Chapter 116

Annalise’s pov;

The moment the King’s footsteps faded from the main hall, I stepped out from the alcove where I’d been standing guard, waiting to see what happened.

Not officially, of course.

To anyone who asked, I was simply taking a walk after having tea with the Queen. Not like anyone would dare ask anyways, that was the perk of being lady Joanna’s daughter. Nobody dared to question me. I’ve always hated it, but sometimes, I’ve found it quite useful and great.

I’d seen the way His Majesty slipped through the servant’s door earlier, without guards, without even Dorian at his side, and I knew that  it meant trouble. The kind of trouble kings weren’t supposed to touch. The kind that my mother would love, the kind I was here to warn him about, although I was sure that he wouldn’t listen to me, he didn’t trust me.

Like every other person, he was certain that lady Joanna had me under her thumbs.

I straightened up upon seeing Merrow emerge a few minutes later, alone, his expression as bland as old parchment. That was a dangerous sign in itself. Men like Merrow didn’t get to his age in court without learning to show something, a smile, a sneer, a muttered complaint. When they showed nothing, it meant their heads were too full of things they weren’t supposed to know.

My mother had taught me a lot….too much and I was beginning to find them useful, of course to use agsinst her…if not for anything, for cheating on my father, lord Gasty. I would never know another father other than him. I would never forgive her for treating me like a puppet.

I didn’t follow the king. Not directly.

Instead, I cut through the north wing, up the servant’s stair, and positioned myself in a vantage point overlooking the inner courtyard. From there, I could see the King moving with his usual measured pace, not rushed, not wary. But his eyes… his eyes told me he had just stepped into something he wasn’t ready to admit to anyone yet.

I’d seen that look before, in my own reflection, the day I first lied to Raven, a necessary lie, one that couldn’t be helped, but that would protect me. Without the Gasty or Delacroix family’s name, I was doomed.

By the time I met him at his chamber door, I already knew I wasn’t going to press him tonight.

“Late for you, Majesty,” I said lightly, as though I’d simply bumped into him.

He turned around quickly, clearing his throat to mask his surprise. “Annalise. What brings you here?”

“I was taking a walk,” I said simply.

He narrowed his eyes at me. “And you found yourself here? And the  Delacroix estate and the Gasty estate combined weren’t enough grounds for you to take a walk?”

I shrugged. I wasn’t ready to tell him the real reason I had come to see him. “Where have you been?”

He looked like he wanted to say something, but instead cleared his throat.

“Council ran long,” he replied finally, brushing past me into his room. His tone was casual, but the faintest whiff of oil lamp smoke clung to his cloak. Not the scent from our castle lamps, no, this was older, harsher, the kind used in the forgotten underpassages.

So he had gone down there.

I shut the door behind us. “You’re not going to tell me what you’ve been doing.”

He unfastened his cloak and hung it over the chair. “No and why are you in my room?”

“The servants wouldn’t find that strange. I’m lady Joanna’s daughter and soon to be Queen.”

He muttered something under his breath.

“Where have you been?” I tried again.

He chuckled. “I’ll be damned if I ever tell you that.”

“And you know I’m going to find out anyway.”

That earned me a faint smirk. “Probably.”

For a moment, we just stood there, the air between us thick with unsaid words. I thought about him…about how we were before all of these, before Raven came into the picture and I smiled sadly, realizing that we could never be like that. Not after everything that has happened, that was still happening and that I’d done.

I had seen him make hard calls, seen him weigh lives like coins in a scale. But this was different. This wasn’t about a single battle or a diplomatic slight. This was… a fracture. Something deep and quiet, spreading through the kingdom like water under ice.

I didn’t need details yet. I just needed to know where he stood.

“Your Majesty,” I said, my voice low, “if you’re building something, something outside the council, you’ll need eyes you can trust. Not just noble eyes. Not just soldiers. People who can walk through the cracks without leaving footprints.”

He turned to me fully then, studying me as if weighing whether to let me step closer to whatever secret he’d just touched.

“And you’re that person I can trust, lady Gasty.”

I chuckled. “Contrary to what you think, I am.”

“Can you find them?” he asked. “Those people who can walk through cracks.”

I almost laughed. “I already have some.”

He didn’t answer right away, but the faint tension in his shoulders eased. He trusted me enough to let that stand without questions. For now, or he was playing me. I wouldn’t know, but I had tried my best, everything was now left to him, but I knew that I could help him, only I could. For I knew what lady Joanna, my mother was capable of.

Later, when I left his chambers, I didn’t head to my own quarters. I went down the castle, Past the kitchens, past the wine cellars, into the tunnels where the walls sweat with damp and the air turns close.

I had three names in my head and one message to deliver before dawn and it wasn’t for Raven. I didn’t even want to see her, not yet, until I was sure that she still wasn’t searching for proof of my birth secret in order to ruin me.