An apple sat in the windowsill in the library. Kit noticed it when she came back from her ride with Reeve. She’d had to hurry to get ready for dinner because it had taken longer than expected to find her way back out of the forest and to the castle, but she had seen the red fruit sitting there and knew that Blankka had fulfilled her mission.

Either that, or this was all a set up, and Blankka was truly still loyal to the queen. She’d find out soon enough.

Dinner was full of the same nonsense as always, although her mother did seem excited about the archery competition the...