Page 54 of Down Comes the Night

Carefully, she poured him a cup of tea and handed it to him. “So, Cavendish. I have your diagnosis.”

Hal took a long sip of his tea. “Do you?”

“It’s goddessblood.” She turned another cup upright in its saucer and poured herself tea. The steam warmed her face with the smell of bergamot and lavender. “You’re poisoned.”

At first, he sat terribly still, his eyebrows drawn low. Then, as if she’d said nothing at all, he heaved himself forward and selected a cake from the display. She observed him incredulously as he popped it in his mouth and chewed solemnly. After what felt like an interminable wait, he swallowed. “I see.”

Days ago, she might have been unsurprised to find him unresponsive, given he’d once displayed the emotional range of a boulder. But today, she hated herself for it. Hehadto feel something. Where was that flash of hurt from earlier? She pined for that connection between them—that glimpse of his vulnerability before she ruined it.Anythingbut this.

For now, she had to content herself with watching him, grim as ever, choose petit fours like chess moves. She had half a mind to smack the second one out of his hand.

“I said I would make no promises until I diagnosed you.” He wasn’t looking at her, but rather at the last cake on the stand. As he reached for it, she snatched it and placed it on her tongue, where it dissolved with the flavors of orange zest and honey. This time, at least, he acknowledged her existence with a baleful look. “Goddessblood is the deadliest poison in the world, and I’m no specialist. There’s no guarantee I can save you. I need your information up front if I’m going to sink my time into this.”

“I can’t.”

Irritation sparked within her. “Why not?”

“I have no right to your kindness and no leverage. I can’t die here.”

“Oho, believe me. You very much can.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Ineverknow what you mean,” she said sourly. “You’re the most deliberately opaque person I’ve ever met in my life.”

A muscle feathered in his jaw. “Because I can’t trust you.”

“Meanwhile,I’msupposed to trust you’re not lying to me?”

“You could always walk away from this,” he said guardedly. “Whether my information is good or not, you lose nothing.”

“Of course I lose!” Wren grabbed his collar, pulling him closer until she could see the flinty edge in his dark eyes.Good. He has some fight in him yet.“One of the people who disappeared was my friend. He was in my unit, and one day, he never came back from patrol. There was nothing left behind. No evidence. Nothing. Like he just stepped out of existence.”

Hal appeared unmoved.

“If it’s true that Vesria isn’t behind this, then both of our countries are on the line. If I can’t convince Isabel your people aren’t responsible, shewillgo to war. Six people are already gone. Does that mean anything to you? If you die before you tell me what you know, how many more will we lose?”

“Up-front information will do you no good.” Hal pried her fingers loose from his collar. “I deserted because no one would dispatch me. I pursued this lead alone. If you believe your queen willsanction an investigation here—or that Cernos will admit a unit of soldiers into their country—then you’re more naïve than you seem.”

They were locked together, his fingers still curled around her wrist. Her pulse beat wildly against his thumb. “What’re you saying?”

“If you take this information to the queen, you will be laughed out of the North Tower. No one will believe you.”

“Then what good is it? You misled me!”

“I promised you information, and you will have it. Whether it’s useful to you or not is incidental.”

“Oh, I see. Onlyyoucan solve this case. Everyone else in Danu and Vesria is too small-minded and corrupt to figure it out, and if I let you die, the solution to this case will perish with you. How convenient. Howtrappedyou’ve left me.”

“Yes,” he said curtly, if not a little exasperatedly. “That’s exactly correct.”

How stubborn could he be? He was willing to risk everything, and it made her so… soangry.If he would not see reason, he would take Byers to the grave with him. It emptied her out of everything but a cold, mean core of desperation.

“I’m not the foolish girl you mistake me for. I will not be manipulated.” She lowered her voice. “You’re nothing but a coward. If you would place your own miserable life above your soldiers’, then you’re not fit to lead.”

“Are you finished?”

“No. I’m not. You say you deserted because no one would dispatch you, but that’s an excuse. You’re running, aren’t you?” Wren leaned closer. “I would run, too, if I had done the things you’ve done. But like you told me, there’s no running from that no matter how desperately you try. You’re not just a coward, Hal. You’re a monster, and the world celebrated when it thought you died. You willneverbe forgiven.”