I slipped on a patch of muddy leaves, and Alexander caught my arm without hesitation. But his touch sent waves of feeling through my frame. In fact, I felt a dozen touches, my body moving through dozens of places.

I knew I would lose myself to this phenomenon if I did not figure out how to calm my mind, and so I chose to focus it on some task outside of myself. This had always helped me to bring my thoughts to communion in the past, so I employed the method now.

What should I be doing that will focus me on someone else?

Of course. The solution was simple. Rosemary, my darling, needed me, and was that not the very task I left poor Niall to accomplish? So I lifted my skirts and set out in the direction I believed to be correct.

Alexander chose to accompany me. I only realized this when, instead of allowing my disorientation to throw me into a thicket of briars, he gently took my hand and pulled me out of the way. After this, he released me once more, for which I was thankful. The slightest touch from him brought on a dozen slight touches and made my whole body vibrate with some history I could not comprehend.

Outside of the dark Cranley Manor, I ducked in the bushes and watched for slave pyres who might have been guarding the place. But there were none present, so I walked straight to the front door and knocked as loudly as my knuckles could manage.

When, eventually, someone opened the door—and I knew it would not be Edgar Cranley, for Brauns did not usually greet their own guests on the front steps—I was face-to-face with Deppo, the poison-wielding pyre who aided me when I was in Cranley’s dungeon.

I prepared myself to demand entrance into the manor, but Deppo looked over my shoulder, noticing Alexander, and his pupils dilated ever so severely.

He stood this way, with his mouth flopped open and his hand on the door, for such a long time that I decided to proceed with my errand, walking straight past him, Alexander behind me.

Deppo did not attempt to stop me or to intend anything toward me at all.

<<May we detour>>? Alexander meant to me once we were inside the godforsaken beast of a manor.

I nodded, for I could not imagine what Alexander might have had in mind. Unless it was to drink from me again. If that were the case, I could not be sure my answer would be yes, yes, yes so certainly, so soon.

We took a dark staircase, Alexander’s steps clearly slowed on my behalf. Partway down this narrow, winding path, the grimey stone walls pressing us tight on either side, we ran straight into Milieu, the pyre who had nearly drained me entirely when he was sent to bring me to Cranley.