Page 13 of The Dark Mirror

‘A masquerade in Paris.’ I tried the coffee. ‘After that, there’s nothing. It’s like I fell asleep.’

‘Could Ménard have been involved?’

‘I did consider the idea, but I can’t think of any reason he would have sent me to Poland.’

Maria reached for a pastry. ‘Verca knows more than I do about white aster. One of her best friends was hooked on it,’ she said. ‘Assuming you didn’t take it by choice—’

‘I wouldn’t have done that.’

‘—then your captor must have drugged you multiple times over six months. One dose couldn’t erase that much memory. Whatever they did, it seems to have left you with a kind of anterograde amnesia. Every memory since March is buried somewhere in your dreamscape.’

My upper arm gave a sudden ache, as if my body was recalling something I no longer could.

‘Eléonore Cordier was the medical officer for my Domino sub-network. I’m certain she was involved,’ I said. ‘She’s amaurotic, but she might know how to use ethereal drugs.’

‘You think she betrayed Domino?’

‘She might not even work for Domino. She’s clearly mixed up with the suits who came after me in Wroclaw.’

‘I can’t find any trace of this Atlantic Intelligence Bureau.’ Maria dipped the pastry in her coffee. ‘Do you remember the date of the masquerade?’

‘March the seventh,’ I said. Her expression changed. ‘What?’

‘There are no coincidences.’ She chewed the inside of her cheek. ‘On the seventh, there were simultaneous airstrikes against Paris and London. It seems the free world finally retaliated.’

I looked at her in disbelief. In two centuries, no one had dared to punish Scion for its aggression.

‘You were in Paris when it happened. Nick and I feared the worst,’ Maria said. ‘It was the only obvious explanation for why you’d disappeared.’

Based on the timing, I must have been caught up in the destruction. I remembered none of it, but perhaps that was a mercy.

‘Tell me we didn’t lose anyone,’ I said.

‘I imagine there were a few Mime Order casualties on the surface, but most of your subjects survived in the deep-level shelter. They couldn’t have been in a more perfect hideout.’

Our descent had seemed like a defeat at the time, but it might have saved hundreds of lives.

‘I wonder if Cordier used the chaos to abduct you,’ Maria said. ‘Perhaps you were injured?’

‘Maybe. I thought Scion had detained her. She vanished the same night—’ I paused to steady my voice. ‘The same night Warden was taken.’

‘Nick told me what happened. He was there when the Mime Order received your warning. Nadine said Scion captured Warden, but when you ran to his rescue, he claimed he had been working for Nashira the whole time,’ Maria said. I nodded. ‘But she wasn’t convinced.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘She didn’t think Warden had really betrayed you.’

‘Nadine barely knows Warden. How could she have been so sure?’

‘Nick might be able to tell you more. I don’t think anyone wanted to believe it,’ Maria said. ‘Warden and I talked a few times at the Mill. He didn’t need to be civil, but he always was.’

Not just civil. He had spoken to humans from a place of genuine respect and interest, until the night that had nearly destroyed me.

‘I understand the Ranthen were looking for him,’ Maria said, ‘but he disappeared into thin air, like you.’

‘And no one’s heard from him since?’

‘Not as far as I know.’ She held out a dish. ‘Eat something, Paige. You look faint.’

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