“I thought you’d be gone by now,” Leonard said.Gavriel’s tawny eyes flickered. “The twins and Vaughan left an hour ago, and Lorcan left at dawn. He said to tell you good-bye.”Leonard nodded in a way that made it very clear he knew Lorcan had done no such thing. “What do you want?”She wasn’t quite sure they had the same definition of friend that she did. But Gavriel looked at her from head to toe and back up again, then at Leonard , and said, “Be careful when you face Maeve. We’ll have given our reports by then.”Leonard ’s stormy expression didn’t improve. “Travel swiftly,” he said, and kept walking.Matilda lingered, studying the Fae Mob , the glimmer of sadness in his golden eyes. Like Leonard , he was enslaved to Maeve—and yet he thought to warn them. With the blood oath, Maeve could order him to divulge every detail, including this moment. And punish him for it. But for his friend …“Thank you,” she said to the golden-haired Mob . He blinked, and Leonard froze. Her arms ach

The private library’s doors were locked. Joyce jangled the handle, but it refused to open.She said quietly, “Open this door.”The House ignored her.She tried the handle again, shoving a shoulder into the door. “Open this door.”Nothing.She continued slamming her shoulder into the door. “Open this door right now.”The House declined to obey.She gritted her teeth, panting. She’d had more books than yesterday to shelve, as the priestesses had apparently heard from Gwyn that Joyce was to be their errand girl.So they began dumping their tomes on her cart—and a few asked her to retrieve books as well. Joyce had heeded them, if only because finding the requested books took her to new places in the library and occupied her thoughts, but by the time the clock had struck six, she was exhausted and dusty and hungry. She’d ignored the sandwich the House had laid out for her in the afternoon, and this had apparently pissed off the House enough that it now refused to allow her entry int

Joyce stood in the training ring atop the House of Wind and scowled. “I thought we were going up to Windhaven.”Leonard strode over to the rope ladder laid out on the ground and straightened a rung. “Change of plans.” No trace of that red-hot anger had remained on his face this morning when she’d walked into the breakfast room. Azriel was already gone, and Leonard hadn’t said a word about why he’d left. Something about the queens, presumably, judging by what she’d heard the previous night.When she’d finished her porridge, she’d looked for any sign of Morrigan, but the female had never appeared. And Leonard had led her here, not speaking on the walk up.Everyone hates you. The words had lingered, like a bell that wouldn’t stop ringing.He finally clarified, “Mor’s gone back to Vallahan, and Rhys and Feyre are busy. So there’s no one to winnow us to Windhaven. We’ll be training here today.” He gestured to the empty ring. Free of any watching eyes. He added with a sharp grin

Well, it’d certainly be helpful if they bothered to read less and hunt more. But the cats answered to no one and nothing, except, perhaps, their namesake, or whatever god had found a quiet home in the library, within Silba’s shadow. To offend one Baast Cat was to insult them all, and even though Matilda loved most animals—with the exception of some insects—she had been sure to treat the cats kindly, occasionally leaving morsels of food, or providing a belly rub or ear scratch whenever they deigned to command them.But there was no sign of those green eyes glinting in the dark, or of a scurrying mouse fleeing their path, so Matilda loosed a breath and set aside the ancient scroll, carefully placing it at the edge of the desk before pulling an Eyllwe tome toward her.The book was bound in black leather, heavy as a doorstop. She knew a little of the Eyllwe language thanks to living so close to its border with a mother who spoke it fluently—certainly not from the father who had hailed f

Matilda sat up, any lingering color draining from her face. “Tumelun’s body was not drained. Hadiza —the Healer on High herself declared it was a suicide.”There was, of course, a chance the two deaths weren’t connected, a chance that Kashin was wrong about Tumelun. Part of Leonard prayed it was so. But even if they were unrelated, what had happened last night—“You need to warn the Carl ,” Matilda said, seeming to read his mind.He nodded. “Of course. Of course I will.” Damned as the entire situation wasPerhaps it was the in he’d been waiting for with the Carl . But he studied her haggard face, the fear there. “I’m sorry—to have brought you into this. Has security been increased around the Torre?”“Yes.” A breathy push of sound. She scrubbed at her face. “And you? Did you come here under guard?”She threw him a frown. “In plain daylight? In the middle of the city?” Leonard crossed his arms. “I would put nothing past the Valg.”She waved a hand. “I won’t be heading alone into a