I’m torn between yearning for her to answer and hoping she won’t. But we don’t have to wait long.

The door swings open, and a woman stands in front of us. She wears a thin, loose-fitting blue dress, and her raven hair reaches nearly to her waist. Her eyes are startlingly blue, and her mouth curves into a kind smile.

“Hello there. What can I do for you?”

“We’re looking for someone named Avalina,” I say, certain this can’t be her. Latham couldn’t love someone who looks so … ordinary.

“Lucky girl,” the woman says, “you’ve found her.”

I’m not sure what I was expecting. Obviously, she wasn’t going to open the door dressed in armor or with a weapon in hand, but something about her friendly, unguarded expression throws me off. She’s so different from who I imagined.

“We’re apprentices at Ivory Hall,” Bram says. “We were hoping we could ask you a few questions.”

At that, her brows pull together. “You’re a long way from the capital.”

A shiver goes through me, and I rub my arms for warmth.

“Oh my,” Avalina says, “the two of you are freezing. Come in, come in.”

We step inside, and she pushes the door closed behind us. My gaze sweeps over the room. Off to one side is a small kitchen with a rough-hewn wooden table in the center. A bowl of fruit sits on top, and bundles of dried herbs hang from the ceiling.

Avalina leads us to the other side of the cottage, where several mismatched chairs are positioned around a hearth that glows with a crackling fire. “Have a seat,” she says. Bram and I comply, both of us leaning toward the flames and rubbing heat back into our frigid limbs. “Now, you were saying?”

My gaze slides to Bram, but he’s clearly leaving space for me to take the lead. “We have some questions about Latham,” I say.

Avalina sucks in a sharp gasp as if I’d struck her. She stands, her chair scraping loudly against the wood floor. “Who are you? Why would you come here?”

I knew her friendly demeanor was too good to be true.

“I’m Della Holte’s daughter,” I say softly. “Latham killed my mother. And my gran.”

Her eyes go wide. She drops her head into her hands, her long hair falling across her face like a curtain. Then, just as suddenly, she straightens and rushes from the room. Bram and I share a dark look. Was that a dismissal? Do we stay? Do we go?

She comes back a moment later with two bone amulets, each suspended on a leather cord. Without a word, she puts one over my neck, and then does the same to Bram.

“It will keep him from watching you,” she says.