Page 58

Chapter 58

Kat

Viola, Matthew, Charles, and Beatrice are all waiting for me at Vandermore Manor when I arrive. I embrace each one of them. Seeing their familiar faces is a balm to my soul.

Now that Agatha is gone, I make my way up to her room. The room that once belonged to my mother.

The door whines softly when I push it open. I haven’t been here often since Father remarried. White sheets drape the four-poster bed, the matching oak vanity, and wardrobe. The floor creaks beneath my weight. Mama kept the walls a shade of periwinkle, but Agatha changed the color to a dark green. I lift the white sheet over the vanity. There is no collection of cut glass perfume bottles. There are no precious jewels in elaborate settings of silver or gold in the drawers. Only when I check the back of the wardrobe do I find a single crumpled lavender sachet. From Agatha.

The room has been scraped so bare I struggle to find either woman here.

There is one thing, however, that remains from Mama.

The ceiling is covered in wallpaper. It shows a forest with a beautiful pool of water. Young forest creatures dance across the paper. Mama’s paint color always brought out the color of the water, though Agatha’s brings out the green of the forest. The wallpaper’s beauty is clearly showcased by the fact that it is still here. Mama loved it because she said the big eyes of the white-spotted fawn reminded her of me.

I remember being a child, sitting here on the floor despite my parents’ orders to leave the servants alone as they installed the paper.

I drag in a deep lungful of dust, mingled with faint traces of Agatha’s perfume.

If I can just complete this Nothril raid in a week, I’ll be at peace finally. I’ll reunite these people with freedom, and I will call my work finished. Mary was right that I cannot free everyone. If my life was the only one on the line, I’d continue this work until I was inevitably caught and killed. But after the Star City, I can no longer deny how much danger I bring to the people I try to save. What even happened to that woman I gave my ollea to? I shudder.

This raid will be my last.

Maybe then, with my work finished and my fortune claimed, I will be able to focus on finding a proper human husband. Even if he is half as good as Rahk, I will be happy. For the first time since my mother’s disappearance, I’ll have a normal life.

“And you’re going to like having a normal life,” I growl into the silence of the room.

Rahk

“Yes, I am almost finished organizing the guard rotation for Mirror Tide. I will inform you the moment it is done,” I tell the captain who has been hounding me the last several days since I returned to Nothril. It would have taken me less time if his initial proposal had not been cobbled together so haphazardly.

I leave the captain and stride down the dark stone hallways. Only when I turn a corner does a surprising presence make me halt in my steps.

Ash throws up his hands, his crown knocked slightly askew. “Rahk! There you are! My sources informed me that Ymer was successfully on the right side of the border once more. I’ve come to thank you. You saved me the nightmare of a troll rebellion.”

“No need to thank me,” I reply.

Ash’s eyebrow twitches. He looks me up and down. “What is the matter?”

Have I truly let my composure slip? I pull my shoulders back and straighten my features. “I still have not caught the Ivy Mask. Pavi’s life is on the line, and I do not have long before Pelarusa becomes banished to the human lands to aid the search .”

He winces. “That is ugly. I shudder to think of Pelarusa in the human lands.” Then he peers closer at me. “But I do believe you just dodged a question, my old friend. You look like a ship with the wind gone from its sails. Why aren’t you sniffing out the Ivy Mask right now?”

“She used ollea to disguise her scent. Only once I tracked a scent of hers, but I have never been able to catch it again.”

“ She? None of my intel knew the Ivy Mask was a woman.”

“She is quick, clever in the human lands and clever in Faerieland. She has proven herself worthy of her reputation.”

Ash folds his arms across his chest. He leans against the cave wall, only to stand upright when the cold bleeds into his back. “High praise coming from you. Are you certain you are not in love with her?”

“Very certain,” I mutter.

Ash’s brilliant complexion suddenly pales, his lips parting. I set into a quick stride and kick myself for what I’ve just revealed. My friend rushes after me, dropping his voice to a near-silent hiss. “You fell in love in the human lands, didn’t you?”

“I have work to do.”

“Rahk! What has happened? You must marry her. Bring her here—or go there. If you have found—”

I whirl on him. “I did marry her, Ash.”

He comes to an abrupt halt.

“I am happy you were able to work a future out with Stella,” I whisper, “but not all of us are so fortunate. We tried to find a way to make it work, but it just cannot. Now please, I truly do have many responsibilities, and I do not wish to discuss this any further. I am glad I was able to fix the troll problem before things got too messy.”

With that, I leave him to find his way out of Nothril. I am determined to get to my own chambers for a few minutes of peace and quiet before I try to come up with some other trap to lay for the Ivy Mask—

“Let me know the moment the Valehaven tailor arrives with my gown. I want to be certain everything is in order for Mirror Tide.”

That is Pelarusa’s voice. It stops me dead in my tracks. I turn around, cut through a side hallway until I find Pelarusa speaking with one of the higher servants.

“Did you say the Valehaven tailor is coming?” I ask.

“It is rude to eavesdrop,” she replies. “But yes, he is coming, and I am furious because he is not arriving until the morning of Mirror Tide. I asked him to come several days early, in case I needed any major changes to the dress, but he said he could not. Don’t try to tell me I should use glamour on my outfit. It is far too tacky for a princess of Nothril.”

Mirror Tide. If the Valehaven tailor will be here in just a few days . . .

Then so will the Ivy Mask.

I spare a thought for Kat, for how much she would hate me if she knew I was about to destroy her mother’s savior. It truly is good that we parted ways. I refuse to keep letting people get tangled up in my affections.

I will not care when I catch the Ivy Mask. I will not think of Kat when I drag my quarry before Lord and Lady Nothril and slice open her throat.