Heloise’s face remained impassive while Wren laid out everything they’d uncovered, from Isabel’s collusion with Lowry to his sinister plan to expand Cernos’s reach with stolen magic. “If we don’t get Hal out of the city, we’re all lost. We don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“You want to end these wars?” Heloise asked Hal. Her hand was still leveled at his axillary artery at the lateral margin of his rib. He’d bleed out in minutes if she cut it.

“Yes. More than anything.”

Heloise did not respond at first. They must have looked like a ragtag bunch, all of them exhausted and afraid, because Heloise’s resistance gave way to numb acceptance. The Touch faded from her hand and plunged them into darkness. With a long sigh, she stepped aside to let them pass. “Hurry. Before someone sees you.”

Wren could have sobbed in relief. “Thank you.”

The three of them piled inside, and as soon as the doors banged shut, Heloise rounded on Hal. “If a single one of the girls in my care is hurt because of you, I will show no mercy.”

“I understand,” he said. “I owe you my life for your hospitality.”

Heloise grunted dismissively, clearly already tired of him. “Come on, then.”

For an old woman with a lurching gait, she could move when she wanted. Wren fell into step beside her. Heloise’s silence weighted down her shoulders like a cloak of lead. Even years removed from her apprenticeship, one sharp look was enough to make her wither. But when she snuck a glance at Heloise’s face, there was cool assessment in the thin press of her lips—no judgment.

“Saving that man is among the worst of your ideas, Sister Wren,” she said wearily, as soon as she’d pulled them ahead of Hal and Una. “And I have seen you through the fallout of many.”

“Without a doubt. I’m ready for my lecture.”

“I haven’t much breath left in me to waste,” Heloise said snappishly. “I did advise you to burn that letter.”

“In retrospect, that might have been wise.” They walked through the halls, the light from the low-burning chandeliers running down stone pillars like melted wax. “That mistake has cost me and my friends everything. Even if we survive, everything is ruined. Lowry still has the queen’s ear. She’ll still go to war if Parliament doesn’t check her.”

Heloise let out a disbelieving sound. “Truly, you have never listened to a single word I’ve said. What does the Goddess teach us?” When Wren didn’t respond immediately, she said, “It is not until you have lost everything that you can begin anew.”

Wren did not know what to say.

“Times are changing,” Heloise said after a beat.