Page 161 of Silvercloak

“Dragontail …” Aspar tried to say, but it was hard to understand her over the thick gloops of blood spouting from her mouth like a faucet. Moonlight limned every ridge of her shaven head. “Dragontail … your father. And he … he … he would be proud. There’s a … letter.”

Captain Elodora Aspar died in Auria’s arms.

A sigh, a shift, a final twitch. And then nothing.

Auria let out a single rollicking sob, turning to Saffron, wand raised, world-ending anger blazing over her face. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t kill you right now.”

“Auria, I—”

“My grandfather died a gruesome death because of you. The captain is dead because of you.” Auria’s skin was pale as bone, framed by frizzy copper hair, and she looked so unbearably young. “The only thing I want more than to see you dead is to see you suffer for the rest of your life. To see you rot in Duncarzus, living every day with the shame of what you have done.”

“I’ve been undercover,” Saffron snapped. “Which should be familiar to you, as a concept.”

“How can youlivewith yourself?” Auria went on, as though Saffhad not spoken. “I thought you weregood.I saw the very best in you, and now look—”

“It’s not that fuckingsimple,Auria! In this world, everything comes with a price. Magic comes with a price, love comes with a price, goodness comes with a price. Sometimes you have to do dark things in the name of the light.”

“Is that the bullshit logic you use to exonerate yourself?” A scathing head shake. “In the great arc of humanity, goodness will always win. Nothing you can say will convince me otherwise.”

“Thiswasa part of the great arc. You have to believe me,” Saffron whispered, palms up in surrender. “Ifroze time and tied up Bloodmoons. Would I do that if I weren’t undercover? If I weren’t still working for you?”

“You were switching sides at the last minute because you knew defeat was nigh.”

“Switching sides?” Saff shook her head in frustration. “Because it’s so easy to justswitch sidesback into the institution that publicly shamed and imprisoned you? You heard Aspar. She said my father would be proud. Would she say that if I hadn’t been risking my life to bring in the Bloodmoons?”

“Aspar was dying and delirious.”

Saffron pressed her palms into her eyes, trying to right her pitching vision. “Fine. Nissa knows too, ask her.”

Auria’s expression grew even colder. “Nissa has been in a coma since the first raid. She went into shock a few minutes after youportari-ed out. She might recover, and she might not.”

No.Nissa couldn’t be … Tiernan had said …

New horror dawning, Saffron realized he’d only said Nissa wasalive.Not that she wasawake.

Something freshly furious reared behind Auria’s hazel eyes, as though she could read Saffron’s thoughts. “Where’s Tiernan? The last time I saw him, he said he was going to meet you. To make amends. I didn’t understand why.”

A single tear rolled down Saffron’s cheek. “He took his own life.”

Anger and grief and hatred erupted over Auria’s face.

“He’s dead?” She was shaking uncontrollably. “Youkilledhim.”

“No.He’d been compelled into informing by the kingpin’s son. Who I just killed in that closet, by the way, to save your life. Go and see for yourself.”

At this, Auria blanched. “Tiernan was the rat?”

“Tiernan was the rat. He cost us the first raid.”

“Don’t sayus, like you’re still part of it.” Auria trembled from head to toe, looking from Aspar’s dead body to the last person who’d seen her betrothed alive. Her palm went to her rib cage, where the betrothal tattoo was likely still fresh. “He can’t be gone.”

“He might not be. I took him to the Bloodmoons’ ascenite crypt. It’ll preserve his body until we can get a necromancer to him.” A plan galloped into Saff’s mind fully formed, a way to convince Auria to let her walk free. “I alone can get beyond the wards into the crypt, since I’ve been branded. Once all the Bloodmoons are safely imprisoned, I’ll get him out. We just need to find a necromancer, alright?”

War waged behind Auria’s eyes for several moments. All around them, silence pressed in, as solid as a physical object after the fierce skirmish. Saffron wondered dimly what was going on in the other shacks, who had lived and who had died.

Auria shook her head frantically. “It’s wrong. Necromancy is wrong. I don’t want him back likethat.And even if I did, Tiernan wouldn’t want me to put him above what’s right.” She raised her wand in a trembling hand. “Sen effigias.”

The statue spell struck Saffron, but nothing happened.