“He respected my wishes … at least he seemed to. He stopped contacting me. He started tutoring at Ivory Hall. His life seemed to settle. But over the years, I got the sense that it was just an interlude. That he was planning something else. Something bigger.” She frowns sadly. “It seems I was right.”

“Do you know where he might be?” I ask. “The Grand Council hasn’t been able to find him.”

“Like I said, I haven’t seen him in years.”

“Yes, but you know him. Better than anyone. Where would he hide?”

Her gaze gets faraway again. She bites the inside of her cheek as she thinks.

A swarm builds inside me—hundreds of small, fluttering worries. What if she knows something but won’t help us? What if she’s still protecting him? What if we risked so much for nothing? The questions cleave together, coalesce, become a cord that winds tighter and tighter inside me until it nearly strangles my breath. What if Latham gets away with this?

I see the moment an idea occurs to her—a sudden light behind her eyes. A strike of a match in a dark room.

“What is it?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “Probably nothing. But when we were courting …” Her voice wobbles, as if thinking of Latham, the way he was then, is painful. “His mother inherited a small shop in Kastelia City. It had been in her family for generations. It changed over the years—it started out as an apothecary, then became a bookstore, and once it had even been a menagerie of sorts—selling colorful songbirds and small furry pets. When Latham and I met, it was a shop that sold a variety of musical instruments—all bone-carved—that would play in tune regardless of the skill of musician.”

“You think he’d hide in a music shop?” I ask, confused.

“It had a secret room.” Her cheeks flush. “We’d meet there sometimes to be alone.”

It seems unlikely, but at least it’s something. And maybe whoever works there can tell us something about Latham or his family that will help.

Avalina scrawls the address on a bit of parchment and gives it to me.

“Thank you.” Darkness has crept over the room. Rasmus must be livid by now. I rise to my feet. “We better get going. If you think of anything else …”

“Yes,” she says as she walks us to the door, “I’ll let you know.” And then, after a pause: “Be careful. I don’t know what he’s capable of.”

I turn to face her. “Oh, but I do.”