Page 389 of Commanding Scythe and Sky

“Why would I be able to tell you anything? That is a question for Nathara.”

“Nat and I have spoken at length. I’m asking you.”

“Why?”

“Because it was Bellaton Aren scooped her out of, wasn’t it?” Silence. “You saved her.” More silence, this one grating on my nerves, even as her movements solidified into that predatory inhuman stillness. “Where did she come from, Reyna?”

Ears straining, I picked up on the hard swallow she tried to hide by shifting her weight in the chair, leaning back to glare at me over her shoulder. “She was among a litter of trafficking victims we freed.” Her eyes narrowed accusatorially, a twitch beneath the left eye giving me everything I needed.

Lie.

It had taken the entire summer to get a read on her tells, but she had them, the same as anyone.

I wet my lips. “You know, Kingsley spun an intriguing tale over the winter.”

“Oh?” she asked, feigning surprise or irritation—her expressions were too tight to differentiate.

“Told me that you and the late queen of Solskivall were quite close.”

“Contrary to your sister’s affinity for rabbit trails, I am not a fan of them, Mr. Porter.”

“Ahna, right?”

Her left eye twitched. “Yes. Ahna and I were friends.”

“He said that her body was pinned to your gate as a reminder⁠—”

“And Alvara was impaled in front of your sister,” she snapped, words like blades. “What’s your point?”

Unlocking my jaw from the involuntary clench, I breathed, “Funny you should bring that up. Both incidents left a certain message, didn’t they?”

“And what on God’s green earth would that be?”

“The fatal compromise of a royal.”

“I fear your skirmish in Manhattan might’ve rendered you concussed, Mr. Porter. Perhaps rest is in your best interest.”

“Maybe,” I allowed. “But I think it’s rather intriguing that thirty years ago, the Solskari were wiped out by our enemy. I think it’s rather intriguing that six years after that, the queen’s body is found on your garden gate, and a year after that, you call in Aren about a little girl who is ‘failing to thrive’ under your tutelage. I think it’s particularly noteworthy that twenty-four goddamn⁠—”

“Watch your mouth.”

“—years later, that same enemy is hunting down healers, and lands on two Hazelharborian witches.”

“I don’t see how that’s of any consequence to me⁠—”

“Two witches who were both fucking orphaned—mothers around the same age, auspiciously killed long before their time.”

“—let alone correlated.”

“There are no coincidences, Reyna Gwyne. It is no coincidence that you were the one to fish Valora Lamb out of that river, just as it was no coincidence that a sad little girl was handed over to the Commander who knows everyone⁠—”

“You’ve put a great deal of energy into this conspiracy of yours,” she spat. I forged right ahead.

“A Commander that took that little girl to the strongest healer on the continent⁠—”

“Do you like the sound of your own voice?”

“—but she wasn’t a healer at all, was she? Anastasia Thornquist wasn’t lost in the siege of Solskivall. She was left behind when Bellpost came to finish the fucking⁠—”