They had paid for it in blood. Literally. The merchant who had sold it to them had demanded a year off each of their lives. Kaelen had felt the weight settle into his lungs the moment he agreed—a heaviness, a promise of earlier twilight.
“Little mouse. I wondered when you would come.” Overthrow- The Demon Queen 1
The queen was laughing.
Kaelen pulled a rolled parchment from his coat and spread it across the table. It was a map of the palace, painstakingly reconstructed from memory and the half-blind testimony of a servant who had escaped with her tongue cut out. Every corridor, every guard rotation, every hidden door was marked in spidery red ink. They had paid for it in blood