The Queen was waiting for us in the same parlor where she’d received me before. The large stained-glass window—depicting a black vulture stained with crimson blood—gave the room an eerie glow. The knickknacks on the shelves that lined the walls still managed to catch the dim light, glinting on the jewel-encrusted statues made of dark wolfram—the dragons encircling orbs and ravens on topaz trees.

Across from the window was a large painting of King Thor, his grinning face taking up nearly all of the wall.

Bodil stood in front of the stained glass, her back to us with her long black hair plaited down her back. The long black dressing robe she wore was sheer, revealing the silhouette of a black floor-length nightgown that showed off muscular arms.

She looked over at us. Her face was unusually devoid of makeup, making her look more tired than when I had seen her last. Her protruding eyes seemed a bit smaller, her lips even thinner, but she was still rather lovely, in her own way.

“Thank you for seeing me at such a late hour,” she said.

“It’s not that late,” Elof assured her, and he wasn’t even lying to be polite. The sky was still light.

We stood in front of the velvet love seat, but neither of us sat until Bodil took her seat across from us.

“Why did you want to see us now?” I asked.

“Because I only just learned that you were here,” she explained. “My security told me that you were involved in an incident at the Ugly Vulture. They asked around and heard that you were here with a Mimirin official, doing blood tests at the clinic. I thought it would be best if I found out what kind of experimentation is going on in my kingdom.”

“What I am doing is not experimenting, but simple, proven science,” Elof assured her. “I’d be happy to explain the whole process I use for the comparative blood analysis I do.”

She held up her hand, her long, pointed fingernails painted a metallic bronze. “That won’t be necessary.”

“All right,” Elof said, but he sounded uncertain. “But I will tell you it’s completely safe.”

“Good.” She pursed her lips and looked to me. “How are you involved with all this? Still stumbling through your pursuit for your parents?”

“That wouldn’t be how I’d phrase it, but basically, yeah,” I said.

“Did you find Orra, then?” Bodil asked with feigned indifference.

Orra Fågel—the woman who abandoned me as a baby—was Bodil’s cousin. Indu had told me that Orra kidnapped me as a newborn, but he’d also told me that he was my father, and he’d either lied about that or been mistaken.