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“Pity you lost the Focus.” Evelyn’s voice took on a sharp edge.

“I fell into the fucking river.” Sirna’s nostrils flared as he snarled the words. “It was in my hand one moment, gone the next.”

“Another reason not to bother to show up at the border.” Evelyn watched him with cynical eyes. “Himselftold me in Bartolo he had to pay a former bodyguard of the Queen’s Herald a lot of money to break into the palace and steal that Focus from Herron’s old rooms. And you’ve gone and lost it.”

That was interesting.

Ava felt a buzz along her arms at the information.

She had sensed something when she’d held the dress . . .

How had Herron got it? He had never been to Grimwalt, let alone to her parents or her grandparents’ house, that she knew of.

She had wondered many, many times how her parents had known where she was being held. They had been ambushed on their way to rescue her. Her father had been killed, her mother captured and used by Herron in the same way he had wanted to use her.

Her parents had seemed to know where she was being kept.

Either her mother or her grandmother must have created the Focus to find her. And when Herron had captured her mother, he had taken it, and not left it in the fortress where she was being held.

For some reason, he had taken it back to Fernwell with him, and kept it in his rooms. Most likely because he didn’t trust anyone else with it.

He didn’t want anyone else to be able to find her except him.

There was no spell caster who had invaded her grandmother’s estate, as she’d feared, no one had been through her things and stolen something to find her.

The rope, the necklace, the net. They could all be old pieces, loaned to Sirna for this abduction.

The spell caster she feared might not exist.

It lifted a huge weight off her shoulders.

“They owe me.”

She realized while she had been processing what Eveyln had said, Sirna had started to pace.

Evelyn was right, Ava thought. There would be nothing good waiting for Sirna at the border, even if he had her in hand.

His dream of full payment was just that. A dream.

“I’m not walking away from what I’m owed.” Sirna’s lips thinned and took on a stubborn line.

“Then we better go get her.” Evelyn sighed, but she was shaking her head. “Although, given the way the rest of them cluck and fuss around her, I’m surprised they didn’t notice she was gone, either.”

Sirna went still, slowly turning his head to look at her. “You’re right.” A look passed over his face, and it was not a nice one.

Ava went cold. This was what she had worried about. This was the danger she had anticipated.

“Sirna. We’re leaving, but you’ll need to move your cart.” Reckhart’s shout turned them both toward the camp.

“What are you going to do?” Eveyln had noticed the change in him, too, and she licked her lips nervously.

“Where do you think they’ve put her?” Sirna asked as he walked back toward the makeshift camp.

“That old bitch’s cart, maybe. Or the surly blacksmith with the brat.” Evelyn spoke with her usual venom, but she was frightened, Ava thought. Wary. “Do you think Reckhart is in on it?Ifthey have her, that is?”

“I don’t know.” Sirna sounded bemused. “And they definitely have her. I can’t believe I fell for that little act for even a moment.”

Ava followed behind them, moving out from the protection of the trees as they strode toward the small group waiting for them.