“I understand.” Mercifully, he didn’t push her, although she almost wanted him to. He more than anyone would understand how it felt to be one of the most hated people in Danu. “What now?”

“First,” she said, “you need another dose of antitoxin.”

That, at least, was something she could accomplish. Without waiting for his response, she rolled off the bed and went to her desk to prepare a syringe. Behind her, fabric rustled. Buttons popped on his shirt. Heat curled within her belly as she listened to the slide of starched cotton against his skin. Imagined the candlelight pooling in his collarbones. Wren drew in a deep breath as she flicked the air bubbles out of the vial. Her confinement in Colwick Hall had begun to reduce her to depravity.

“You think leaving is the best option?” he asked.

“For now, yes. In a few days, when Una finds no trace of us, we come back and deal with Lowry. While that may make it harder to investigate, I’m less afraid of him.”

As soon as she’d said it, she wasn’t entirely sure she believed it. If they stayed, Una would arrest them. And if they left, who knew what Lowry would do when they returned? There were no good options, but thinking about it too hard made her feel nauseous with dread.

“Una Dryden is not a forgiving person,” Wren said. “She’ll arrest me on sight—and you … I don’t want to find out what she’d do to you.”

When she turned around, he sat on her bed, traced in golden light. His jacket lay beside him, and he’d unbuttoned his shirtsleeve to roll it above his elbow. Wren fought to keep the dumbstruck look off her face as she took his elbow in her hand.

“Would she truly?” he asked. “If you were best friends?”

Wren hesitated, his skin and her magic warm in her palm. “She would, and I’d deserve it. She tried to stop me from leaving. Hence, the assault charges.” She busied herself with injecting the serum into the crook of his elbow. Hal hardly flinched. “It’s funny. I deserted because I was reassigned. Because I wanted to stay with Una. But now she hates me, and I’m completely alone.”

“Why were you reassigned?”

Wren sighed, watching the vial drain gradually into his arm. “Because I healed somebody I wasn’t supposed to. We had a prisoner with a compound fracture. Una thought it was misplaced pity. She tried to stand up for me when the queen dismissed me, but she’s always thought I was too soft anyway.”

“Then why are you friends?”

He asked it so plainly, it startled her. “What do you mean ‘why are we friends’? We went through the academy together. We survived the war together. We’ve done everything together. I love her.”