Page 84

“A giant white raven isn’t exactly conspicuous inside a castle,” I scolded her. “Had you gotten caught⁠—”

“—and this.” Adrien held up the last item, and the room went quiet.

It was a blob of sealing wax. Broken in half as though it had been snapped off a letter.

By Damien, it was dark purple.

Della made one of her prideful noises, and I gave her a pet before taking the wax from Adrien.

“Della,” I murmured. “Where did you get this?”

My familiar fluttered to the door like she’d been waiting for this moment.

I couldn’t sneak around the castle with Adrien. He asked far too many questions and drew everyone’s attention. Then an idea came to me. “How about we play a game of hide and seek?”

To make this game of hide and seek fair, I told Adrien he had to count to one thousand in the library, with pillows over his ears. I estimated it gave me fifteen minutes at best to search with Della.

My familiar led me down a corridor where the household offices were, and landed on a ledge above a tall window as if to say here.

I peered through the window and found shelves of ledgers, a meticulous desk, and, on the corner of the desk, a small tray of correspondence. I could see the topmost letter bore a dark purple wax seal.

“Whose office is this?” I whispered.

Della opened her beak to answer, and I pinched it shut. “Are you trying to get us caught?”

Footsteps approached, and I pretended to be looking for Adrien behind a tapestry. A footman holding a silver tray let himself into the office, deposited three letters into the tray, and emerged again. Because the God of the Underworld occasionally remembered I existed, he was young and smiled at me sweetly.

“Miss Ravenwood.” He bobbed his head. “How can I be of assistance?”

“I’m entirely lost,” I lied, acting as helpless as could be. “I don’t know how you keep the post straight in a place this size.”

“I learned where his lordship’s office was on day one, Miss,” he said.

There was only one his lordship in this castle, and that was Severin.

I gave the footman a nod. “He receives many letters then?” I asked innocently enough.

“Oh yes. The Duke of Mistfall writes twice a week, regular as the bells. My own father can’t be troubled to write twice a year⁠—”

He continued to talk, and I made listening noises, but I wasn’t listening at all.

There was nothing sinister about receiving a letter from his father. It was an innocent explanation just as Yves had hand-waved my mention of it earlier.

But still… Lou Demarque had also held a letter sealed in dark purple wax, and Lou Demarque was not the Duke of Mistfall’s son.

“But it’s not just His Grace who sends word. He also⁠—”

The footman’s rambling broke off just when he was getting to the good part.

A voice came from directly behind me, cool as an autumn night. “Has my post been delivered?” Severin asked.

The footman nodded. “Yes, my lord.”

“Then you are dismissed.”

Before scurrying off, the footman sifted through his pile of letters and offered one to me. “This came for you, Miss Ravenwood.”

I accepted it without looking at the address. Severin was still watching, and I had no intention of giving him another reason to ask what I was doing. Although I wasn’t sure who would write to me.