“Yes, I can,” I said. “Only now it’s your choice whether or not to listen. Will you?”

She didn’t hesitate. “I will.”

I expelled the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. Apparently her allegiance mattered more to me than I had realized. We’d known each other a long time, and there was a reason I’d chosen her and Zoé to watch over Cécile. They were loyal and brave to a fault.

As if reading my mind, she asked, “How is she?”

“Well enough, for now.” I stared at the holes in my wrists, the blood running freely. “But she made a promise to my father to do whatever was necessary to find Anushka, and we all got a little demonstration just now of how thin his patience is running.”

“Then she’s in danger?”

I nodded. “We’re all in danger. Cécile, you, me. Everyone. And I’d bet all the gold left in Forsaken Mountain that it’s going to get much worse before it gets better.”

“Will it get better?” Her head drooped, and a lock of dark hair fell across her face. “There are times when it all seems so hopeless.”

How well did I know that feeling.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “It’s possible that no matter how hard we fight that we will still lose. But…” I stared out at the city through the broken walls of my home, the jagged pieces of marble rising up like some great monster’s teeth. “I do know that if we do nothing, our defeat won’t be just a possibility, it will be a certainty.”

Élise lifted her chin and pushed back her hair. “Then we fight.”

“We fight,” I echoed, my eyes picking up the movements of those who had crept back to see what sort of damage my mother had inflicted. This conversation could not go on much longer.

“What about Cécile?” Élise lowered her voice, having noticed our watchers as well.

“She’s far from powerless, and if anyone can discover a way to find Anushka, it will be her.” My stomach clenched at the words, and I desperately wished keeping her safe were a possibility. Only I knew that even if it were, Cécile would never stand for being kept out of danger while her friends were in the thick of it. “We have to trust that she will hold up her end, and focus on holding up ours.”

“Let her fight the human problem while we combat ours?”

I gave her a tight smile. “Exactly.”

A half-dozen of my father’s guards were coming through the rubble, their expressions grim. Élise saw them too. “The King was already on his way to find your mother when I encountered him, but I’m certain he was coming from his study.”

“We need to find out who he was with,” I murmured.

“Or if he received a letter. He does not usually allow anyone in his private chambers.”

“A valid point.” We were running out of time. “Can you do it?”

“I can try.” She started to rise, wisely deciding she should be away before the guards were upon us.