Perhaps after Cassius read the book, he would pay a visit to this tavern and see what information the owner could offer him. For now though, he turned the page and began to read, hoping for some insight into the earth witch with whom Aurora had aligned herself.

Three days passed with no change in her mother’s condition. On the first, Aurora mostly slept herself, waking up occasionally only to worry over her mother, note the awkwardness of being in close proximity to Kiran again, and fall back asleep in whatever place she could manage. By the second, restlessness had set in, and she had paced the room, stopping far too often to check the temperature of her mother’s skin or the rise of her chest. She had been left alone more then, with various hunters dropping by on occasion.

Duke visited, and it was the first time she had seen him since before the mission. She expected him to be disappointed for her part in Jinx’s loss, for the friendly lines of his old face to be set in a grim expression, but instead he offered her a fierce hug. She clung to him like a lifeline, and he sat patiently beside her while they waited for her mother’s condition to change. He asked her questions, and she told stories about her childhood, about her mother and brother. He reassured her in ways no one else could.

But by the third evening, she felt like the walls had begun to scream at her. She needed to be doing more than sitting here. Surely there was some way to help her mother, to help the rebellion, to help Jinx and Nova. She would go mad if she spent one more day stifled and shut away, watching her mother lying so still and vulnerable, feeling guilty and useless.

So when Ransom left her alone that evening to go down and assist with something in the tavern, Aurora took the opportunity to explore. She found a scarf in Zephyr’s office and bound her hair up in a popular knotted style that Nova had taught her, and she donned one of Zephyr’s long flowing cloaks that hung on the back of her office door. The material was soft and moved across Aurora’s hands like water. Wrapping the mass of fabric all the way around her, Rora stepped just outside Zephyr’s office door to the loft area beyond that gave her a view of the tavern below—both the more exclusive second floor and the ground level. She huddled back into the corner, away from Zephyr’s door, and observed the movement on the two lower floors.