“I’ll do some magic for you later, to thank you,” Bitterblue moaned, which made him turn back once, half smiling. Then he left the room, leaving Giddon to tuck Bitterblue into a sofa with dark fluffy cushions and pillows into which her body sank, as if it were a bath.

Immediately Bitterblue popped her eyes open. “This sofa is eating me,” she said, fighting with the upholstery in an attempt to rise, then holding her hand out to Giddon, fingers closed over something. “And now,” she said, “are you ready for a little magic?”

“Always,” said Giddon, opening his hand below hers, knowing where this was going. She dropped his own pocketknife into his palm. It explained why, a few minutes ago, while he’d been carrying her, she’d very obviously stuck her hand into his pockets and groped around.

“Remarkable sleight of hand,” he said gravely.

Her giggles began again, then immediately turned into moans. When Giddon reached for her in alarm, she touched his face, patted his cheek. “It’s okay,” she said. “I have waves of feeling happy as pie, then waves of feeling like I ate too much pie. Too much poisonous pie,” she said miserably. Then she checked herself, her expression changing as she looked at the doorway.

Giddon turned to see Lovisa standing there, staring in at them silently. He opened his mouth to say something cautionary or bossy, but Bitterblue tugged his arm to stop him.

Lovisa slipped away.

Chapter Thirty-seven

Lovisa was so happy for the Queen of Monsea and her gigantic boyfriend, that they should be enjoying this invasion of her house so much. What a hilarious act, the queen’s “are you ready for a little magic” bit. Especially while Hava snuck around somewhere, spying, interfering with things that weren’t hers, all while employing actual magic. Lovisa had used to fantasize about the Royal Continent and its magic, but now she could see that that magic was really just another kind of lying. This was a game to them. Find the clues, solve the riddle, while Lovisa’s life came apart.

The white-haired woman who’d received Bitterblue and Giddon was a disgraced academy professor named Linta Massera. LM. Lovisa had recognized her immediately. And a puzzle piece had settled, with a sickening click, into place, because Linta Massera was the chemistry professor who’d been kicked out of the academy a few years back because something had exploded in her lab. Lovisa had mentioned it to Benni, during their conversation about the explosive properties of varane. He’d responded that that particular explosion had had to do with zilfium.