“I didn’t.” Now her voice deepened, and the blue eyes narrowed. “But a good spymaster doesn’t work well on a short leash.”
Gawain, spymaster. Exactly as Dorian had said.
I forced words through my constricted throat. “Leave to where?”
“I’m sending you home. You and yourveyre.”
“To Sylvanwild?”
A faint smile appeared, then vanished. “No, girl. To your scorched kingdom.”
“The Kingdom of Storms?”
“The very one.”
Home. A pang of longing sliced through me. “Why?”
“It’s where Drystan buried the blade.” A certain distance entered her eyes, and a wistful tilt of the lips. “In the place where no one can go.”
The cobalt-blue blade appeared in my mind’s eye. The sight of it cutting through my fate line. The feel of its magic entering my blood. “Carys’s dagger.”
She nodded once. “Of course, you could just stay there in your district. I recognize that. You might miss your little life. What were you, a potter’s daughter?”
My eyes closed. “Baker.”
“Ah. Well.” She paused. “If you should return to us, Eurydice, best be sure you have the dagger.”
My eyes opened. Now was my chance to prod. “Why should I not leave it be? Drystan buried it for a reason.”
“That depends on your philosophy, child.” Liora lifted her hand, pulled off the white glove with two pinched fingers. She counted on her elegant fingertips, one by one. “Perhaps to avenge those innocent fae who died in the trials. Hundreds of them, over the centuries.” She lowered one finger. “Perhaps to end the system that has subjugated us since its inception.” She lowered another finger. “Perhaps to finish what Carys started, rather than let her legacy rot in the dark.”
She paused with one finger up—her index finger.
“And the last?”
“Power,” she said. “Power like no one has known since that dagger was put under the earth.”
Her finger lowered—and her hand became a clenched fist as her thumb drew across the other four fingers. We stared at one another overtop her fist until she lowered it to her lap.
“I feel the fear in you,” she said. “See it in your eyes. Saw it the moment you stepped out of that carriage.”
I didn’t speak. I couldn’t.
She leaned forward, until we might have kissed. “What if you didn’t have to fear?” Her breath tickled my cheek, sweet with wine. “That’s what I offer you. That’s why I know you’ll find it. That’s why I know you’ll return.”
“Why me?” I whispered.
“Why not you?” Her blue eyes mirrored mine in the semidark, wide and intent. “Another person lives inside all of us. And when we’re afraid, that person comes out. Sometimes, Eurydice, that person is capable of the most remarkable things.”
Liora and I emerged from the private chamber into the corridor’s golden light, she ahead of me. When she stepped aside, a pair of brilliant onyx eyes found mine.
Maeronyx stood against the far wall with arms crossed, as though she’d been waiting since we’d slipped past the curtains. Herblack gown pooled on the marble. Behind her mask, those dark eyes moved from Liora to me.
“There you are,” she said, as if we’d kept her.
Liora’s jaw tightened before she broke into a smile. She glanced at me, then back at Maeronyx. Something passed between them—old, practiced. Liora had known Maeronyx would be here.
“I’ll walk the autumn queen back,” Maeronyx said. “It’s the least I can do after such a startle.”