There was a strange sound as soon as I made it down the stairs and around the corner, like the countering plucks of an instrument. I’d heard it before, my first night here—a night so terrifying, I’d nearly forgotten it had begun with beautiful music. I followed the song to find Magnus playing a small piano. It was elaborately decorated, just like everything else he liked. The rest of the room was draped in white sheets, and with the curtains flung open letting in the rich sunlight, dust floating in the rays like magic, it almost looked ethereal. The room was cold, just like the others, but somehow it didn’t feel so cold today.

I put my basket down and leaned on the piano, watching him for a moment before saying, “Your piano’s broken.”

Magnus glanced up, then did a double take and fumbled over a few notes as if he hadn’t expected to see me. Or, more likely, he was shocked that I was actually put together. I let out a breath of laughter and he blushed, giving me a sheepish grin before turning back to his music.

I don’t know why I laughed. It’s not like I found startling him to be funny.

“You look nice,” he said. It sounded like an incomplete thought. Instead of finishing it he played with the edge of the page, folding and unfolding.

“Um, thank you. Saba cut my hair for me.” And it was better conditioned than it’d been in years, but he didn’t have to know everything. “She seems really devoted to you. I hope you pay her well.”

“Oh, Saba gets whatever she wants. What’s mine is hers.”

I doubted that, but with Magnus it was better to deal with one issue at a time. “I mean a salary for her work.”

“She isn’t paid a salary. She has access to my fortune, same as I do. One of the benefits of being a longtime friend,” he said, resuming the quick, canonic notes. “And this is a harpsichord, by the way. Not a piano.” He played on for a moment. “You’re worse than any specter in this house. Do you mean to intimidate me, Andromeda, with all your looming and interrogation?”

He’d ended our conversation very deliberately, but I couldn’t find it in myself to be annoyed. I’d get my answers eventually. “I doubt that’s possible, Magnus.”

I liked the way he smiled when I said his name. At least, I imagined that’s why he smiled. More likely it was because he couldn’t play and also turn the page quick enough, which was what he was struggling with now.

He glanced up at me again. “I suppose you can’t intimidate an equal.”

“I’m your employee. There’s really nothing equal about our relationship.”

“You’re doing me a great favor. And in exchange, I’m doing you one.”