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And that was all?

I swallowed, suppressing my questions. This was much, much too easy, again – why were they trusting me on my word to not cause any of the catastrophic upheaval I could cause while roaming around unsupervised? Why had Delwin not been asked to shadow me every hour of the day? My letter may have been good, but it had not beenthatconvincing, and either way, the people who had kept this city safe from the Mother for all these years should know better than to trust every innocent-looking stranger to come knocking at the gate.

So why was one of their consuls standing here, doing exactly that?

‘Yes, of course,’ I managed, mind spinning furiously. She was too clever by far to be so dewy-eyed about me, moving letter or not. So either she was playing some bigger game – luring me into an unwise action I couldn’t yet foresee, or even just observing what I would do with my apparent freedom – or …

Or she had some other reason to trust me.

I really had to stop thinking about my gods-damned parents.

‘Excellent,’ she said lightly, and if not for those razor-sharp eyes monitoring my every word and movement, I might have thought she hadn't noticed my inner turmoil. ‘Would you like to leave your luggage here, then?’

I quickly agreed that would be the best idea, glad for a moment of pause to recover and gather my wits again.

The guest room assigned to me was a light, spacious room with high windows and a bed large enough for four. I dropped my bag beside the door, then threw a quick glance outside in an attempt to reorient myself and identify potential escape routes. Unfortunately, street level lay some thirty feet below the window, but at least the sight was familiar – the square on which we had arrived.

Front side.

Which meant Rosalind had not just stood there loitering. Rather, she’d been watching me as her guards escorted me to the building, observing me from the first moment I set foot in her territory.

Nervousness prickled up my spine. No, this whip-smart consul wasdefinitelynot naïvely letting me run free in the city, and whatever game she was playing, I’d better figure it out soon – before I broke the rules I didn’t even know existed and lost my chance, my freedom, or worst of all, a war.

I’d been dazed and overwhelmed for long enough, I decided, turning for the door and steeling my shoulders. It was about time I found some answers.

Chapter 20

A small crowd hadgathered near the front gate of the White Hall, erupting in a flurry of urgent whispers the moment I stepped outside with Rosalind by my side.

Heavy lead sank into my stomach without warning.

Nothing about the situation was markedly different from the nervous giggles of nymphs passing me by in the Underground, and yet somehow, the lack of bright pink curls, horns, and scales in this group of onlookers raked up memories of a much older and more unpleasant nature – the children of the village quietly inching away from me as I tried to join their games. Their mothers whispering with Editta in our living room, then turning to glare at me accusingly. Signs I should have understood long before Creon forced the truth of my fae blood upon me … butthen again, should I have realised that the people I’d thought of as family would have kept a truth of that magnitude from me?

‘… or the gardens,’ Rosalind was saying next to me, and I jolted, realising only then I had missed at least half a sentence from her lips.

‘I … I’m sorry.’ Hell’s sake, I ought to be paying attention – those answers I needed wouldn’t patiently wait for me until I was ready to notice them. ‘I was distracted for a moment. What did you say?’

‘I suggested we walk to my favourite tearoom,’ she said, and while she might have looked amused on the surface, the slight narrowing of her eyes was evidence enough she had already added this small hiccup to her list of questions to answer. ‘Very charming historical attic. Lovely gardens. Excellent tea, most important of all.’

I forced a smile. ‘I’ll gladly follow your lead here.’

‘Wonderful.’ She nodded at the dragon fountain I’d seen before. ‘That way, then.’

The curious audience by the gate didn’t follow us, but plenty of other heads turned to catch a glimpse of me as we made for the alley with the flower garlands she had pointed out. Rosalind ignored the wariness in their looks entirely, exchanging cheerful greetings with anyone whose path we crossed. If this small sample was anything to go by, it appeared she knew about three quarters of the city population by name.

‘Well, they voted for me,’ she dryly said when I asked her, granting a passing woman and her toddler daughter a fond smile. ‘It seems polite to know who they are in turn. And admittedly’ – her smile grew just a fraction wicked as she turned back to me – ‘it’s significantly easier to make people do what you want them to do when you know what they’re called.’

Again a laugh escaped me. How in hell did she do it, appearing unreserved and amiable even while she was admitting just howdamn shrewd a politician she was? It made it hardnotto like her. Which was in itself evidence of her skills, and all the more reason to be wary … but perhaps, just perhaps, it was a reason to be honest, too.

She already knew I was not a poor human girl, caught up in conflicts too big for her to comprehend and in dire need of assistance. So if she was showing her hand here, was there any reason left for me not to do the same?

‘Some would call that shameless manipulation,’ I said as we left the woman and her daughter behind, and I took care not to make it sound like an accusation.

‘Oh, of course it is,’ Rosalind said and chuckled. ‘But we wouldn’t get anywhere if we let the people think for themselves all the time, and if I’m to be manipulating them anyway, I’d rather do it shamelessly than shamefully. Saves me a lot of headaches.’

Gods help me, it wasreallyhard to dislike her. ‘So are you manipulating me right now?’

‘Hmm.’ She threw me a side glance, steps never faltering on the smoothly paved street. ‘No more than you are manipulating me, I would say.’