Page 71 of A Dark and Drowning Tide

Lorelei heard the smile in Sylvia’s voice. “I always wanted siblings.”

“They’re more trouble than they’re worth.” Satisfied with her handiwork, Lorelei pulled the braid over Sylvia’s shoulder. She touched it, as if testing if it were real. “I thought the five of you and Wilhelm were like siblings.”

“During the summers, when our families all traveled to Ruhigburg, yes, we were. We met when we were about six years old. Those summers meant everything to me. But the rest of the year, I was quite lonely.” Sylvia hesitated, as though uncertain whether she should continue. Lorelei found herself curious.

“Were you?” she prompted.

“It will sound silly, I’m sure.” Sylvia settled onto one hip, turning to face Lorelei. The fairy light of her lantern traced the curve of her cheekbone in gold. “My mother showered me withaffection—orat least with extravagances. Anything I wanted, I received. But from an early age, I got the sense that all my mother saw when she looked at me was the color of my hair. Her little Mondscheinprinzessin: an Albisch folkhero—asaint—bornagain. Her heir. Her province’s future. Hers, hers, hers.”

Sylvia tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. “She never truly sawme. The few times she did, I do not think she liked what she saw: a girl too silly to see her ambitions realized. And so, she did her very best to reshape me in her image. She impressed upon me the greatness of our family name. She hired me the best tutors. She promised me that I was destined to do incredible things for our people. But I never knew if she truly loved me.”

Her voice trembled, and her expression softened withbafflement—surprise,perhaps, at that child’s hurt resurfacing so fiercely. Lorelei did not know how to comfort her.

“After she had finished parading me around at court, I was left to my own devices at home. In our estate, there were so many rooms and no one at all to fill them. I didn’t know what half of them were for. It was a labyrinth. There were staircases that led to nowhere and all sorts of secret passages. In retrospect, I suppose those were for the servants.”

Lorelei was unsurprised to hear it. It was no wonder Sylvia’s imagination ran so wild. She could easily see Sylvia as a young girl, tearing through the woods like an imp and chasing sylphs through the meadows. She could easily envision her wandering the halls of her empty estate, spinning stories out of hidden corners. It made her terribly sad. Worse, it made a terrible kind of sense.

She’d spent her entire life trying desperately to be noticed.

The pang of sympathy knocked her off-kilter. For so long, her disdain for Sylvia had grounded her and driven her. But now, as she rifled through her memories, every one of them was knotted hopelessly, inextricably, with wretched fondness. Sylvia and her passionate, too-loud interjections when she argued for what she believed in. Sylvia singing as she brewed tea on the nights they stayed late in the office. Sylvia wading into dangerous waters to protect people she’d never met. Sylvia, always there in the edges of herawareness—andalways looking away the moment Lorelei noticed her. Had these tender sentiments always been there, or had they overwritten her resentment with time? Lorelei no longer knew how to orient herself.

“Fascinating.” She could muster only a half-hearted attempt at derision. “Would you like to share your favorite color as well?”

“Must you ruin everything?” Sylvia said crossly, although there was little venom in it. “If you must know,it’s—”

“Amethyst. I know.”

Sylvia blinked at her. “Oh.”

What has come over me?It wasn’t as though there was anyreasonshe’d ferreted away what colors Sylvia favored and which flattered her best. It was impossible not to notice her. She tore through the world like a streak of white lightning.

Before Lorelei could die of humiliation, she said, “At any rate, we should discuss our plan. You and I are outnumbered. And now that you’re injured, we’re at a disadvantage.”

“We?” Sylvia echoed.

“Surely that’s not a surprise.”

“Oh?” Color rose in Sylvia’s cheeks. “Then perhaps I’m misremembering the time you loomed over me like some second-rate opera villain and said,I have no interest in solving this case.”

Sylvia had done a very unflattering impression of her, complete with an expression that could only be described as ominous. Lorelei sincerely hoped she didn’t sound likethat. “I lied to you. You were right.”

“I’m sorry.” Her smile was like daybreak. “Can you repeat that?”

“Get that smug look off your face,” Lorelei snapped. Fortunately, all it took to eradicate any tender sentiments was spending five minutes in Sylvia’s presence. “I bow down to your power of perception. Besides, I could use your help. You have insight and skills that I don’t.”

“Please stop complimenting me. It’s flustering me.”

“I shall restrain myself going forward.” Lorelei procured a notebook from Sylvia’s bag and flipped it open to a blank page. No small feat, given half the pages were filled with what seemed to be poetry. Her eyes skirted over a few lines about piercing gazes and capacious black cloaks before she decided she really did not want to know.

“So. Our plan.”

“Right.” Sylvia sprawled out beside her and tapped her chin. “There’s a potential hole in your logic that’s been troubling me. I will grant that it’s likely someone killed Ziegler because the Ursprung was here in Albe. However, you’re assuming they acted because they wanted it to be intheirhomeland. What if there was another reason entirely?”

Lorelei readied a retort but found she could not dismiss it out of hand. It was a reasonable enough challenge to her assumption. “Such as?”

Sylvia straightened up as if she had just been called on in lecture. “What if they killed Ziegler on my behalf?”

Any charity she’d felt toward Sylvia instantly evaporated. “And why would they do something like that?”