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I reached for the tray, offering the server a smile as thanks. Laying eyes on their face caught me by surprise, so much that it took effort to steel my reaction from the crowd.

Seraphine was here.

No one else had noticed. Like I had when I first saw her, no one expected the face of the dead to ever show up again, so they weren’t looking for her. Especially not in a place like this.

Once an Asp, always an Asp.

I reached for the glass, but Seraphine picked it up and handed it to me, slipping something else into my hand with it.

“Thank you,” I muttered.

“You’re welcome,” Seraphine replied in a forced accent. She really enjoyed playing this part.

I felt the rough brush of parchment paper. A quick glance and I figured what it could be.

A note. A message. Ananswer.

“About that toast,” Althea encouraged as she pressed so close to Gyah they were practically stitched together. “The floor is yours, Robin.”

I lifted my glass, hyper aware of everyone watching me, listening. “To the new world. May it forever flourish.”

“To the new world,” Althea echoed.

Everyone but Erix echoed the sentiment.

Gyah cocked her drink back and downed it. Althea followed suit. Elinor drank slower, small delicate sips. I was glad for mine, because it gave me a chance to manoeuvre my hand and unravel the note.

Rafaela is being held in the Below.

Rafaela. The Below. Finally, I got my answers to both my queries. Where Rafaela was, and what Cassial was using the prison beneath this very room for. Neither revelation made me feel relief – in fact, my body reacted as though lightning carved through me.

By the time I looked up, Seraphine was gone. Her job complete, just as she promised. How she found out Rafaela’s location was beyond me, another mystery of how the Asps worked. But what I cared about now was why would Rafaela be inside the dungeons where the fey had once been kept as prisoners.

“If you’re not going to finish that,” Gyah said, pointing to my full glass. “I wouldn’t mind it. Pre-wedding nerves and all.”

I handed it over, screwing the note up before she noticed. “You, Gyah Eldrae, nervous?”

“I’m a changed woman,” Gyah said, taking the glass and downing that as quickly as the first one. “Put a sword in my hand and an army at my back, and I thrive. But a wedding, that’s an entirely different battle.”

I tried to offer her a genuine smile, but my mind was whirling – a vortex of unease.

“Have any of you spoken with Rafaela during communications with Lockinge?” I found myself asking, unable to take my mind off the message and what it could mean.

From the silence and shifting eyes, I knew the answer.

“Should we have?” Althea asked.

I wanted to scream the truth of my concerns but held my tongue. Keeping calm, I added more kindling to the fire, hoping to inspire a spark in each of them. “It’s just I have tried to contact her, multiple times, and haven’t had any luck.” I looked Althea dead in her eyes, hoping she could understand my simmering worry. “I’ve been concerned about her. We all knew she was to be punished for her involvement in the destruction of the keys. But we never knew what that would entail.”

“I know that look,” Althea said, clicking onto the thread I was weaving. “What are you suggesting, Robin?”

I felt sick just admitting it, but the note in my hand was practically burning against my palm. I could lie about Duncan, butnotabout Rafaela. There wasn’t the need to tell them what I needed Rafaela for, only that she was a friend, and I was worried. “I think–”

The doors opened without warning, revealing a familiar imposing man with ivory-white wings thrice the width of him. The rays of daylight bounced across his blue-black hair, down the impressive set of armour shaped to his body.

“Do not concern yourselves with the whereabouts of sister Rafaela,” Cassial said, voice full of unbridled command. “She is well cared for in the hands of the Creator, and there is no better place for her to be.”

CHAPTER 11