Then she set off back upstairs. As she drew near the table where Merrin sat, she slowed her stride and lowered her head.

“And this information the prince has … is it credible?”

“Very much so, he believes.”

“Why would she not return home if she were back in Pavan? Surely she must have heard of how we searched for her.”

“The prince is not certain she is free to leave. It is possible the kidnappers sold her to the resistance.”

Aurora was nearly to the table, and she did not know what to do. Did she stop and hope they did not notice her? Did she put down the drink and hope they continued?

“And they let her live? What use do they have for her?”

“We are unsure. Blackmail, perhaps. Or they have some intentions for her magic. All we know is there is credible evidence she is in the city. And that is where you come in. Prince Cassius would like you to lead the investigation into her whereabouts.”

Aurora turned and sat the drink on the first table she passed, much to the surprised delight of an older man who did not order it. She hit the stairs, and she climbed up and up until she found the loft and then Zephyr’s office door. She pushed through it, her breaths heaving, the long mermaid-like skirt catching between her ankles. Her fingers scrabbled at the door handle to the bedroom, her joints refusing to work properly, agitation rising until she finally shoved the door open wide.

Then inside she found her mother weeping, great gusting sobs that shook her thin frame. Duke sat beside the queen in her bed. The old man’s head snapped up at her entrance, but her mother was too distraught to do anything but cry.

“What did you do to her?” Aurora cried, more than happy to direct all the panic coursing through her system at something, someone else. “Did you hurt my mother?” Aurora demanded, marching across the room.

Suddenly Kiran was there, appearing from nowhere, slamming first the office door, then the bedroom door behind him. “What in the bleeding skies are you doing, Aurora? You left the doors wide open.”

“I want to know what is wrong with my mother.”

Kiran moved closer, trying to quiet her, and she knew he was right, knew there was a world outside these rooms with very large, very looming consequences. But she had only just gotten her mother back safely, and now Duke had upset her terribly, and she did not need that kind of stress in her condition.

“Nothing is wrong with me,” her mother said, her voice cracking with emotion.

“Then why are you crying?”

Aphra Pavan looked far from queenly and surprisingly vulnerable as she shrugged and answered with a bewildered, teary smile, “Because he is alive.”

Aurora looked to Duke. “Who is alive?”