But he was still here now, and he’d spoken to her first after Bautix had fled.

I was afraid for you, he’d said.

Clearing her throat to get Ryuu’s attention, Aina reached into the pouch of darts at her belt and picked out Kouta’s diamond-and-ruby ring among them. It caught the sunlight pouring in from the window in the kitchen.

Before Ryuu could do more than widen his eyes in shock at the ring she held, Aina walked over, took his hand, and slid it onto one of his fingers.

“Is this my brother’s ring?” he asked, looking at her with a spark in his eyes that made her cheeks warm. “When did you…?”

“I took it that first night, in your library.”

“And you held on to it?” He held it up to the light. Rainbow colors filtered through the diamonds and onto his face. “I thought you would have sold it.”

“At first, I forgot about it,” she said with a shrug, “but about a week after we found your brother on the train, I remembered it. I should have sold it. I was starving. But it was sort of like holding on to a piece of you.” She averted her eyes from him then as a blush crept up her cheeks. “And I told myself that if I found a way to give it back to you, I would, and I’d apologize.”

“Thank you. Our parents gave it to him as a present on his tenth birthday. It was the last one they celebrated with either of us.” Grief flickered across his features for a moment, but then he smiled warmly. “I have something for you too, actually.”

He walked to a nightstand near the door, where he’d left a folder that he’d brought with him this morning. Earlier, she’d watched him take out leases for new apartments from that folder. One for Teo, and one for Raurie and her aunt, with the first three months of rent already paid.

Aina hadn’t felt left out. She assumed Ryuu must have overheard her conversation with Tannis once they’d all reached the safe house and realized that their plans wouldn’t include a new apartment. The next day, when Ryuu returned with the leases for Raurie and Teo, she’d listened to him telling Teo that he knew how painful it was to live somewhere with memories of those who’d died.

As she watched him riffle through whatever other documents were in the folder, her heart sank. She’d always thought he was lucky that he still had a mansion and servants to return to after his parents’ deaths. She’d never before considered that his parents’ and brother’s ghosts haunted every hall, every library and study, each statue and chandelier.

“There it is,” he said, pulling out a small stack of pages. Holding it upside down, he passed it to her wordlessly. When she turned it over, she saw a bank statement for an account she was unfamiliar with. “I overheard you and Tannis last night.”