“She can’t help being born High Kith any more than we can help being born Half Kith.”

He snorted. “If you don’t see what I mean, then maybe it’s for the best.”

But I did see what he meant. He could have meant that she looked foreign, but there was another possible meaning to his words. I became uncomfortably aware of all the times Sid had mentioned being with women. I knew what she was. Did Aden somehow know, too?

Was it something you could see on a person’s face?

I felt myself flush. “Did you come find me just because the Ward is gossiping and you wanted to yell at me about a bored foreigner with money to spend?”

“I came here for you. I came because I care about you.” He took my shoulders in his large hands.

I stepped back.

“Nirrim, did you hunt the Elysium the night you were arrested?”

Raven had said we should keep what had happened with the Elysium secret. “No, of course not.”

“A soldier died that night.”

Dread crept through my belly. “So?”

“The militia think it wasn’t an accident. They think it was murder.”

I glanced across the street to where Sid waited, her right hand at her waist. I said, “That has nothing to do with me.”

“Except that Annin said you caught the bird and turned it in.”

“Why did you ask me a question you knew the answer to?”

“Why did you lie? You lied to me, Nirrim.” His expression grew wounded. I felt instantly guilty but also angry, because he wanted me to feel guilty, and his question had never been a question. It had been a test.

He said, “My friend Darin saw a girl climbing to the roof to catch the bird. The soldier climbed after her.”

I felt instantly cold despite the heat.

“He described her to me,” Aden said. “He said it was you.”

“She wasn’t me,” I whispered.

“She kicked the soldier to his death.”

“I didn’t.”

“The militia found black hair stuck to the building’s fresh paint. Like yours.”

I remembered how, that night, a lock of my hair had gotten matted with paint. “Lots of people have black hair. It’s common.” But my voice trembled.

Aden touched my cheek. His hands fell to my shoulders again, and this time I allowed it. I had no choice. I let him pull me into his arms.

“You lied to me because you were afraid,” he said.

I was afraid. I was afraid of him. He could so easily ruin my life.

“You don’t need to be,” he said. “I told Darin not to talk about what he saw. I’ll protect you.” I looked up at him. He brushed the hair from my face. “I love you,” he said. He kissed my cold mouth.

“I love you, too,” I said, because there was nothing else I could say.