What is Hidden (29 page)

I expected them to charge the door, but I only heard a moment’s more shouting before all went silent.

“Poison,” the boy leading me explained simply. “You were instructed to come alone.”

“They were going to wait outside!” I protested, horrified.

“Don’t be so naïve. How were we supposed to trust the word of the enemy?” He shrugged and spoke as if the subject bored him. “Besides, this way is easier. Don’t worry, it
was only a sleeping powder. We’ll return them once this is all over, good as new.”

Dumbstruck, I wiped my clammy palms against my skirts as I was led down corridor after corridor, fighting to remember which way I’d come. The air was damp and heavy, and stank of decay.

Finally, we came to a large open ballroom, flickering with candlelight. Curtains that had once been fine silks were now nothing more than ratty pieces of cloth draped on the walls. Some were pulled to the side to reveal small alcoves.

The boy led me to one of those alcoves and directed me to sit on a mossy stone bench. “You’re to wait here, miss.”

I nodded.

“And you’re to remain silent. That is vital,” he warned me, and I watched a more intimidating man step out from behind a curtain with trepidation. “If we feel you’re unable to do so, we will have to take measures to ensure you make no noise. Do you understand?”

I nodded again, feeling as if I’d been struck mute. I might have been expected, but I couldn’t have been welcome. Everything felt wrong. My skin itched and the hair on the back of my neck stood up straight.

Another moth-eaten curtain was drawn over the alcove’s opening, sheer enough that I could still see through it, though only barely. I knew the light was dim enough that no one would be able to see me. Even without the curtain I was hidden in shadow.

We waited in silence. I don’t know for how long. I heard my heart pound in my ears and struggled to keep my imagination under control. Were they going to torture me in some way? Or hurt Aiden in front of me?

The sound of shuffling feet drew my attention, and I peered through the thin fabric. I could just make out the shapes of men, one of which looked all too familiar.

I stifled a gasp, ignoring the dirty look from my guard as Aiden spoke angrily. “What is it you want from me? You don’t want me dead or you’d have done it already.”

“No, I don’t want you dead.” The voice that answered was cold, and a chill raced down my spine when I realized how both familiar and unfamiliar it was. “I want you to suffer.”

The memory of that terrible night flashed before my eyes and that face expanded to more than just the Mark.

Joch.

It had been Joch all along.

How had I been so blind? How many hours had I spent alone with him, learning from him,
admiring
him? I felt sick, my stomach churning and threatening to empty itself. I swallowed thickly, forcing my body to obey, and the Chameleon continued.

“I have someone I’d like you to meet,” he continued conversationally. “A young woman whom I’m sure you’re quite familiar with.”

I braced my shoulders, sure that he meant me. But the servant shook his head, and the guard held up a strip of fabric, silently questioning if he should gag me.

Instead, I watched as another woman—already gagged and hands bound—was brought before him.

Joch held Aiden back as he called out my name, and I instantly understood.

The other girl could easily pass for me in this dim light and from this distance. Worst of all, I realized with
a shock and a surge of anger, she was wearing my glass mask—the one I’d spent hours and days toiling over, the one I was waiting to show Aiden on a special occasion, and the one I’d made with Joch right beside me. This girl wore it with a simple black silk backing to make it opaque, and the gold caught the flickering light of the torches around us. It was beautiful, and it should have been mine.

My heart sank, and I felt cold.

The girl did not speak, but Aiden had enough to say for everyone. “Evie, I’m so sorry,” the words burst from him. “I shouldn’t have said any of those things, and I know you could never be what I accused you of. I was stupid and scared, and I never should have run from you.”

A little bubble of hope started to form inside me. Though I was still hurt, it helped to hear he knew how stupid he was.

“I’ll do whatever I can to make it up to you, I swear it. Anything at all—just name it.”

“How sweet.” Joch’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “You know, I was in a situation similar to this one. Fell in love, swore I’d do anything for her. And you know what happened, my prince?” I watched in horror as my double walked over to Joch and wrapped her arms around his waist. “She was taken from me.”

“No!” I cried out, but the guard already had his hands over my mouth and was working to gag me before I could make enough noise to be heard across the room.

“I don’t understand.” Aiden sounded so small and confused. “Evie?”

“What if I told you all your accusations were correct?”
Joch asked patiently. “Or that your timing for your apology was all wrong?”

“I don’t believe you. I refuse to believe you. You’ve done something to her.”

“The evidence is right in front of your eyes. Does she look at all afraid to you? Or like she’s being forced into something she doesn’t want? You were right the first time.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I bit down on my captor’s hand and let my body go slack, the deadweight pulling him off-balance enough that I could squirm around and kick him twice—hard—where I knew it would do the most damage. He grunted and curled in on himself as I ripped the gag from my mouth and cried out, “No, Aiden! It’s a lie!”

The servant rounded on me, trying to silence me, but the damage had been done—and I knew how to deal with unwanted fingers in my face. The boy was smaller than Aiden and was on the floor in no time at all. I whipped the curtain aside and ran out to where I could be seen.

Aiden stared at me in confusion, mouth open, as Joch frowned.

“Why would you do this to him when you’ve been through the same thing?” I demanded.

“Because breaking him is the only way to bring my love back!”

I stared at him, dumbfounded.

He sneered at me, all traces of the man I thought I knew gone from his hard dark eyes. “I know you heard the gossip about me. About Tatiana. The girl I came to this country for, the girl I’ve been hunting for all this time. The girl
your prince
stole from me.”

“I did no such thing,” Aiden interjected, but Joch silenced him with a look.

I almost pitied him for a moment before questioning him again. “But why go through all the trouble of working as a mask maker in the palace? Why teach me glass blowing? Why did you even talk to me?”

His eyes slid to mine in an exasperated expression. “It was easier. You wouldn’t give up, and eventually that would draw attention, which was the last thing I wanted. I was sent here with a mission, and if I completed that mission, I would get Tatiana back.”

My eyes narrowed. “Who sent you?”

“Someone with connections.” He sounded tired of the conversation. “Someone that could help, and that’s all I cared about.”

“And your mission?”

“To dispose of the prince, of course. And to hurt him the way he hurt me.”

“Then why all the others? Why
my father
?” My voice cracked.

A brief flash of recognition and something like remorse flickered in his eyes, but it disappeared so quickly I must have imagined it. “I didn’t pick the targets. I just did the work. He was a means to an end.”

Aiden had had enough. Joch’s callous last words were enough to provoke the sleeping dragon that was his temper.

Until that point, he’d been frozen in place, but then he was burning for some action. He punched Joch squarely in the jaw before he could defend himself, and the action seemed to be a signal for Joch’s men to descend upon us.

T
he men swarmed from out
of nowhere, rapiers at the ready, as they surrounded us. The girl Joch brought with him—the one who was meant to be me—melted behind the wall of fighters and disappeared. Joch watched with an unreadable expression as Aiden rose to his full height, then crouched into a fighting position I knew well.

“I know you’re good, Aiden, but you can’t fight all of them,” I hissed as I automatically went to protect his back. My knife sheath was cool against my skin but hardly reassuring. I doubted I could even draw it before being cut down. “They have
swords
.”

“Watch me,” he growled back and then lunged at Joch. The Chameleon laughed and dodged neatly away, a burly guard taking his place and swinging at Aiden.

The guard managed to catch Aiden’s side, and he let out a choked cry, glaring at the man. Not to be deterred, Aiden dropped to the floor and knocked the guard’s legs out from under him, then quickly seized his arms and relieved him of his sword. Armed, Aiden turned again to glare at Joch while the other men awaited orders.

“Fight me,” Aiden whispered, a threatening timbre to his voice that I’d never heard before. It gave me shivers, and I looked around us, my heart pounding in my ears.

Joch met his gaze for a long moment, head tilted to one side as if considering his offer. Then he shook his head, ever so slightly. “With pleasure.”

He drew a rapier from the guard standing behind him and shifted easily into a perfect form. Without even a single strike, it was clear he knew how to fight.

Aiden slipped into position as well, his hand coming away red from where the guard had already struck him.

“Aiden,” I whispered anxiously.

He didn’t take his eyes off his opponent. “Don’t worry about me,” he said in a clipped voice. “That’s my job, remember?”

I choked out a laugh despite the situation.

The two men circled one another, each weighing the other, searching for weaknesses. I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

I’d never fought Aiden with any weapon other than my small knife, but it was clear he’d been trained thoroughly. He looked perfectly in control, his body tense with anticipation.

Finally Joch struck, quick as a snake, and the sound of metal on metal rang out as Aiden blocked him. I winced with every blow as Joch attacked again and again, putting Aiden on the defensive.

Joch shouted in triumph as a line of red seeped through Aiden’s left sleeve across his bicep. I cried out, and it was all I could do to keep myself in place as Aiden glared at his attacker, ignoring his wound.

Then, suddenly, it was Aiden on the offensive. The room was silent save for the sound of their weapons, their footsteps on the stone floor, and their breathing, all echoing too loudly in the enormous ballroom. Their rapiers moved too fast for my eyes to follow as Aiden began a complicated series of attacks: right, left, and center. Joch’s face lost his cocky expression as he concentrated and then contracted in pain as Aiden landed a solid blow to his right shoulder.

It wasn’t enough to stop Joch, but it was enough to send him across the room, momentarily out of Aiden’s reach. Joch bent over, gasping for air. When I looked back to Aiden, he was covered in a thin sheen of sweat and his mouth was tight with pain, but he clearly wasn’t going to stop anytime soon.

Joch seemed to reach the same conclusion as he straightened.

“Well fought, prince,” he said in a low, breathy voice. Then he simply turned and slipped outside the ring of guards. As Aiden’s eyes flitted to mine, I knew he wanted to chase the Chameleon down, but he couldn’t leave me behind. I doubted he would even have the strength to run for very long, let alone continue the fight.

Again, I thought of my knife, feeling as if it suddenly weighed three times its normal weight.

“Things aren’t looking so good, Evie,” Aiden murmured to me as I ran to his side, the animalistic sound gone from his voice, replaced for the first time with concern.

“Now
really
isn’t the time for talking, Aiden,” I said through clenched teeth, looking over his injuries. His sleeve was completely drenched in blood, and his clothes were cut from hits I’d missed earlier, each cut rimmed with red.

“It might be the only time.”

“I never thought you were so pessimistic.”

“Do you have something up your sleeves that I don’t know about that’s got you so optimistic? Because I would love to hear about it right now.”

The doors to the ballroom swung open, and I couldn’t have planned the timing better if I’d tried. In poured Arianna and a half dozen Lacies, followed by at least twenty fresh men in royal guard uniforms. As soon as Aiden saw them, he groaned. “Like that.
That
would have been nice to know about.”

I flashed him a grin, then glanced in the direction Joch had fled. Aiden followed my gaze then looked at me with a grim expression. “Don’t you dare follow him on your own,” he threatened me.

“I have to,” I replied, just as grim. “You’re bleeding, if you haven’t noticed. You’d pass out before you caught him.”

He looked down, and I honestly think he was surprised to see blood. He gripped my arm. “Don’t. Please.”