But if breaking Amryssa’s heart would save her, so be it. At least this way, I’d still be here to pick up all the pieces, afterward.
We found Olivian on the second floor, holed up in his “study,” which amounted to little more than an unused bedroom crammed with brass knick-knacks and dusty, half-filled ledgers.
The argument taking place inside reached my ears before I knocked. Olivian’s baritone rose and fell, his words garbled by the thick slab of the door. I hesitated, wondering who had the misfortune of being trapped in there with him, then decided, Fuck it, and banged a demanding fist. Our current mission far eclipsed the importance of anything else in this house.
Olivian went silent within. Amryssa waited with me in the dingy hallway, her fingers twining like ashen snakes.
The door opened. The leftmost half of Olivian’s hair stood at attention, as if he’d pulled at it in a fit of pique. “What?” he barked.
Amryssa flinched. The seneschal paused, forcing a smile through gritted teeth. “I mean... What can I do for you?”
“We have something to show you,” I said. “Can your guest come back later?”
“My guest?”
I glanced past him, but the curtains were drawn. Shadows lay thick in the room. “Whoever it is you’re talking to in there.”
A long pause. “I was just...rehearsing my speech. For the wedding. Alone.”
I took his measure, not buying that for a second. Yesterday’s nightmare had clearly taken its toll, but maybe that would work to my advantage. If the seneschal was so out of sorts he’d resorted to arguing with shadows, he might not put up a fight when Amryssa requested a closed ceremony.
“Can we come in, then?” I said.
The narrowing of his eyes told me he wanted nothing less, but Amryssa ventured a thin plea.
“It’s important, Father.”
Olivian grumbled, but stepped aside to let us pass. Inside, the musk of aged paper filled my nose. I sat in an upholstered wingback chair with too many bald patches to count. In the corners, cobwebs glimmered, half translucent in the light of the lone candle. As Amryssa took a seat beside me, I imagined Olivian in here alone, ranting at no one, and almost succumbed to pity before abruptly coming to my senses.
“Well?” The seneschal arranged his bulk behind the desk. “What do you want?”
Amryssa slid Eliana’s letter across his blotter.
He frowned. “What’s this?”
“Read it,” I said.
He did, though I couldn’t imagine how, given the oily dimness. When he finished, he flung down the paper and fixed me with a baleful stare. “This letter’s addressed to you.”
“Yes.”
“You asked Amryssa’s tutor to investigate her betrothed?”
“I did.”
He closed his eyes and stabbed at his lids with thick fingers. “Zephyrine help me,” he muttered. “I knew letting that woman abscond to Hightower would bite me in the ass.”
I spluttered. “Abscond?A sweet old woman who’s served you faithfully for years finally flees the nightmares, and you call thatabsconding?”
He dropped his hand and attempted to shear me in half with a glare.
I cleared my throat and folded my hands.Play nice. “I mean... I just needed to know what kind of man you were tying Amryssa to.”
“It’s none of your concern.”
“It is.” My tone turned strident, already escaping my control, and I clutched at my dagger.For the love of all that’s holy, grant me patience with this asshole. “I’ve spent the past nine years keeping her safe. Of course I needed to know who you were saddling her with.”
The seneschal glared. Silence coiled between us like a wound spring.
