Page 13 of Iron Roses

“I want to see him,” I whisper.

Allegra doesn’t pause. She finishes the wrap and smooths it once with her thumb before meeting my eyes.

“Your father’s dead.”

“I know that,” I snap. My voice cracks like glass. “I just… I didn’t say goodbye. I never said anything.”

She studies me. There’s no sympathy in her face—just an immovable calm.

“There’s nothing left to say,” she replies flatly. “He was a traitor.”

I stare at her. “What did you say?”

Her jaw tightens, but she doesn’t look away. “There was an investigation on him for years. We had proof. Drops. Leaked routes. He gave them information, Elaria. Over and over again.”

“You’re lying.” My voice wavers.

“No.” Her gaze is level. “He made his choices.”

I feel my chest clench and twist, rage and disbelief and loss crashing into each other like waves in a bottle. I want to scream, to strike her, to undo time with my bare hands.

Instead I croak out, “His journal.”

She tilts her head.

“It’s all I had left of him,” I whisper, chest tightening. “I dropped it. In the study. During the—when they—” My breath breaks. “I need to go back. I need to find it.”

“Don’t be stupid,” she says sharply. “You’ll die if you go back there.”

“I have to—”

She grabs my wrist, not hard, but firmly enough to stop me from rising. “No. Listen to me.”

I look at her, eyes burning.

“I’ll ask my men to look for it,” she says, quieter now. “I’ll bring it to you if they find it. I promise.”

Her voice—still cool, still edged with steel—has a thread of something else in it now. Something close to understanding. Not warmth. But something older. Calmer.

I sit back down.

The cold creeps up my spine like it wants to bury itself in me.

We sit in silence for a moment longer. Then I look at her, really look at her. There’s a scar on her jaw, pale and thin like an old whisper. Her eyes are hard, but not empty. Her coat is still splattered with dried blood—not mine. Not hers.

"Who are you?" I ask finally.

She leans back on her heels. She doesn’t answer right away.

“My name is Allegra, for who I am, just know I’m on your side,” she says, gaze flicking to the trees. “That’s enough.”

It isn’t. But I let it be.

"Where are we going?" I ask, my voice small.

“The only place you’ll be safe.”

Safe.

---