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I hesitated for only a moment more. The skywasdarkening quite rapidly over our heads—and it looked like a storm might’ve even been brewing—and I didn’t want any trouble home.
“Fine,” I told him. “You can escort me home. But don’t think I’ll serve you tea afterward. You leave when we get there.”
“Can I visit her grave at least?” he wondered.
I exhaled a sharp breath, a soft note in his voice making me feel guilty.
“Yes.”
“Did you…did you give her the wreath?” he asked next.
“Yes,” I said, sighing. “I did.”
“Thank you,” he murmured. I nodded and went to take the handles of my cart. “Emell will get the cart—don’t worry about it.”
His guard, I realized when the hulking Kylorr stepped forward, inclining his head at me. I let it be—there was nothing worth stealing in it anyway—and walked toward the boundary of the Black Veil.
Vendors packing up their wares observed us as we passed, but I kept my head down to avoid their stares. Veras, however, smiled and greeted everyone we passed. Ever charming, keeping up appearances. I nearly snorted.
When we entered the line of the forest, Rolara faded away and there was a sense of relief that wiggled through my bones. Veras, however, seemed on edge. He didn’t like the Black Veil. Which was ironic because I’d always thought he, out of anyone, should feel the most at home in its dark, rotting depths.
But instead…it was me.
Behind us, I heard Emell pull the cart over a fallen log, but Veras got right to it.
“Where’s your lover?” he asked. “Lorik, isn’t it?”
Veras knew perfectly well what his name was.
“You wanted to talk to me about Lorik?” I clarified, casting him an observing look. He slid his arm through a canopy of low-hanging vines from the tree above, like he was parting a curtain for me, and I stepped through it.
“Yes,” he said. “I wanted to warn you about him.”
I stilled on the unmarked path, though I knew the way to my cottage like the back of my hand. Turning to face him, I leveled him a look with narrowed eyes. I was torn. One part of me wanted to defend Lorik, to tell Veras to stay out of my business. The other part? He knew something about Lorik that I didn’t. Something I wanted to know…but it would betray Lorik’s trust if I asked, wouldn’t it?
But he’d been gone for four days. I hadn’t heard a single thing, not a delivered note or a scrap of a message. I didn’t even know when I’d see him again because he’d given menothing.
“I don’t know where he is,” I said, answering his question. There was no harm in answering a question wasn’t it? “He didn’t tell me.”
“Ah,” Veras murmured.
I started walking again, but I didn’t hear the creak of my cart nor Veras’s footsteps as he followed.
“Lorik is a Sever, Marion.”
Chapter
Twenty
Ifroze.
Ice pierced my blood at the words, my belly churning with disbelief. And yet…
I’d thought it myself once, hadn’t I? The possibility?
Veras stepped up beside me, and I felt his warm hand on my arm.
“How…how do you know that?”
