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‘It seems you are in more danger than ever. And that we underestimated Eléonore Cordier.’

‘You warned me.’ I gazed out of the window. ‘When we played chess in Paris, you told me that I only had eyes for the king and queen. That I shouldn’t overlook the other pieces.’

‘I overlooked her, too.’

‘Does that make us the pawns?’

‘It means we made a sacrifice. In return, we gained intelligence we did not have before.’

‘At what cost?’

He didn’t answer.

‘All the people who wanted me are still out there,’ I said. ‘So are Cade and Nashira.’ My breath misted the window. ‘I feel like all of this is suddenly spinning out of our control.’

‘It was inevitable,’ Arcturus said. ‘You are right. We should reveal ourselves, before we are revealed.’

It was starting to rain, on top of the flooding. I turned away from the window.

‘While I was gone,’ I said, ‘did you ever try the golden cord?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘I hoped you would believe me gone, so you would not come looking for me.’

That explained why I had never felt the cord while I was with Cordier. It didn’t explain why he was blocking it now. I risked a glance at him, meeting his eyes, trying to find the courage to ask.

Just talk.I wrestled with myself.Tell him you’re sorry, he’s safe, you’re here.

‘We should get some rest,’ I said. ‘No doubt you think I can’t see how tired you are, but I didn’t come down in the last shower, you know.’

‘Hm.’

That sound warmed me to the core. I had missed it.

Arcturus started to get up, moving as if he was bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders.

‘We must do this again,’ he said. ‘There are memories still buried.’

‘I don’t want you to push yourself too hard.’

‘You overcame your limits to swim to me in that cave, in the dark. Let me do this for you, Paige.’

After a moment, I nodded, defeated. I couldn’t refuse him.

Not when he said my name that way.

Arcturus went to bed after that, while I stayed in the parlour. His influence had cut through the white aster like a cloth through dust. I went into my dreamscape to see if it had changed. Clearing the remaining aster would take at least one more dream, but even after torture and severance from the æther, Arcturus had full control of his gift, mastered over centuries.

My flowers were growing over the floorboards. Some of them still had creamy petals, but others had flushed back to crimson, and now that there was less ash, a purer light shone on the bed. I wonderedif the field would return, or if this was my haven now – this skeletal remnant of Paris, for ever mingled with the poppies of Arthyen.

I wondered if Arcturus feared me now, as he must have feared Cade, the architect behind his suffering.

At midnight, I returned to the couch and slept, deeper than I had in weeks. When I woke at four in the morning, a duvet had been tucked around me, keeping me warm. As I gathered it close, I tried to summon the memories Arcturus had brought to the surface. They had flown past so quickly, I would have to pinpoint each one and sift it for detail.

When I remembered, I sat up, heart pounding. The realisation hit me as hard as it had the first time.

There is one way that you might see proof that I am on your side. Something that would betray me, if anyone but you could see.

It had taken me so long to solve that puzzle. The red drapes in his dreamscape had been the answer all along. The safe place in his mind looked exactly like the trap room in the Guildhall, where he had kissed me like I had never been kissed, never dreamed of being kissed.