Now there was nothing left to do but cry—and she knew she ought to, here, where she was alone, if she was going to cry at all. She couldn’t slip up again, not where anyone could see her. When she had first joined the temple of Mythris, she had cried the day’s suppressed tears in bed every night, silently, until her pillow was drenched and she fell asleep breathing through her mouth. But to her frustration, now the tears wouldn’t flow. As she gazed blankly into the middle distance, she spied the broken mirror pendant under the bed where she’d thrown it in rage, already gathering dust balls.

She suddenly wished she were back in the temple again, resting her head on Emris’s chest, listening to his heartbeat. She wondered where he was, what he was doing.

Someone knocked on the door. She stood up and smoothed down her gown.

Xander waited on the threshold, dressed in clean clothes, his wound stitched and his lower face wrapped in deep green silk. Dark shadows lingered under his eyes.

“I’ve made arrangements for the Duke’s funeral rites,” he said as she stepped aside to let him in. “Tomorrow at the break of dawn.”

“Of course,” Constance murmured. “Come in.”

“How are you?” Xander asked, his voice gentle. “Is your wound all right? I can hardly see it.”

“It really was just a scratch,” she said. She had spelled it closed, the swelling easing at her touch.

As she led him toward the window seat, she felt oddly distanced from herself, as if she were trapped in a nightmare. For all that had happened, she had accomplished so little of what she’d set out to achieve.

“What of my confirmation ceremony?” she asked, as they stood at the window.

“It’ll have to be the day after tomorrow. It would be disrespectful to arrange it for the same day as the funeral,” said Xander pointedly. He pulled the silken scarves from his face. He looked tired, older—two shallow lines framing his mouth. “It’s time you told me the truth, Constance.”

She gazed out the window. The storm cloud pressed up against the glass like a cat: she could see nothing else. Xander waited for her to tell her story.