“That isn’t what you were told to do." His brows wrinkled in a frown "Such a reckless act. What would you have done if you had been caught? Your head would have been...no, perhaps your paycheck would never have been,” Finric’s concerned voice from two days past still echoed loudly in Valia’s mind.

After he had caught her in the act, spying on the royals, she had spent the next few days doubling her efforts, expressing her gratitude at every chance and dropping subtle flattery every ...