He circled her as if she was a horse he was thinking of buying. It all came crashing in, not just her memory of the events of last night, but the arrogant way this man stalked, as if he commanded the world—and in a way he almost did. He wore the closed, proud, haughty expression of a person who expects obedience to his least whim. He examined her with condescension and disdain.

No, he looked nothing like the haunt, even if the physical features were the same. She would never mistake the two, even if, for that first instant when he’d walked in, hope had overtaken common sense.

He halted in front of her. “Stand.”

No one disobeyed a prince, especially not one who used that tone. Elen stood. The chill in her flesh had nothing to do with the wind. Of course, no one disobeyed a prince using any tone. She’d known but had never fully understood: Her relationship with the haunt had been reckless beyond belief. How suspicious had it made the wardens?

“Take off your coat.”

She took off her coat and draped it over the back of the chair. What was going on in his mind? Had Simo expressed how puzzled the wardens had been by his behavior toward the deputy courier? Was the prince trying to hide the blank space in his memory? Was he going to ask her questions designed to figure out what he had missed?

“Take off your glove.”

“My glove?”

His lips curved up, but not in a smile. “The viper. Show me the viper.”

“The viper?” Surprise left her unable to think up a lie better than What viper?

He nodded with satisfaction, having proved something to himself. “I don’t know what manner of enchantment afflicted me, but I heard all, and I saw all. I was trapped as if behind glass. I know everything you said to him and everything he said to you.”

Everything.

She was so shocked, she said the first thing that came into her head.

“He said you wouldn’t recall anything.”

“Yes, he did say that, did he not? He told you a passage spell leaves the host as if asleep.”

“Shrouded behind a veil,” she murmured.

“I wasn’t asleep, nor did any veil shroud me, I assure you. I fought with all my power to retake my body. I am not to be trifled with in such a high-handed, contemptuous way. I am no weak-blooded aivur, part animal, unable to resist enchantment. I am no common-born human, but a prince risen to the Third Estate through my mother’s considerable efforts and my own determined training. I had the strength to remain awake and aware for all these days. What do you have to say for yourself?”

She ought to kneel, to beg for mercy, but she just couldn’t bring herself to beg.