There was a look on Grim’s face that told me he was edging toward a clifftop. “That message,” he said. “The one the pigeon had. There was a part about taking the bait. What was the bait?”

Shame filled my heart. Not something I was used to. Not a good feeling at all. “Promise you’ll listen and not interrupt until I’m finished.”

“All right.”

At this point the door to our quarters opened, light spilled out and Brother Marcán called, “Is all well?”

“We’re fine, just talking. Be in soon.”

The door closed gently.

I told him. How Flannan had offered me the chance, the rare and precious chance to do the thing properly, not on my own this time, but backed up by all those other folk who wanted Mathuin brought to justice for his crimes and his cruelty. How it had all seemed to fall into place so neatly, the trip west to help Geiléis, the quick flight south on Midsummer Eve—today, still today—to reach Mide and then Laois by a route Flannan said Mathuin would not be watching. The allies, the plan, the witnesses. Foolproof, almost. How, when later on I had begun to doubt, he’d used all the weapons he had at his disposal, suggesting that I would be betraying Cass if I did not agree; that I would be confirming I was not the brave woman I had once been; that the longer I stayed away from Laois, the more new victims Mathuin would find to prey on. I told Grim how I’d got sick of the pressure and ordered Flannan to stay away while I made up my mind. And how, after the ritual, I had been so disgusted by the bitter, useless person I had become that I’d decided the best thing was to do what Flannan wanted. To turn my back and go south. At least then there would be some point in my existence.

Grim spoke not a word. He didn’t need to.

“And yes, I didn’t tell you. I knew if I did you would come with me, or come after me, and I wanted you to be safe. I didn’t want you drawn into it all and hurt or killed because of my wretched cause. You have a good life at Winterfalls. Work. Friends. Perhaps a family at some time in the future. Folk trust you. They like you. You would be so much better off without me. That was my reasoning.”

He looked at me. Sad eyes in the torchlight. “Don’t know me as well as you think you do, mm?”

I thought of him charging up the tower to find me. Holding me in his arms, a monstrous thing all teeth and scales and claws, and telling me he’d stay by me two hundred years if that was what it took. As steadfast as Geiléis had been for her young man, Ash. Though it was not like that with him and me. Of course it wasn’t. “Only,” I said, “after what happened in the tower, I realized I couldn’t do it. I just want to go back to Winterfalls. I was going to tell Flannan tonight. I hope you believe that, Grim. You’d have every reason not to. But it’s the truth.”