He waited for me to elaborate, and when I didn’t, the duke raked his fingers through his beard.

“I know you cannot tell me which dream manifested,” he said. “Forgive me for asking. But I need to know how Phelan was wounded.”

“How do you know he was wounded, Your Grace?”

“I have ears and eyes everywhere, Miss Neven. Nothing happens in this province that I do not know about.”

His words were unsettling, but I was determined that he would never know how much he rattled me. I sighed as if relieved and leaned closer to him, my elbows impolitely resting on the desk.

“I’m happy you already know of it, Your Grace. Did the countess inform you?”

“No, she did not.” There was no emotion in his face, in his voice when he spoke of her. The monotone only made me more suspicious of their relationship.

“I confess that I have been worried about him, especially since his mother sent him away. He should be resting in bed.”

The duke didn’t rise to my bait. He made a noise of contemplation and then said, “What wounded him? An element of the nightmare, or something beyond it?”

I was quiet, wondering if he was accusing me of being a poor partner.

“Choose your answer carefully, Miss Neven,” the duke warned in a voice like honey. At last, the threat I was anticipating. “I want the truth, even if that gives me no choice but to remove Phelan from this post. Or you, for that matter.”

He doesn’t want Phelan in danger, I realized, and then saw this as my chance to have Phelan’s aspirations and accomplishments shattered. I could tell the duke Phelan was weak, vulnerable. But even if my desire had originally been to see Phelan lose his home and sense of purpose . . . I was now tied to him, and I didn’t want to relinquish what I had gained just yet. I reveled in being a warden again.

“Phelan and I vanquished the nightmare,” I said. “But then something else emerged. Something unexpected and malevolent. It wasn’t recorded in his ledger.”

“What was this unexpected thing, Miss Neven?”

I hesitated.

The duke sensed it and softened. “You will not betray him by telling me.”

Oh, but I certainly felt like I would be. Phelan hadn’t told two of his closest friends. He couldn’t even describe it to me, his partner. It was almost like Phelan had been ordered not to speak of it.

“I think you should ask Phelan when he returns, Your Grace.”

Lord Deryn smiled and leaned back in the chair, but his gaze never left mine. “I am going to tell you something, Miss Neven. Something not many people know, and yet I am going to trust you with this secret.”

I sat frozen, hating how eager I was to hear what morsel the duke had to offer me.