Verge of Eternity by Penelope Wright

Author:Penelope Wright [Wright, Penelope]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

No one attempts to kill any of us as we make our way to the East Turret. The castle is actually more lightly populated than normal, and I quietly point that out.

“That’s because it’s a weekend,” Emelda says.

I know the term — I picked it up somewhere in the materials Magrar found for me to teach me how to read — but I’ve never experienced it in practice. We don’t get weekends in the mines. There’s no such thing as time off or relaxation. Why would there be? We don’t live the kind of lives where anyone in power cares about how we feel.

It’s odd to see the usually bustling castle quiet and lowkey. It makes me nervous.

But we climb the winding stairs to the East Turret without incident. No one stops us to ask why we’re there or what we’re doing. Is that because they already know, or are we just automatically trusted as princesses and guardians?

It is the military wing of the castle — maybe anybody around here with administrative power figures that no one who didn’t belong here would even attempt to access that part of the palace without proper authority.

Or maybe they just already saw a bunch of princesses precede us because when Glory, Emelda, and I walk through the door that opens into the antechamber that would lead to General Blaylock’s office if I were to choose the spur all the way to the left, that’s where I find the other seven princesses remaining in the competition and all of their guardians.

I am the last to arrive.

At my swimsuit party, Avasta was the last to arrive and I’m certain that was because she was busy bribing a drone operator and making arrangements to kill one of our cohort.

If any one of these princesses truly believes I could be behind Xyla’s death, does my lateness appear just as suspicious to them as Avasta’s should have appeared to me?

The only one who’s giving me any sort of an odd look, though, is Avasta. It would certainly benefit her if people blamed me for her murderous deeds, and it appears she’s going to do whatever she can to encourage that.

The other women aren’t buying it, though, and I breathe out a sigh of relief. A knot loosens in my stomach that I didn’t even know was there. None of them want to take back the hug they gave me after the swimsuit round, and I didn’t realize how worried I’d been about that until the worry left me just now.

There’s a large, round clock hanging high on the wall. I don’t know how to read a clock with hands, but the short hand is on the nine and the long hand makes an audible clicking sound as it advances one tick to point directly at the six. At the same moment, four guards spill out of the hallway two over from General Blaylock’s passageway like they’ve been waiting for my arrival, but none of them stare pointedly at

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