“You’ll see for yourself soon enough.” She squeezed my hands. “That’s why we came—for you. I know what it is to feel trapped, Max. We’re here to bring you home. To Missy. We’ll all be together again, like the old days. The only difference is we’re finally getting our happily ever after.”
I nodded to show trust, then let doubt flicker across my face. “How did they even find out about Missy and me? I’m nobody.”
She gave me a long, pointed look. “You know perfectly well you’re not nobody.”
I swallowed.
The suspicion hardened into something solid and cold—my friend had sold me. Sold my sister. For silk and soft hands and a roof in paradise. And yet. Xander hadn’t earned the name Saint by accident. It was just as possible that Desta was a victim, hollowed out and refilled with his words until she believed every one of them. Either way, I couldn’t tell her what he really was. Not here. Not without throwing the whole mission into the fire.
My heart sank past the floor, down to the cold place underneath. I wanted to rage. I wanted to take her by theshoulders and shake the miner’s daughter back into her. I did none of it. I didn’t even let my hands curl into fists. I kept my face smooth, not a muscle, not a flicker along my jaw.
I had a part to play. Keep the Collector blind and unruffled, the same as Aelindor and Nikolai were doing across the room. So I’d play my old friend right back while she worked me.
“Thank you, Desta,” I said. “For watching over her. I’ve been worried sick.”
“Of course.” Desta glowed. “She’s my sister too, you know that. And she loves it there—it’s paradise, Max. She can’t wait for you to come home.”
And there it was. Missy’s face, tearful and terrified. Her scream rang in my ears. My throat closed. I forced the image down.
Not now, little viper. But I’m coming.
A breath later, my face was blank again, giving nothing away.
“When the Saint leaves, we can arrange for you to leave with us,” Desta said. “Would you like that?”
“Yes, I’d like that.” I let a thread of hesitation into it. “But it might be difficult.”
“I know.” She said it like she knew a great deal. “The heirs seem quite taken with you.” Her eyes went down me and back up, slow, the way you’d price a companion for hire, and caught on the necklace at my throat. “You’ve done well for yourself. But I promise you, the Haven has more. More riches than this, more luxury than you can picture. The Saint gives his people everything they could ever dream of.”
Over her shoulder, I saw Xander start toward me. Nikolai shifted to cut him off, said something, but Xander didn’t so much as break his stride.
“I have to go, Desta. I’ve got duties. My officers will have my hide if I don’t see to them.” I gestured at the gown, the necklace. “This is all just decoration. They want me looking the part.” Imade myself smile. “Wait for me. I’ll come find you tomorrow night and we’ll talk properly. All right?”
Before I could turn on my heel, the Collector was there. Beside me. He’d crossed the whole floor in the space of a blink—one of his magics, I realized a beat too late.
Too late to slip away now.
I’d done more than catch his eye. I’d drawn the monster all the way in.
“Lady Morningstar,” he said.
Cold panic, fury, and hate surged up together, and I caught all three and held them down before they could reach my face.
“You’ve got the wrong person, sir.”
“Delightful.” He laughed, low and pleased. “You’re exactly who I’m looking for.”
I almost corrected him out of spite—whom—and bit it back.
“My surname is Morning. And I’m no lady. I’m a cadet, that’s all.”
“Lady Morning, then. For now.” His eyes moved over me with the attention of a man pricing something rare. “You don’t know what you are—they’ve kept it from you. I’d be glad to show you the truth of it, if you’d let me.”
My hackles went up.
“This is King Xander,” Desta breathed, folding into a bow so deep she was practically polishing his shoes with her tongue. “The Saint himself, Max.”
She said it like a prayer.