“Explain.”

His eyes flicked to mine, then away again. “It’s like when you’ve got something that needs saying, but you don’t want to say it for whatever reason. Throat gets tight, tongue gets dry, and it seems like your whole body is fighting to keep the words inside. But you force them out anyway.”

I thought about his analogy and nodded. “Can everyone with human blood do it, or only…” I tried to think of a polite way to phrase the thought, “Those whose blood is primarily human?”

He snorted softly and shook his head. “Those like me, you mean?”

“Yes.” There was no point to beating around the bush.

“It’s hard to know,” he said, resting his elbows on the table. “It ain’t something that’s discussed much. But I do know a few who are mostly troll who can lie through their teeth, and a few with less magic than me who couldn’t bend the truth to save their lives.” He hesitated for a long moment. “I think the potential to lie comes with the human blood, but that it’s something else that makes a half-blood actually capable of doing it.”

“Willpower?” I suggested.

“Might be.” He sighed. “Or just plain obstinacy. When we catch a young one lying, we all but beat the desire to do it ever again out of their skulls. It’s a dangerous game to play, and if they got caught by the wrong person, it wouldn’t be just their life on the line, it would be the lives of every half-blood. It’s our greatest secret – we’ve killed our own just to keep it from coming out. Full-blooded bastards would all but shit bricks if they found out we’d been lying to their faces all these long years.” He winced. “Not that I mean you…”

I waved him off. “You’re right. It’s an advantage you have over us, and there isn’t a troll in the city who wouldn’t begrudge that fact.” I cracked my neck from side to side, considering what he’d told me. “Lady Anaïs is dead,” I finally said. “She was killed helping me subdue my father the night I broke Cécile out of Trollus.”

Tips’s eyes widened. “That ain’t possible. I’ve seen her since with my own two eyes!”

“Not her,” I said. “Someone pretending to be her. I wasn’t certain how the impostor was managing it until your little slip, but now I know for certain it’s a half-blood wearing Anaïs’s face.”

Tips’s breath hissed out between his teeth. “Only one who could manage it,” he said. “And that’s your sister.”

“Half-sister,” I muttered, “But yes. Lessa. She’s powerful enough, and she lived in the same household as Anaïs for all of her life until Cécile tricked Damia into giving her to my father. And no one notices the presence or absence of a half-blood servant, no matter how powerful. Add in her ability to lie, and she’s the perfect person to take over Anaïs’s life. So perfect, it almost seems planned.” A sick feeling rose in my stomach the moment the words came out. “He knows.”