at Kael, but he was still deeply asleep. Leaving him seemed wrong, but I needed to hear what Isla had to say.
"Mira, stay with him. If he wakes, don't let him try to leave this bed. Use force if necessary."
"Understood."
I opened the door to find Captain Thorne looking grim. "What did she say?"
"Everything. She broke quickly once we mentioned that Prince Kael survived. She's been working with Prince Darian for over a year, feeding him information about magical theory and creating various potions for his use. Including the poison she gave you."
"Did she tamper with it on Darian's orders?"
"No. That's the interesting part. She swears she gave you exactly what you asked for—a temporary death poison that should have worn off in six hours. She says if someone tampered with it, they did so after it left her possession."
I felt cold. "Meaning someone else knew about our plan. Someone who had access to the poison between when Isla gave it to us and when I administered it to Kael."
"Exactly. Which means we still have an unidentified traitor in our midst. Someone close enough to access your private chambers."
I thought about that, about who had been in and out of our rooms in the hours before the feast. Servants, obviously. But we'd screened them all, replaced suspicious ones with loyal people from Mira's network. Unless one of the loyal ones wasn't actually loyal. Unless someone had turned one of our own people without us knowing.
"Where is Isla now?"
"In the dungeons. Under heavy guard. She's terrified, convinced Daemon will have her killed for failing to permanently eliminate Prince Kael."
"She's probably right. Which makes her valuable. If she's afraid of Daemon, she might be willing to give us more information to buy protection." I made a decision. "I want to question her myself. Bring her to the secure room we've been using for private meetings. And Captain? Tell absolutely no one where you're taking her or why. If there's still a traitor close to us, I don't want them knowing what we're doing."
"Understood. I'll have her there within the hour."
After he left, I returned to the bedside. Kael was still sleeping peacefully, his color much better now. The poison was fully purged from his system, his curse had stabilized, and his body was beginning the natural healing process.
"I'll be back soon," I whispered to him, kissing his forehead. "Don't wake up and do anything heroic while I'm gone. Just rest."
An hour later, I sat across from Isla in the secure room. The healer looked terrible—pale, shaking, with dark circles under her eyes. She'd been crying, her face blotchy and swollen.
"Princess, please, you have to believe me. I gave you exactly what you asked for. I would never have made poison strong enough to actually kill Prince Kael. I'm a healer. I save lives, I don't take them."
"And yet you've been working with Prince Darian, helping him plot against his own brother. Helping him work with Daemon. That sounds like taking lives to me."
"I didn't know! I swear I didn't know Darian was working with Daemon until it was too late. He told me he needed various potions for legitimate purposes. Research. Personal use. I never questioned it because he's a prince and I'm just a healer. I do what I'm told."
"That's a coward's excuse. You knew something was wrong. You chose not to look too closely because it was easier." I leaned forward. "But you have a chance now to make this right. To help us stop Daemon before more people die. Tell me everything Darian asked you to make. Every potion, every poison, every magical formula. And tell me who else he was working with."
Isla hesitated, fear and desperation warring on her face. "If I tell you, if I betray Daemon's network, they'll kill me. They'll kill my family. You don't understand what these people are capable of."
"I understand perfectly. They murdered Queen Arianna. They murdered Lady Morgana. They've killed servants and guards and anyone else who got in their way. I know exactly what they're capable of." I kept my voice hard. "But you need to understand something too. Right now, I'm your only chance at survival. Help me, and I'll protect you and your family. Refuse, and I'll leave you to Daemon's mercy. What do you think he'll do to the healer who failed to kill Prince Kael?"
That broke her. Isla started talking, words tumbling out in a desperate rush. She listed dozens of potions and poisons she'd created for Darian over the past year. Substances to induce illness, to cause hallucinations, to weaken magical defenses. She described coded meetings where Darian would pick up his orders and leave payment. And most importantly, she named names.
Other people in the castle who were working with Darian. Servants, guards, even two minor nobles. Not the mastermind level conspirators, but the foot soldiers who made the conspiracy function. People who passed messages, created opportunities for attacks, covered up evidence.
By the time she finished, I had a list of nearly thirty names. Thirty people who needed to be arrested before the Council of Lords. Thirty people who could potentially sabotage our defenses if left free.
"Thank you," I said when she was done. "Captain Thorne, take her back to the dungeons. Keep her isolated and safe. If she's telling the truth, she's valuable. If she's lying, we'll know soon enough."
After they left, I stared at the list of names, feeling overwhelmed. How did you arrest thirty people without tipping off the rest of the conspiracy? How did you dismantle a network this extensive in just eleven days?
The answer, I realized, was that you didn't try to be subtle. You struck fast and hard, arresting everyone simultaneously before they could warn each other or flee.
But that required resources and coordination we might not have. It required absolute trust in the people executing the arrests, because if even one of them was compromised, the whole operation could fail.
I returned to our chambers to find Kael awake and trying to get dressed despite Mira's protests.
"Absolutely not," I said firmly, crossing the room to physically push him back toward the bed. "You're supposed to be resting."
"I've rested. I'm fine now. And we have work to do." But his weakness betrayed him. He swayed again, and I caught him easily.
"You're not fine. You're recovering from being poisoned and nearly dying. You need at least a full day before you'll be strong enough for anything strenuous." I guided him back to sit on the bed. "Besides, I've been handling things. I questioned Isla. Got a full list of names. Thirty people working with Darian that we need to arrest."
"Thirty?" Kael's eyes widened. "That's more extensive than we thought."
"Much more. Which means we need to move carefully but quickly. I want to arrest them all simultaneously tomorrow night. Hit the entire network at once before they realize we're coming."
"That's ambitious. And risky. If even one arrest goes wrong, they'll warn the others."
"Which is why we need your father's help. We need the full force of the royal guard, coordinated strikes across the entire castle. Captain Thorne can't do it with just his trusted men. We need everyone."
Kael was quiet for a moment, thinking it through. "Father still believes I'm dead. That revelation is going to be complicated."
"Then we make it simple. We tell him the truth, show him the evidence against Darian, and give him a choice: help us arrest the traitors, or watch his kingdom fall to a coup in eleven days."
"You make it sound so easy."
"It won't be easy. It'll be one of the hardest conversations of your life. But it's necessary." I sat beside him on the bed. "Kael, your father needs to know you're alive. He's grieving his son. That's not fair to him, regardless of whatever else he's done."
"Fair to him? He spent my entire life treating me like a monster. Fearing me instead of loving me. Now I'm supposed to care about his grief?"
"Yes. Because that's what makes you better than him. That's what makes you the king this country needs." I took his hand. "Besides, you don't have to forgive him for the past. You just have to work with him in the present."
He sighed, his anger deflating. "You're right. You're always right lately. When did that start?"
"Around the time you started listening to me." I smiled. "Now rest a few more hours. Tonight, we'll tell your father you're alive. Tomorrow, we arrest Daemon's entire network. And in eleven days, we face whatever comes at the Council of Lords."
"Together?" he asked.
"Always together," I promised. "That's what partnership means."
He pulled me down beside him, and I went willingly, curling against his chest and listening to his heartbeat. Strong and steady and alive. We'd survived the poison, survived the traitor's attack, survived another day in this endless conspiracy.
But I couldn't shake the feeling that the worst was still coming.
"Kael?" I said quietly. "Are you scared?"
"Terrified," he admitted. "Of losing you. Of losing everything we've been fighting for. Of becoming the monster everyone always said I was."
"You're not a monster. You're a man with a curse who's choosing every day to be better than his darkness." I looked up at him. "And you won't lose me. I'm not going anywhere."
"You can't promise that."
"I just did. Now stop arguing and let me enjoy this moment of peace before everything goes to hell again."
He laughed softly, the sound rumbling in his chest. "Only you would call imminent war and conspiracy 'everything going to hell again' as if it's a minor inconvenience."
"After everything we've been through, it kind of is." I closed my eyes, exhaustion finally catching up with me. "Wake me in a few hours. We'll face your father together. Tell him everything. And tomorrow, we end this conspiracy once and for all."
"That's a bold promise."
"I'm a bold princess. Now shut up and let me sleep."
His arms tightened around me, and I felt him smile against my hair. "Bold princess. I like that. Though technically you're about to be a bold queen."
"One crisis at a time, Kael. One crisis at a time."