“So you’ve been gone from the palace all day?” Captain Veris asked, watching her closely.
“Just since lunch,” Kiva said.
“But you were here before that?” he probed. “This morning?”
Kiva nodded, her stomach flipping when the tension in the room thickened.
“Did you visit the western palace at all? The Royal Library?”
At the captain’s question, Kiva looked to Jaren. His face was completely shuttered, causing her more alarm than anything else. “Not since yesterday,” she answered slowly. “That was my first time there.”
“But you didn’t return today?” Veris pressed.
“No, why would I have?” Kiva’s forehead crinkled. “What’s going on?”
Naari stepped forward and declared, “The Book of the Law was stolen this morning.”
The only thing Kiva could hear for a moment was her own pulse in her ears. But then she looked around the room, at all the hard faces — at Jaren’s hard face — and she gasped, “You think it was me?”
The queen’s voice was soothing as she said, “We’re just trying to ascertain who might have had access to it. With so many workers here to prepare for tomorrow’s masquerade, it’s been a challenge tracking everyone down. But since no one could find you . . . Kiva, darling, we just want to hear your side of the story.”
“There is no story,” Kiva exclaimed, pulling her hands away and backing up a step. Turning to Jaren, she asked him directly, “Why would I —”
She broke off suddenly, remembering why Jaren had taken her to the library, why he’d shown her the Book of the Law in the first place.
The Royal Ternary.
The Book was one of three items that could cause his family’s ruin.
And last night —
Kiva had told Zuleeka and Torell about it.
She’d told them everything.
But she’d also told them that without all three items — one of which was hundreds of miles away — it could do nothing.
Surely they wouldn’t have risked stealing it for no reason? Not when doing so would endanger Kiva’s life, the coincidence of the timing too glaring to be ignored?
No wonder Jaren was looking at her like that. He had every reason to be suspicious of her. She would have been suspicious, had their roles been reversed.
“I didn’t do it. I swear, I —” Kiva broke off quickly and turned to Naari. “Did you say it happened this morning?”
The guard nodded. “Sometime between ten and noon.”
The breath left Kiva in a rush of relief. “I was here,” she told them, her words desperate. “Right here, in my room. Trying gowns on. We didn’t leave all morning.”
“We?” Naari asked.
Kiva turned pleading eyes to Mirryn.
“Silly me, I forgot to mention that, didn’t I?” the princess said, her tone more entertained than apologetic. “Kiva was with me and Nevard until lunch.” She sent a wink to Jaren. “Just wait until you see what she’s wearing tomorrow, brother. You’re welcome in advance.”
“Mirryn,” Ariana said in a stern, incredulous voice, “why didn’t you say something?”
“I forgot,” the princess repeated, defensive. “I have a lot on my mind lately, Mother.”
Immediately, the tension in the room dissolved, replaced by a combination of remorse — directed toward Kiva — with lashings of frustration — directed toward Mirryn.
But Kiva didn’t care what anyone else thought aside from Jaren, and she returned her attention to him, only to find that he was moving toward her, his face no longer shuttered, but flooded with emotion.
Barely stopping before he collided with her, he drew her close, whispering into her ear, “I was sure it couldn’t be you, but after yesterday, the timing —”
“I understand. I would have questioned it, too,” Kiva said, inwardly screaming at her siblings. If they’d had anything to do with this, she would never forgive them. It was just pure luck that she had an alibi — from the princess herself no less.
“Well!” Caldon said, clapping his hands. “I’m glad our favorite little criminal didn’t steal a priceless Evalonian relic, but we do still need to figure out who took it. Are there any other leads?”
Kiva pulled back from Jaren to scowl at Caldon for the felonious title, but he only smirked in response. There was, however, a hint of suspicion lurking in his cobalt gaze, enough that Kiva knew to expect a confrontation later if he found any evidence that she — or her family — had anything to do with the theft.