Page 130 of Silvercloak

“Oh, Saints,” Saff moaned. Ronnow had always been kind to her, had shared his old notes when she was struggling with the procedural exams.

And now he was dead, thanks to Tiernan’s betrayal.

She should be furious that his corruption had compromised everything she had worked for, but in truth, she harbored no judgment toward him. He had always been governed by fear, but he wasn’t a bad person. And she knew better than anyone how impossible it was to escape the Bloodmoons’ snare once you were in its grasp. The scarlet rot, once it had set in, had no known antidote.

“Are you alright?” she asked, remembering the grace he had shown her with his apology.

“No, but also yes.” Tiernan ran his hands through his mousy curls, clenching his wand tight. “After everything that happened … I asked Auria to marry me.”

“Tiernan!” A brief spark of joy in her chest, like flint to dry leaves. She had forgotten what it felt like, the kind of happiness that flared from within. “Tell me everything?”

“The morning after the raid, I just realized … we face death every single day. Every single mission, every single arrest, it could go so violently, irrevocably wrong. Look at Ronnow, look at his bereaved family.So why put off happiness? We could leave that warm common room one day and never come back.”

“I’m hoping Auria said yes?”

Saff’s tone was light, but everything in her sank. This joy was not as uncomplicated as it had first appeared. Because now that Tiernan had been turned by the Bloodmoons, marrying Auria would make her compromised by association.

Every person in this city is mapped out in my head. Every strand of love and kinship between them shimmers before me, begging to be plucked. The most efficient means of compelling, other than compelling itself, is to tug those threads until theyhurt.

The dark tendrils were spreading ever further into the Silvercloaks, into Saffron’s found family.

And Tiernan had to know that. He had to know that his proposal was a manacle.

He laughed sincerely. The lanterns in the alley lit him from behind, casting a halo of golden light over his frizzy curls. “To my immense surprise, she said yes.”

Saffron smiled, as warmly as she could muster. “I’m so happy for you two. Is your father pleased?”

Something bitter snapped across Tiernan’s face, as though he’d been struck. “I haven’t told him yet. He’s a horrible snob, and her family makes gelato. Or … they did. Her grandfather was found murdered by the Bloodmoons.” A pained grimace. “By the people holding puppet strings over our lives.”

Our lives.

It was essentially an admission that he was indeed the rat, but Saffron couldn’t bring herself to ask for details yet. “Is Auria alright? After Papa Marriosan …?”

Tiernan’s lips pressed into a flat line. “You know her. She’s thrown herself even deeper into her work. Eighteen-hour days, barely eating or sleeping. She got the fourth classification, but hardly cared, just became obsessed with chasing a fifth. I’m worried sick, but what can I do? I love that woman, Saffron.” A shard of emotion bobbed in his throat. “So much of my life I spent trying to make my father proud ofme. I used to polish his cabinet of ministerial awards by hand, promise him I’d follow in his footsteps. I made my fingers bleed practicing the violin because I knew he liked orchestral music. I studied twenty hours a day in university and still didn’t graduate top. Auria did. But it’s funny, with her … I find myself not caring about my father. I just want to make her happy. Makeherproud.”

Emotion pealed through Saffron’s chest. “And I have no doubt you’ll do that.”

“But I’m not, am I?” Tiernan looked behind her anxiously once more, as though Levan might be concealed by invisibility elixir, hidden in the shadows. “I’m not making her proud at all.”

So he knew thatsheknew.

“You were there that night,” Tiernan said in a low voice. “On the docks. Auria saw you in a scarlet cloak.”

A sharp pang of shame, even though hers was not a true betrayal.Shewas undercover.Shewas still acting in the Silvercloaks’ best interest. But she didn’t want Tiernan to know that, because it might make him shut down, stop confiding in her. He had to believe they were in the same situation, or he wouldn’t talk.

“What happened, Saff?” He took a step toward her, intensity rising in his stare. “How did they get you?”

She shook her head fiercely. “I can’t talk about it.”

A long, weighted beat. “I understand.”

There was a haunted look carved all over his face. Even when he’d been talking about marrying Auria, there was a quiet desperation to it, a dark undertow of fear.

Which of his loved ones were being held at wandpoint? Auria herself? Was he living in such excruciating fear that he had almost entirely shut down?

Only one way to find out.

First, she needed absolute confirmation. “Tiernan … the night of the raid. Someone tipped off the Bloodmoons that a tactical team was moving in. And that person was you, wasn’t it?”

---