“You’re not a ghost?” Cassia whispered. Her skin was pale and dry, without its luminous glow. She wore no cosmetics that Nomi could discern; her shimmering pale gold hair hung loose and limp down her back, and gray-purple shadows clung beneath her eyes. Nomi had never seen her so undone.

“No,” Nomi said. “I am not a ghost.”

Cassia gripped her suddenly in a tight, desperate hug. “I thought you were dead. Maris said you were dead! I asked and she said—”

“Wait, Maris told you I was dead?” Unease coiled in Nomi’s stomach like a venomous snake, ready to strike. “When did you see Maris? How?”

“The Superior brought her here earlier today.”

Nomi couldn’t comprehend what Cassia was telling her. There was no possible way Maris was here, among the Graces. She was on her way to Azura, with Helena and Serina. She had to be. Cassia was mistaken.

But they couldn’t talk about it here. The silent men who patrolled the Graces’ chambers would come on their rounds. They would be here any moment.

“Is there somewhere I can go? Somewhere safe?” Nomi whispered. “Is Angeline still here?”

Cassia bit her lip and nodded. She took Nomi’s arm and led her to the door with the sad-faced deer carved into it. Nomi’s old bedroom. Cassia opened the door and slipped inside, pushing Nomi first, just as heavy footsteps sounded around the corner.

Inside the room was dark, lit only by moonlight.

“Angeline?” Nomi whispered. Cassia still had a hold on her arm. “Cassia, whose room is this now?”

Sheets rustled on the bed. Nomi shuffled over to the cot by the washroom. “Angeline?” she said again, a little louder. What if the girls asleep in this room woke up and screamed?

The figure on the little cot sat up so abruptly Nomi almost screamed herself.

“What is it?” The voice was thick with sleep, but Nomi recognized it.

She sat down on the cot next to Angeline.

“Angeline, it’s me, Nomi,” she said quietly.

In the moonlight, the girl’s eyes widened. “Nomi?”

Like Cassia, Angeline threw her arms around her, but this time Nomi found it much less disquieting. Angeline had shown affection toward her in the past, unlike Cassia, who’d always seen her as competition.

Cassia lowered herself to the cot as well, wincing.

“Are you well?” Nomi whispered, remembering Cassia’s tears after Asa had left her. Remembering Asa’s That’s not good enough to someone in his room. Had he been speaking to Cassia?

Cassia rubbed at her face. A faint bruise marred the side of her chin, the shadow caught in the pale glow of moonlight. She didn’t answer.

Cassia was so changed, Nomi could hardly account for it. Her confidence, her statuesque beauty had been stripped away. She looked like a frightened girl, someone vulnerable and broken. It made Nomi hate Asa even more.