Chapter 168: Poisons & Perfumes
Evanna soon retired for the night, suddenly finding the festivities too well festive for her mood. She had stayed an hour after Conrad left, the other woman did not return, and the vacant chair by her side made her feel empty. She did not like it one bit. Conrad knew how much she had to prove herself and how much she had to overcome; the smallest rewards made a considerable difference in her life. So far, those rewards were as simple as most of the servants no longer gossiped about her. Evanna had spent quite a bit of her time in the servants’ quarters and learnt a lot about their duties, talking to them as though they were her friends.
The Prince was still discreet, but he was not discreet enough. King Osian had advised her about Conrad and his needs, and the Queen had been sneering at her, overly enjoying herself. Luckily, her mother’s back was to her, and her siblings had already gone to bed. Although Evanna did wonder how Loraven would deal with the Prince, she’d seen her mother’s swords and heard her many tales.
Evanna shook her head and stopped pacing inside of her chambers. As soon as the princess had arrived after the banquet, she climbed down from the balcony and waited for Ger, but he did not come. It made her feel even more lonely, and so she’d climbed back up, bathed, and was dressed for bed. Once Maggie left her chambers, she’d tossed and turned in bed, her thoughts running wild about her fiancé until she couldn’t lie down any longer. Reading did not distract her, and pacing seemed to make her focus more on the issue that was the Prince.
It was not until that lady started to flirt with Conrad that Evanna realised she had these feelings towards him. The princess knew she found him attractive, but nobody could deny his looks, yet as quickly as she realised it was more than his looks she liked, she wanted to crush these so-called feelings down. That was how she would get hurt. Romance, unfortunately, was a luxury for people like them; in fact, if her father sought an alliance elsewhere, she could have married a man twice her age. But she knew her father would never do that to her.
With a yawn, the princess finally returned to bed. All the pacing worked, and soon she fell into a deep slumber. Evanna didn’t know how long she had slept, but the princess started to stir at some point in the night. Her brows drew together, and she clutched onto her pillow tighter after pulling the covers closer to her body. She’d felt a sudden chill run down her spine, and it took her a second longer than usual for her to realise what that meant.
Evanna’s eyes snapped open when she heard the slightest sound of movement near her bed and the presence of another being in her room. She sucked in her breath, a scream catching in her throat in fear at the sudden gleam of a knife swinging down towards her. The princess rolled to the side and gasped as the dagger pierced her skin, cutting down the side of her ribs as she reached for her hidden blade. Evanna clenched her teeth, ignoring the pain and swung out with the knife catching the assassin across the face. The hooded figure stumbled back, and Evanna kneeled upright on the bed, her body tense and her startled features fixated on the large figure.
Evanna watched them, her eyes adjusting to the darkness of the room, and for a few tense seconds, they stared at one another. The man’s features were covered, but she saw his blue eyes lower to her injured side. Then he abruptly spun around and started sprinting for the double doors. Evanna’s hand reacted before her mind caught up, and she threw her dagger at him, it caught him on the shoulder, and he groaned but did not stop from bursting through the doors.
The princess stumbled out of bed and gasped again at the searing pain throbbing from her side. She rushed forwards, her hand clasping to the burning sensation of her side as she heard the sounds of metal clattering on the ground in the hallway. Evanna stopped upon seeing her guards dead on the ground, fresh blood spilling across the marble floors.
"Assassin!" Evanna shouted as loud as she could. "Help!"