Page 85 of Of Masks and Fury

I wiped the tears from her cheeks with my thumbs. “Your father didn’t kill her.”

She went still. “What?”

“He came from a different direction. He wasn’t at the top of the stairs when she fell.” I kept my voice gentle. “And his grief felt real, Isi. I’ve seen enough false emotion to know the difference. I don’t believe he knew it was going to happen.”

“Did you see the woman with red hair?”

“I did. As Mae said, there were two women at the top of the stairs with your mother.” I described what I’d seen. One with a distinctive streak of silver in her dark hair who stumbled back in horror. “She didn’t flee. She stood there, shocked, like she couldn’t believe what had happened.”

“That must’ve been the Eva Mae mentioned. A silver streak in her hair? I remember her now. She used to visit my mother.” Her eyes went distant, remembering. “They always met in private, always when Father was away. I’d see them in the gardens sometimes or in Mother’s sitting room with the door cracked. They’d speak in low voices, have serious conversations that stopped whenever I got close. She was a friend.”

“The air shimmered at the top of the stairs. I suspect it was either a ward breaking or… This will sound wild, but I think it was a veil disturbance. It has to be. The air rippled unnaturally.” I met her eyes. “If your mother was practicing veil-travel, and she’d opened a passage right there on the stairs, it could’ve destabilized her. Made her lose her balance.”

“Or the red-haired person could’ve used that moment of vulnerability to push her. If she was distracted by the magic…”

“The magic was there.”

“And Mae said the red-haired woman simply disappeared.” Isi was quiet for a long moment, her fingers digging into my arm. Pherin preened her hair, trying to comfort her in the way only the bird knew how.

“Could you describe the face of the woman with the silver streak?” Isi asked.

I closed my eyes, pulling up the memory. “Maybe fifty. Strong features. Weathered, like she’d spent a lot of time outdoors.”

Isi’s sharp inhale made my eyes snap open.

“I just realized something. The woman in the dungeon.” Her voice shook. “The one who helped me escape, who told me about the grate in the closet ceiling. She had a silver band in her hair, though the rest was speckled with gray. It could be her, Trew, the woman who was there when my mother died.”

My mind raced, connecting the pieces. “Do you think she’s been in that dungeon for sixteen years?”

“I don’t know,” Isi said. “But my father must’ve imprisoned her. Maybe he saw her there and blamed her. Locked her away. She witnessed whatever happened, and she helped me escape.”

“She risked exposing herself to save you. That suggests she’s on our side. Or at least not on your father’s.”

Isi stroked Pherin, her hand unsteady. “She knew my mother well enough to meet with her secretly. Well enough to be there that day. She must know more about this than we do.”

“We need to question her.”

“The guards won’t let us near her, and we can’t risk my father knowing I want to speak with her.”

“I don’t care about them.” I tightened my arms around her. “This woman has been sitting in that cell for who knows how long. If she saw who killed your mother, she might know why. We can’t wait any longer to speak with her.”

“Tonight then.” Isi nodded. “Lexie may be able to distract the guards. And Derren’s joined them. Between the three of them?—”

“We’ll get to her.” I cupped her face. “Are you alright? That wasn’t easy.”

“No.” She leaned into my touch, her breath warm against my skin. “But I needed to know. Thank you for looking.”

“There’s one more thing.” I hesitated, because I must be mistaken. “I caught a glimpse—your glimpse—of the other woman on the landing. She truly did disappear.”

Even now, I couldn’t believe it myself.

“But her build, her hair color, and the way she moved…” I took a breath and pushed it out with my words. “She looked like Kira.”

Isi froze, her eyes widening in shock. “Kira? But that’s impossible.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

ISI