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“How could your brother have kidnapped you if he was dead?”

Janus had a twin, a twin who died, the Thief had told me in the Flora Queen’s woods.The first time you met him, you were really meeting me.

Mirielle’s vacant eyes focus on the ground. “I don’t know.”

This vexing answer again.

“I had hoped …” Mirielle begins, then she falls to silence.

“Speak to me freely,” I command her.

Slowly, her eerie gaze shifts to meet mine. “It’s dark here. Very dark.”

The back of my neck pricks. “Are you in the Night Kingdom?” I ask.

“Yes and no.”

I wait for her to say more, but she doesn’t.

“What do you mean by that?”

“It is very dark here,” she repeats. “I want to rest. Why can’t I rest?”

“Do you know where the Thief is?” I press.

“You’ll never find him.”

So everyone keeps saying.

“Is there anything else you can tell me?” I ask.

“Secrets are meant for one soul to keep.”

I sense rather than see Des stiffen at her words.

The corner of Mirielle’s mouth curves up. “He’s watching you, enchantress, always watching you. My master has developed a taste for slaves.”

My siren pushes through. “You can tell your master I’ve developed a taste for evil fuckers,” I breathe, the words harmonic as they roll off my tongue. “Have him come find me. I’m eager to see him again. I’ll teach him then what it means to be my bitc—”

I wrangle my siren into submission and regain control of myself. I walk a fine line, using my glamour and trying to keep her worst tendencies at bay.

The cell darkens again, and suddenly, Des is in the cell with us. “Interrogation is over,” he says.

Before I can protest, the iron door swings open, and I’m whisked out. I swivel back to face Mirielle just as it clangs shut.

One final question. “If I let you out now, what will you do?”

Her eyes fall on me. “Conquer.”

Chapter 7

Des broods nextto me, the hallway we walk down darkening with his presence.

“You could’ve let me finish the interrogation,” I finally say. I mean, he’s not the only one who’s in a ripe mood. I have blood caked in my hair, I’m running on half a night’s worth of sleep, my bones want to give out from post-battle exhaustion, and I needed coffeehoursago.

“You walk on thin ice right now, Callie,” the Bargainer growls.

I swivel to face him, his words riling me up. “I’mthe one on thin ice?” I say, my voice rising. “You’rethe one who screwed the prisoner.”