“Might be time to start,” Nyx said. “All those dead bodyguards and all.”

Mercia shrugged. “Yah Rafika has a swarm set out on patrol. It’s enough. You know Fatima will want to see you.” She went to her desk and palmed open a drawer. She removed a green envelope and passed it to Nyx. “That’s the official invitation, and her address.”

“I hope she paid you well,” Nyx said, slipping the invitation into the band of her trousers.

“I’m sorry,” Mercia said.

“I’m sure.”

“No, I am,” she said, and Nyx heard shame in her voice, like some little kid caught telling a lie.

“If you weren’t a diplomat, I’d kill you,” Nyx said.

“They said they wouldn’t hurt you. I didn’t let them follow me. We doubled back three times to make sure. I wasn’t followed.”

“You seem very sure of that.”

“You’re a bel dame. Aren’t you supposed to be able to know things like that?”

“People keep saying I’m a bel dame, but I’m not. Haven’t been in over twenty years. I’m just a woman, Mercia. And you lied to me.”

“I didn’t lie… all right, at first I lied, but I was doing a favor for the Queen.”

“In return for what?”

“It’s politics. It’s not personal.”

“Everybody says that when they’re the ones doing the shitting, not when they’re being shat on.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’ve said that already.”

Mercia flexed her fingers. Nyx wondered if there was a weapon in the case she was unpacking on the bed.

“I wanted to find you,” Mercia said. “They just gave me a good reason to do it.”

“But you found me all on your own?”

“Eshe helped.”

“You better not have mixed Eshe up in this.”

“I didn’t. When he learned I was trying to find him, he contacted me on an untraceable pattern. Well… the bel dame said it was untraceable.”

“And you found Anneke’s place the same way?”

“I didn’t use any of Fatima’s agents to find the house. Only me and Khanaya and Ayah—my bodyguards—know where the house is.”

“You’re making this a very easy interrogation.”

“Is that what it is?” Mercia’s voice was light.

Nyx realized she still didn’t get it. “You just told me that there are only three people in this country who know where Anneke and her kids are. Who know where my safe house is. Three people.”

“I don’t want—”

“Doesn’t much matter what you want, does it?” Nyx crossed to the bed in three long strides and took Mercia firmly by the chin, leaned into her. She smelled of cinnamon and cocoa butter. Her skin was incredibly soft, like some First Family kid.

“Leave me alone after this. All of us. I see you again… I hear something’s happened to them…”