Page 95 of Of Masks and Fury

“That long.” It wasn't a question. She closed her eyes, and I had to fight the urge to ask her everything. What my mother had laughed like, what she’d feared, and what she’d said about me. But we had no time. We never had time.

“I need to ask you?—”

“Yes.” She opened her eyes. “Ask.”

I fought to keep my voice gentle despite the urgency clawing at my chest. “We don’t have much time.”

Her gaze moved between us, lingering on Trew with a frown. “Who’s he?”

“A good friend.” I paused, the words I was about to speak feeling both terrifying and absolutely right. “No, he’s much more than a friend. I love him. I’d kill for him. Die for him.”

Trew put his arm around my shoulders and kissed my temple.

A hint of a smile appeared on Eva’s wrinkled face. “You’re happy then?”

“Very,” I whispered.

“I’m so grateful.” Tears sparkled in her brown eyes. “I couldn’t ask for more than that for you.” She tried to sit up but failed, her body too weak. Trew lifted her until she could settle with her back against the wall.

I sat on the bunk beside her, cringing at how hard and cold it was, and uncorked the water flask and held it to her lips. She drank in small sips, her throat working with the effort. She took the cheese-stuffed pastry I offered with trembling fingers, biting into it and chewing slowly. Her eyes closed as she savored it.

“Haven’t eaten anything this nice in years,” she said, her voice cracking. She shook her head. “Has it truly been sixteen years? It’s hard to believe.” She took another sip of water. “I wondered if anyone other than the guards would ever come.”

Pherin landed on my shoulder, her tiny body radiating tension.

Anyone coming?I asked.

Not yet. Smoke dying. Hurry.

They were extinguishing the fire already. The guards would be back soon.

“You were there when my mother died,” I said.

The woman’s face crumpled. Tears spilled down her weathered cheeks, cutting tracks through the grime. “I tried to save her. But it happened so fast. I…couldn’t.” Her voice broke. “She opened a passage right there on the stairs. She was practicing, trying to get better at it. She wanted to travel south, to the place her father left her. She was determined to find the answers she thought he’d hidden there.”

My throat tightened. My mother had been practicing veil-travel, working toward something important enough to risk everything.

“Who pushed her?” I asked.

Eva closed her eyes. “I’ve kept this secret for a very long time. I thought if I stayed silent, they might spare you and your sister.”

“Who?” Trew’s voice held an edge I rarely heard, showing the dangerous king beneath the bodyguard disguise.

The woman looked directly at me. “The same person who ordered me thrown in here. The same person who knew about Velacross, the veil, and everything your mother could do.”

“The woman with the red hair,” I said. “She pushed my mother, didn’t she?”

Eva nodded, reaching for a slice of meat with shaking hands. She ate mechanically, as if her body demanded fuel even as her mind relived the horror.

“Who is she?” I could barely breathe around the tightness in my chest.

“I never knew her name. She’d come to the court before, always in secret, to meet up in the woods withhim.” Disgust filled her voice.

Her breathing grew labored, each word an effort. She coughed, the sound wet and painful. When she pulled her hand away from her mouth, blood stained her palm. She stared at it and sighed. “I’m dying. It’s taken a long time, but it’s coming for me soon.”

Trew rifled through the pack and pulled out a healing herb, handing it to her. “Chew this. It’ll help.”

She did as he asked, but her breathing didn’t change.