Melissa shoved the door open with her shoulder, dragging the corpse behind her.

  Brandon, who had been leaning against the fireplace, tensed immediately, his hand flying to the hilt of his sword. Annemarie nearly knocked over a cup of tea as she jerked back, eyes going wide. Callista, seated calmly at the desk, didn’t so much as blink, though a sharp glance flickered in Melissa’s direction.

  The body hit the floor with a dull thud.

  Melissa straightened, rolling her shoulders as she let out a breath. “Well. That happened.”

  A beat of silence.

  Then Brenna, arms crossed and slightly breathless, let out a low groan and leaned against the wall. “Could’ve gone worse.”

  Brandon let out a short, incredulous laugh, lowering his hand but not relaxing. “Could’ve gone better,” he shot back. “What the hell happened?”

  Melissa wiped the back of her hand across her forehead. “Long story short? Broke into Evadne’s room. Found some very interesting things, including a lovely little passage leading directly into Adela Rummi’s bedchamber—”

  Callista’s brow twitched at that.

  Melissa continued, unbothered. “Then, when I came back, Julia and Brenna were not okay. This asshole—” she nudged the body with the toe of her boot “—had Julia at knifepoint. And he was saying some really creepy shit about her dad.”

  Annemarie sucked in a breath.

  Callista leaned slightly forward. “And Julia?”

  Melissa hesitated, then sighed. “Mad at me. I, uh... may have stabbed him before he could finish his monologue.”

  Silence.

  Then Annemarie pinched the bridge of her nose. “Melissa.”

  “Oh, come on.” Melissa threw up her hands. “He was threatening her! Did you want me to wait for him to slit her throat?”

  “No,” Callista said smoothly, standing from her chair and stepping toward the body. “But now we have a problem.”

  Brandon exhaled sharply. “And even more questions.”

  Brenna ran a hand through her hair. “Julia stormed off. She needed time to cool down.”

  Melissa sighed, dropping into a chair and rubbing her temples. “Yeah. And now we have to deal with this.”

  Callista crouched beside the body, her expression unreadable. “Did he say anything else?”

  Melissa hesitated, then shrugged. “Just that we ‘don’t know the truth’. And that Julia’s dad ‘died for nothing’.”

  Something flickered across Callista’s face— too fast to name, too cold to read. But her fingers tightened against her sleeve. “Interesting.”

  Brandon crossed his arms. “Okay. So now we’ve committed murder in the middle of the palace.” His voice was dry but edged with something sharper. “What the hell are we supposed to do now?”

  Callista rose smoothly to her feet, already calculating. “We get rid of the body.”

  Brenna let out a low whistle. “Wow. No hesitation.”

  Callista met her gaze, unwavering. “We have much bigger concerns than one dead man.”

  Melissa tilted her head back, staring at the ceiling. “Yeah. Like the fact that Evadne’s going to know.”

  “She’ll know soon enough,” Callista corrected. “We have a small window before she realizes what happened. We use that.”

  Brandon frowned. “How?”

  Annemarie leaned forward, voice serious. “We can’t go to Onesta and Adela yet. Not without neutralizing Evadne first.”

  Brandon exhaled sharply. “And how do we neutralize her? We don’t even know how powerful she is.”

  Callista’s gaze was like steel. “Then we assume the worst.”

  The words settled over the room like a warning. They didn’t know exactly what Evadne was capable of. But they knew she had embedded herself deep into the court and that she had spent years manipulating Onesta and Adela.

  They had to assume she was more than just a Soul Stealer.

  Brandon clenched his jaw. “This is getting worse by the second.”

  Melissa groaned, throwing an arm over her face. “Yeah, well, welcome to every single day since we got here.”

  Callista glanced at the corpse once more, then at the rest of them. “One problem at a time,” she murmured.

  Melissa propped her chin on her hand. “So. How do we deal with Swynden’s favorite manipulative soul witch?”

  Callista turned from the fire, facing the others. “We need to act before Evadne does,” she said, her voice steady and controlled.

  Brandon let out a slow breath, rubbing his temples. “You’re suggesting we... announce this?” He gestured vaguely toward the corpse.

  “Yes,” Callista said.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Melissa blinked. “That is bold.”

  Callista’s lip curled slightly. “She thinks she controls the court. She thinks she is maneuvering us into a losing position. We need to flip the narrative before she can twist it against us.”

  Annemarie nodded thoughtfully, crossing her arms. “A public problem is harder for her to bury.”

  Brenna frowned. “So we take the body, throw it in front of the court, and say ‘hey, look, a dead guy, what’s up with that?’”

  Callista gave her a sharp look. “Something like that.”

  Brandon exhaled sharply. “This is going to get us killed.”

  Callista shrugged. “Then we had better make it worth it.”

  Melissa clapped her hands together. “Alright. High treason it is.”

  Brandon groaned, dragging a hand down his face. “Just to be clear, this is officially the worst idea we’ve had.”

  “Debatable,” Brenna muttered.

  Annemarie’s gaze flicked toward Callista. “If we do this, we need to control how it happens. We need to make Evadne react, not lead.”

  Callista nodded. “Exactly.”

  Melissa leaned forward, eyes bright with mischief. “So, what’s the plan? Walk into court, drop the body, and say ‘Surprise, motherfuckers!’?”

  Callista gave her a look.

  Melissa sighed. “Fine, fine. Something slightly more strategic.”

  Brandon’s expression remained grim. “We’ll be painting targets on our backs.”

  “We already have targets on our backs,” Annemarie countered. “At least this way, we decide how big they are.”

  Brandon exhaled, dragging his hands through his hair.

  Silence stretched between them.

  Then Callista straightened. “Tomorrow morning,” she said. “We go before the court, when it is in session. We present the body. We force Adela and Onesta to act before Evadne can twist them against us.”

  Melissa smirked. “Well, that’ll be fun.”

  Julia still hadn’t returned. Melissa fought the urge to fidget, forcing herself to focus. Later. She’d fix it later.

  For now, they had work to do.

  The papers were spread across the table, illuminated by flickering candlelight. The deeper they read, the worse it got.

  “This is...” Julia’s voice trailed off, her eyes scanning the delicate, precise script. “This isn’t just local politics.” She turned the page, brow furrowing. “This is Lashaar.”

  Brenna’s breath caught. “Lashaar?”

  Melissa whistled. “Now that’s an international disaster waiting to happen.”

  Callista frowned, her fingers tightening over the edge of one letter. “Evadne has been corresponding with someone in the Lashaari court.”

  Julia tapped one of the documents. “And not just anyone. Lord K.”

  Brandon’s brow furrowed. “Who the hell is Lord K?”

  Brenna’s breath stilled. Slowly, she reached for another letter— the one signed RK. Her fingers ghosted over the parchment as she stared at the initials, her mind racing.

  RK

  The realization struck like a hammer. “...Raziel Kaelor,” she whispered.

  Silence.

  Callista’s head snapped up. “Are you sure?”

  Brenna swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. “The signature— it’s the same way he signed the older Lashaari treaties.”

  Melissa groaned. “You studied Lashaari treaties?”

  Brenna shot her a glare. “I work with Queen Kiernen, Melissa.”

  Melissa grinned. “Okay, okay, just checking.”

  Julia was still focused on the papers, flipping through them as her brow furrowed. “Raziel Kaelor is on the Council of Lashaar. This isn’t just some noble correspondence— this is a direct connection between Swynden and the Lashaari court.”

  Brandon muttered a curse. “This is big, isn’t it?”

  Callista inhaled sharply, forcing herself to stay calm. “What do the letters say?”

  Julia skimmed further, then read aloud.

  “Our arrangement remains intact, and we will ensure that our interests are preserved. The Mirrorwood cannot be undone— not with Milana as it is now. What we did cannot be reversed. Let them search— it will only drive them deeper into ruin.”

  The words hung in the air like a death sentence.

  Callista’s hands curled into fists.

  Melissa exhaled sharply. “Holy shit.”

  Brandon’s expression darkened. “They’re behind it.”

  Brenna’s throat tightened. “The Mirrorwood Curse wasn’t just an accident.” She swallowed hard. “It was a Soul Stealer curse.”

  Callista exhaled sharply, her grip tightening on the edge of the table. “We need to announce this. Now. Before Evadne can do anything.”

  Brandon ran his hand through his hair, tension carved into every line of his face. “If this is a representative of the Lashaari court... you know what we’re about to do?”

  Callista met his gaze evenly, fury boiling below the surface. “Yes.”

  Brenna let out a breath, her fingers still curled around the damning letter. “Lashaar is involved. Not just Evadne, not just the fourth here— this is bigger than Milana.”

  Melissa blew out a low whistle. “Okay, so just to clarify: we are about to essentially declare war on a neighboring empire and announce to the court that we’ve committed homicide in the span of, what, an hour?”

  Callista didn’t even blink. “Yes.”

  Melissa grinned. “Just making sure we’re on the same page.”

  Annemarie frowned, her hands folded tightly together. “We don’t have a choice. If we wait, Evadne will control the narrative.”

  Callista nodded. “We take the corpse. We present it to the court. We force Adela and Onesta’s hand before Evadne can manipulate them.”

  Brandon sighed, rubbing at his temple. “And what, exactly, do we say?”

  Annemarie answered immediately. “That Raziel Kaelor broke into the palace. That he attacked Julia. That she’s recuperating from her injuries and can’t be present.”

  Melissa arched a brow. “Smart. No one can ask her for a second opinion.”

  Callista continued. “We declare him and Evadne both traitors— instigators of the Curse. We already have proof they were working together. Evadne will try to talk her way out of it, but we will force her to deny the letters, deny him—”

  Brenna caught on. “And if she denies knowing him, she loses her credibility.”

  Brandon groaned. “And if she doesn’t deny it, she’s guilty by association.”

  Callista smirked slightly. “Exactly.”

  Brandon exhaled sharply, glancing down at the corpse. “And what do we do with this?”

  Melissa stretched, rolling out her shoulders. “Drag him in front of the court, drop him dramatically, and say ‘look what we found’?”

  Callista’s smirk widened. “Something like that.”

  Brenna crossed her arms. “Evadne will fight back. She will try to turn this on us.”

  Callista’s expression hardened. “Then we’ll have to make sure she doesn’t get the chance.”

  The room was silent for a long moment.

  Then Brandon sighed. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but... let’s go commit political suicide.”

  Melissa beamed. “Now you’re getting it.”

  They had their plan.

  And soon, the court of Swynden would have no idea what had hit them.