At last, Una asked, “Can I sit?”

Wren only turned her face toward the window and lifted one noncommittal shoulder in response. From here, she could see the glittering, black band of the River Muri as it snaked through the city. It felt as if those murky, frigid waters were filling the space between them. She’d never felt so cold, so distant, as if she were seeing Una waver from thirty feet below.

Una sat on the stair beside Wren. “We need to talk.”

Wren had no energy to talk, but she had no energy to tell her to leave, either.

“Fine. I’ll talk. You listen.” In profile, Una’s eye was washed golden in the late sunlight, her shadow cast long and jagged down the stairway. “Back at Colwick Hall, I was angry. Ever since you deserted, I’ve been so angry and confused.”

She trailed off. Even now, it seemed Una could not help skirting around the raw, impossible admission: You hurt me. But Wren could hear it plain, and the barest slither of guilt coiled around her heart.

“I was ready to forgive you. But when you told me about Lowry, I couldn’t let myself believe you. I couldn’t let myself believe the queen would ally herself with a monster.” Wren waited for the apology. None came. “What was I supposed to do?”

“You were supposed to trust me! You were supposed to help me. If you’d believed me, none of this would be happening.”

“If you’d sabotaged that alliance like you sabotaged everything else, the queen would execute you.” Una’s anger rose to meet hers. “I was trying to protect you!”

“Protect me?” Wren snarled. “Is that what you did back in Cernos, when you called me weak? Or when you yelled at me when our prisoner attacked me?”

“I didn’t yell at you. Are you still angry about that kid?” Una asked impatiently. “You could have gotten yourself killed.”

“I was suffocating, Una.” An unwelcome, shameful heat burned behind her eyes. She refused to cry in front of her again. “Sometimes I think I’ve been slowly dying for years. I healed that boy because I was following my gut. My heart. I don’t understand how kindness can be so wrong.”

The muffled noise of the crowd filled the silence between them.

“You know,” Wren said slowly, “now I’m beginning to doubt that my feelings are actually what’s gotten me in trouble. Maybe it’s because I was too busy second-guessing myself and criticizing myself. Hating myself. Maybe that’s what made me weak.”

Una’s steely expression fractured into a thousand pieces. “I didn’t want you to get hurt, Wren. You were always so easily hurt.”