I couldn’t decide whether she wanted to provide a reasonable explanation in case Evander scented the blood trickling down my side, or if she thought such an admission would run Evander off.

Probably a little bit of both.

“No, I’d rather you not see me like this. I’m afraid the way of woman is upon me.” The words almost felt sour in my throat. He’d sat with me for days after I’d been stabbed. He’d held me through my fever sweats, for Fate’s sake. Surely he wouldn’t be mortified by the natural course of a woman.

“Uh. Goodnight then. I hope you recover quickly.” His footsteps shuffled away, and my breath caught. He had bought it. He hadn’t recognized the change in my tone, the difference in my personality that had meant to signal him that something was very, very wrong. My heart ached.

He didn’t know me at all.

He didn’t know me at all, and that was going to be the death of me.

The woman drew the knife down my back hard enough that it cut through my skin. “Now, where were we?”

BAM.

My door splintered. Pieces of wood went flying, lodging themselves in my cheeks and in the fabric of my skin. Cinderella recoiled and fell to the floor as Evander stormed into the room, his sword drawn.

“What’s going on?” Evander asked, glancing from me to my assailant. His eyes widened as he beheld her face, as recognition softened the blaze of rage in his face. “You,” he said softly.

“Evander,” Cinderella breathed. She heaved, her breasts undulating (because, of course they were). Tears flooded her pale face and her eyes widened.

His face hardened, and though his sword shook, he pointed it at her throat. “What are you doing? How could you try to hurt her?”

My muscles froze as I watched them, as I beheld the shock on his face and realized for the first time that he really had convinced himself that it had been some other woman who had tried to kill me that night. Not his mystery woman, not the girl who had dazzled him at the ball by treating him like a real person.

Not his Cinderella.

The woman wept and her voice went soft, not at all like the sickly sweet but venomous voice she’d used on me.

This one might have fooled even me if she hadn’t just had a knife to my back.

“Evander, I…” She took a dramatic look at the knife clutched in her hands, at her raw-white knuckles, and gasped. The knife clattered to the floor, and she scurried backward on her elbows, as if to get away from it. As if it had been the knife that had made her try to kill me multiple times. “Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no.” She rocked back and forth like a child, and I realized she’d backed herself away from Evander’s faltering blade.

“It’s all a show,” I said. “Don’t fall for it. She had a knife to my spine just seconds ago.”

Cinderella wailed. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” She buried her face in her hands before peeking those wide, twin blue eyes at Evander. He blinked. Something curled in my chest. “Please forgive me. I don’t know what came over me. Evander, please. I was so sick, so ill when I discovered that your bargain—the one you meant for us—had made a mistake. My love for you—it drove me out of my mind. The jealousy of thinking of another woman at your side, in your bed.”

She clutched her chest as if she were running out of air. “This isn’t me. Evander, I promise this isn’t me.”

The hard line in Evander’s brow softened. The grit in his teeth went lax.

“Evander,” I said, fear gripping me now. He couldn’t believe her, could he? “She’s lying. She tried to kill me. Don’t you see? She’s already tried twice. She’s not going to stop until I’m dead.”

He whipped his head toward me. “What are you asking me to do?”

I recoiled. “You’re the Crown Prince of Dwellen. The executor of justice. I’m asking you to keep me safe.”

His gaze whirled back and forth between me and the woman, the woman and me. This couldn’t be happening.

“That’s my blood on the knife!”

“Evander, please, no,” Cinderella cried, tucking her knees into her chest. “I didn’t mean to.”

He gritted his teeth, and the resolve returned to his face. “Yes. Yes, you did.”

Horror struck Cinderella’s face, but as she examined his, as she detected the same determination that I did, she cocked her head to the side and a wicked smirk spread across her red lips.

She pouted. “You’re not mad, are you?”

Even my blood cringed in disgust.

“How could you?” Evander asked, his breathing ragged, unsure. “You have my heart, Cinderella. Don’t you understand that? You’ve gotten into the castle twice now. You could have come for me at any point. We could have been together. But you came for Ellie instead. Why? Did you think I wouldn’t have accepted you?”

What? My head spun. He was lying. He was lying to disarm her, to get her away from me.

My heart plunged.

Evander couldn’t lie.

And now I couldn’t breathe.

Had this woman been on Evander’s mind the entire time? Of course she had. He’d told me as much. I’d just thought that tonight… My face went hot. How could I have been so stupid?

Cinderella rose to her feet, her very aura commanding the room. “We have to get her out of the way, Evander. Don’t you see that? You and I can’t be together if she’s around. Not in the way we deserve. That bargain you made—it was meant for me. For me. But this little thief stole it, and as if that wasn’t enough, she’s trying to steal your heart. She knew exactly what would happen if she put those shoes on, just like every little whore in the kingdom did. Didn’t you hear about the girls who blistered their feet trying to force themselves into those shoes?” Evander’s face faltered, and she let out a shrill laugh. “She convinced you that she didn’t know any better, didn’t she? And you believed her. She played you, Evander, with that little hard-to-get game of hers. But it was all just part of a scheme for the throne; can’t you see that? She waited until she had you in her pocket, and then she allowed you to believe that you were chasing her, not the other way around.”

Her gaze lingered on me in solemn judgment. “So don’t you dare call me the thief.”

Evander’s gaze darted back and forth between us. “That’s not true, and you know it,” I said, but the pained look in his eyes assured me he wasn’t convinced. Told me that, in just a few hours, that conniving little wench had learned him like the back of her hand, better than I had managed.

She’d taken stock of her target. And then she’d aimed for his greatest insecurity. That no one could ever love him just for him. That I had to have been in it for the money and power to begin with.

“It’s not true. She’s trying to manipulate you. Can’t you see that?” I asked, my voice going high in panic.

“Can’t you see that?” the woman mimicked. “See, Evander. She’s caught, so she’s trying to use my tactics, as she calls them. Now, does that say honest to you?”

“Why’d you run that night?” Evander asked her.

“You can’t be serious,” I groaned.

“No, I have to know. Why did you run? I would have wed you before the next mooncycle. If you want so badly to be with me, if you really love me, why did you run?”

Incredulity rolled through me. “Is that even a question worth asking? Is there any possible reason she could give you that would change who she is? She tried to murder me!”

Evander shot a silencing glare in my direction. Rage tied my tongue.

How dare he.

“Why?” he whispered.