Page 77 of Grave Flowers
I turned it over. A small note was written on the back.
Alifair, I’m in Acus. I’ll visit soon.
Alifair—the same name on the plaque.
Had Inessa determined that Alifair lived at For the Father? If so, why hadn’t she told me? What’s more, she’d clearly been corresponding with him and had plans to visit him. More details she’d kept from me.
Picking up the dress, I examined the stitches around the hidden pocket. Inessa had her own way of sewing things into her gowns, and the technique was an exact match. I plucked up the slip again, then stared down at it, perplexed. My hand twinged. I frowned. I’d acquired yet another wound. The paper’s curling ends tipped up above a scratch on my hand. No, not just one scratch. Several. They were more like an imprint, I realized, branded onto my palm. My skin was pebbled with gravelly marks. I put the slip atop the plaque and examined my palm closer.
Inspection proved it wasn’t from yesterday’s encounter with Inessa, which would’ve been my first assumption. It was from the palace roof, when I’d cut my hand on the gravel while visiting it with Yorick, back when I’d thought he was nothing but my friend. The gravel had been from the guardian, not the roof. Images of chewed silver and jagged mirror glass flashed in my mind. Inessa had left similar marks over them to satisfy her hunger. I hadn’t connected them before until now.
Had Inessa chewed on the guardian?
But she had said she could visit only me.
Was it true?
Thoughts reeled through my mind. She must’ve been in my chambers before me because she’d tried to eat the hairbrush. And, if that was the case, she could’ve also been on the palace roof and, while there, been driven to gnaw on the guardian. I didn’t understand. Was she able to go elsewhere in the palace? Was she not truly tethered to me? If that was the case, why had she lied and said she was?
Perhaps she didn’t trust me to fully know her plan and worried I might ruin it with a blunder. Yet … I frowned. Suspicion gathered in my mind. I tried to stay calm, but panic came with it. All along, I’d believed every word Inessa told me. Whenever there was an inconsistency, she blamed it on not remembering or things being different in Bide.
Yet was there more to it?
Maybe there was a plan she hid because it advantaged herself, possibly to my detriment. It was Inessa, after all. Still, what might it be? She needed me to free her from Bide—what else might she aspire for? By the Family, what elsecouldshe aspire for, when she was dead? Hurt and confusion rose in me, stirred by memories of Inessa pushing me aside to rise at the cost of our sisterhood. My skin burned, as though remembering every slap and pinch from by her hand. My soul did too. Just as my body remembered her cruelty, it did as well. My soul held the ripples of my hurt and always would.
Still, I needed proof. Not simply apprehensions.
I stared down at my only two clues: the plaque and the slip of paper. The wedding was tomorrow, but I still had today. I would go to For the Father and inquire after this Alifair to learn why Inessa had planned to visit him. Despite my attempts to temper my emotions, fear gripped me.
So far, I’d unquestioningly trusted Inessa.
But perhaps that had been a deadly mistake.
I donned a cloak, tucked the plaque into my pocket, and slipped out to the livery, prepared to borrow a horse again.
A clatter of hooves on cobblestones startled me. I looked up, craning my neck to peer around the rim of my hood. My betrothed was astridea horse, similarly cloaked and unaccompanied. He drew his horse to a stop next to me.
“Where are you going?” His question was direct. All I could see was the outline of his profile cutting its way against the cloak’s mouth.
“We wed tomorrow,” I said, flashing what I hoped was a sincere bridal smile. “I thought I might visit a monasterium to prepare for the rite and heard the one on Veris Row was lovely. Where might you be headed alone?”
“Out,” he said. Only the glint of his eyes was visible inside his hood, two pinpoints of light that swiveled from my face to the gates and back. “To take the air.” I cocked my head, doubting him. “But I shall accompany you. I haven’t made Holy Admittance since returning to court.”
“Oh, there’s no need,” I said quickly.
“Nonsense. As you say, tomorrow is a sacred day. Here.”
He extended his hand to me. For a moment, I didn’t fully understand his intent. Then I realized he meant to pull me onto the horse with him. Slowly, I took his hand. It closed around mine, practically swallowing it. For once, I felt only its strength, not its scars. With one assured motion, he lifted me onto the horse, dropping me in front of him.
I found myself pressed against him, his arms enclosing me on both sides as he held the reins, his chin near my ear. Once he nudged the horse to walk, I felt his every motion. Each was heightened to me. He was graceful, his weight shifting effortlessly to guide the horse, his knees gently prodding its flanks, and his grip relaxed yet firm on the reins. As we traveled, time suspended. I found myself wishing the trip would never end. If we never arrived, we could remain in this interlude. The murderous things to come would cease to exist. It would just be us, together, and nothing more would be required of us.
“Madalina.” I hadn’t expected Aeric to talk.
“Yes?”
“I want to tell you something.” It was unnerving to hear him and be pressed so tightly against him yet unable to see his face. I let myself leanagainst him, my body bleeding into his and my skirts tangling against his legs until there wasn’t any distinction between us. “I was unkind in my chambers. I wish to apologize. You’d helped me only two nights before, and I … The moment got the best of me.”
“I was insensitive,” I said. Guilt came over me, even as he sought to make things right. “We both wronged each other. I’m sorry as well.”
