Farideh frowned at the woman’s sudden chilliness. “He says you’re a Harper.”
“Not like he is, apparently,” Tharra said. Before Farideh could respond, Nirka opened the door again, sneering at Farideh.
“Your devil is here.”
Sairché. A chill ran down Farideh’s spine as she stood. Time for answers. She shoved the ruby comb into her braid, just in case. “Take me to her.”
Keep your calm, she told herself as she trailed Nirka through the shining corridors. You need answers right now, not revenge. You need to look as if you’re happy to be protected by her. You need to keep everything in balance.
Farideh had almost succeeded in quelling her anger, her nerves, when Nirka opened the door, and Lorcan looked back over his shoulder at her.
She did not think about how her face was set. She did not think about the words she was going to say. She didn’t think about where Sairché was or what she needed to know or what Rhand was thinking.
Lorcan was safe. He was here. She nearly cried out in joy.
Lorcan’s dark eyes studied her for a moment more, and without a word, he turned back to the wizard. Farideh closed her mouth.
“There you are,” she heard Rhand say. “We’ve just been discussing your progress.”
Farideh’s eyes darted to the wizard. To Lorcan. He was still not looking at her-they were still in danger, after all. There was still Rhand to fool.
“Have you?” she said, scrambling for something to say. “Have you mentioned how many sessions you’ve put me through? Standing out in the cold?” Rhand smiled. He eyed her, looking like nothing so much as a starving, frostbitten jackal after his time with the shade. “Not as many as I would have liked.”
“Do what you need to,” Lorcan said. “She’s not made of glass.”
Farideh faltered. Lorcan wouldn’t look at her, wouldn’t give her any sign of what she was supposed to be playacting. “I never said-”
“Not to worry,” Rhand said to Lorcan. “I’m happy to find motivation for her.”
Farideh stiffened, and she looked to Lorcan, ready for him to respond with sharp words or quick spells or worse. The muscle in his jaw flexed as he clenched his teeth.
“Well, kindly return her in one piece,” he said eventually. “I can’t do much with a corpse.”
Rhand chuckled. “You’d be surprised.”
Lorcan didn’t blink. “I don’t like surprises, you’ll find. I need her in one piece, as it happens, and still breathing.”
“Can I talk to you?” Farideh blurted.
Lorcan raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure you can.”
Farideh stared at him in disbelief. “Give us a moment alone, will you?” she said to Rhand.
Rhand was silent a long moment. “Of course.” He turned to Lorcan and offered a hand. “Well met. I trust you’ll make your own way out.” Lorcan glanced at Farideh, then slowly took Rhand’s hand.
“Well met,” he said.
The wizard shut the door behind him, and still Lorcan watched her, emotionless, distant. Farideh swallowed.
“I assume,” he said, “that between him and Sairché, you’re well appointed. So far as I’m concerned, you can continue as you have.”
“That’s it?” Farideh said. “That’s all? I am not well appointed. I have no idea what Sairché put me here for, I have no idea if I’m doing things right. Which is all aithyas at the moment: I cannot tell you how glad I am you’re safe.” She reached for him. “She promised, but-”
“He seems pleased,” Lorcan interrupted airily. “That’s enough for me.”
Farideh let her hand fall. It wasn’t an act for Rhand’s sake, she realized. Sairché hadn’t been lying about that. “I know you’re angry with me; I’m sorry-I didn’t see another way. But I’m glad you came back anyway.”
“Make no mistake,” Lorcan said, “this has everything to do with what my betters’ have demanded and nothing else.”
Farideh shook her head. “So do you have a plan?”
“Plan?” Lorcan said.
“How are we getting out of here? Or at least, what am I doing? What happens when I’ve found all these Chosen?”
Lorcan stared at her, his expression so empty and cold she felt for the first time since she’d met him that she was looking at a creature as far from mortal as it was possible to be.
“Why should you know my plans?” Lorcan said. “You don’t tell me yours.”
“What are you talking about?”
He smiled, and it reminded her, terribly, of Sairché. “Just that I’m so pleased to see Sairché’s desires lined up with yours. Felicitations on the wizard. I’m sure you’ll suit each other well.”
Farideh’s felt as if her chest were pulling into itself. Tatters of shadowsmoke leaped from her skin. “What did she tell you?”
“Everything you didn’t.”
“And you believed her?”
“You did!” Lorcan snapped. “No, I didn’t believe her-I’m not a fool. But she told me enough to see clearly that you’re not so innocent in all of this. You didn’t tell me about a wizard.”
“She told you about Rhand, but did she tell you why I know him?” Farideh said, her face growing hot. “Why I didn’t tell you? Why I don’t even want to talk about it now?”
“Where you got that lovely ritual book?” Lorcan asked. “He seems charming, by the way.”
“He isn’t,” Farideh started.
But Lorcan plucked one of the rings from Sairché’s necklace. “Spare me-I don’t care about your lovers’ quarrels and thanks to you-” He drew a sharp breath. “Thanks to you, I suddenly have a great many eyes on me I could do without. Just keep to your task, darling.” The pet name seemed to slip out, and a look approaching embarrassment crossed Lorcan’s handsome features. He didn’t look at Farideh as he blew through the circle of the ring, casting the whirlwind that sucked him back to the Hells.
Farideh stared at the space where he’d stood, as if she could will the portal to reverse, to reopen again. He was gone. He wasn’t going to save her. He was done with her. After so many upsets, so many upheavals, being left behind by Lorcan made her feel as if she’d been shattered into pieces. There was nothing left but hurt.
She thought of the ritual she’d managed to cast once, the spell that pulled Lorcan to her, out of the Hells. If she could just bring him back. .
Then he would turn it all on her anyway. This was always going to happen. He was always going to leave her. She thought of Temerity, the warlock in Proskur-how betrayed she had felt by Lorcan, but how betrayed Temerity had actually been.
She didn’t hear Rhand return until he spoke. “Good,” he said. “You’re finished.”
You have no champion, Farideh thought. No one else is going to keep Rhand from hurting more people except for you and Dahl.
“Are you ready?” Rhand asked, offering her an arm.
Ready as I’ll ever be, she thought. She ate the offered highsunfeast mechanically, repeating Lorcan’s words in her thoughts again and again, just to harden her heart.
A dozen prisoners were waiting in the courtyard. Despite the flurries of snow, the guards had stripped them of any sort of cloak. Farideh edged closer-even without trying she could see several of them glowing like firebrands. An old, straight-backed human man, another with a hooked nose, a willowy elf woman with short-cropped hair.
A sturdy-looking man, deep browns and reds flickering over him-blurring together with the colors surrounding the dark-skinned boy he carried on his back. Both carried a rune, sharp and dark-like fresh soil for the boy, like charcoal for the man. The boy met Farideh’s eyes with a dark, steady gaze.
And in that moment, Farideh was sure: she couldn’t send another soul into Rhand’s fortress.
“Is there a problem?” Rhand said.
Farideh shrugged. “There just aren’t any.”
“None?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary.”