The Councillor waited for them in the stables prior to their departure. There was one more item of business to address before Alex could go anywhere.
“The Key.” The Councillor presented them with a box that contained a delicate-looking hair comb of swirled silver filigree and diamonds.
The exact same hair comb Treyan had given Alex on her coronation day.
Which had returned to her embedded within the skull of her murdered mistress.
Alex shied away from the morbid sight, clutching to Treyan's arm as the bile in her stomach began to rise.
The Councillor only sighed. “Please calm down, Empress, it is only a replica. Nothing more.”
“Or is it?” chided Treyan into her ear.
Alex jabbed him in the ribs.
“Empress, we needed to use something that Reylor knew to already belong to you,” the Cou
