“I’m not leaving you in this state,” Marc said. “You’re injured – let me help you, at least.”

You are helpless. Fury flooded through me, and I rounded on him. “I do not need your help,” I screamed. The room shook as I lashed out with magic. Marc raised a shield, but the blow still sent him staggering. If it were not for the fact I was a fraction my usual strength, what I had done would likely have killed him. “Please leave.”

He eyed me warily. “I’ll not leave of my own accord. If you desire me gone so badly, you will have to order me properly. You have my name.”

I sagged against the tub, my wrists screaming against the pressure. “Never again,” I muttered.

“Then you will have to suffer my presence.”

I didn’t respond. Instead, I set to ridding myself of my filthy clothing. Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the steaming water and plunged down. It felt like hot pokers were sliding into my collection of injuries, but I relished the pain. And for a moment, it drowned the sense of her out of my mind. Ignoring my cousin’s presence, I scrubbed away most of the blood and grime until the water was the color of rust, and then I rested my arms on the edges, breathing deeply.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?”

Ignoring the question, I watched fresh blood well out of the punctures in my arm and drip into the tub.

“Tristan!” Marc snapped and I looked at him in surprise. He was not one to raise his voice.

“Yes?”

“Your father has kept you locked in a prison cell for months, and then today, for seemingly no reason whatsoever, he has allowed you to return home. After a mysterious meeting at the mouth of the River Road. Why? Who did you go to see? What drove him to do this to you?”

I opened my mouth to answer, then closed it again, the words sticking in my throat.

“It was Cécile, wasn’t it?”

I nodded mutely.

“Is she well?” There was more than a hint of concern in his voice.

“Yes,” I said. “For now, at any rate.” I swallowed the taste of bile that had risen in my throat. “He used me to exact her word that she would hunt down Anushka for him.”

“A promise? Were there any loopholes?”

“Yes, but she’s had no experience finding a way out of bargains and I’ve no way to get word to her.” I squeezed my eyes tight, trying to drive away the memory of her expression as she pleaded that I be spared. “So she will either succeed, or he will ensure her failure drives her mad.”

“And if she succeeds? What is your plan then?”

“I don’t have one.” Standing, I wrapped a length of toweling around my waist and retrieved a pair of trousers from my wardrobe, struggling into them. I discarded the idea of a shirt, the thought of the fabric rubbing against the open wounds on my back more than I cared to bear. Marc remained silent through all of it, but his unease was apparent in the way he cloaked his face with shadow.