“Even now, you are not afraid.”

The voice took me by surprise. I spun to see Emrys standing a few paces away from me, the stain of blood between us, holding gravity like a hole in the floor.

I took a frantic step away from the wardrobe, but I felt trapped. The balcony was at my back, but my uncle was impeding my path to the corridor.

“Forgive me,” I said in a calm voice. “I shouldn’t have wandered here.”

“I seek no apologies,” he replied. Even his voice was like my father’s—deep and gentle. A rumble of thunder. “You are free to explore this place, niece.”

I tensed.

Emrys seemed to know the cause of it, because he glanced over his shoulder to look at the open doorway and then said, “Rest assured. No one comes near this suite but me. And now you, I suppose. We can speak freely here.”

I struggled to believe him. Someone could be lingering just outside the door, eavesdropping. Someone like the countess or Lennox . . .

But I drew in a deep breath and calmed the flutter of my pulse.

“Do you take delight in harming magicians on the new moon?”

He grimaced. “Ah, I was waiting for you to bring that up. My sincerest apologies, Clementine. I did not know it was you.”

“It doesn’t matter if you knew it was me or not.”

“Oh, but it does,” Emrys countered. “You are my brother’s only child. I would long for death if I had inadvertently killed you.”

I didn’t know what to say in response. I glanced around the room, looking at anything but him. My terrible, murderous uncle.

“Imonie told me a story about you.”

“Did she?” He sounded amused. “Which one, Clementine?”

“I prefer Clem.”

“Very well. Clem.”

I met his gaze, for he had not taken his eyes from me, as if measuring the depth of my guise. “She told me how you were abandoned on her doorstep one summer night. How she disliked babies but she came to love you both. One of you was quiet and intellectual, the other wild and reckless.”

“I take it you have discovered which one your father is?”

“Yes, I believe that I know,” I said, but I didn’t share my thoughts with him. “Have you spoken to your mother yet?”

“No. Why should I?” he countered. “Imonie fled with all the others and left me to my fate.”

“A fate you carved for yourself. In this very room.”

“That may be, but they say a mother’s love is unconditional.”

I fell silent, unwilling to argue with him. But my gaze wandered back to the suit of armor. The bloodstains marring the steel.

“You wounded Phelan twice on the new moon,” I said. “Why him? Why not Lennox?”