Page 153 of Alien Burn

She told him about her brothers. The solemn one who tried to advise her about everything, and the younger one who climbed out of his lessons through a window and never understood why the instructor kept catching him.

“He used the same window.”

“A flaw in the plan.”

“He insisted it was the best window.” Her smile wavered. “I don't think I've said that aloud since he died.”

Dhomhes's thumb moved over her fingers.

She watched it while she told him the rest.

She had been fifteen. There was a meteor shower, and she had stolen sweetwine from a reception tray and taken it to the roof. The sky had been full of falling light. For a little while she'd thought the flash below her was a reflection.

“Then there was smoke coming through the stairwell. I couldn't get down the way I'd come.”

He let her stop. Let her drink tea that had gone almost cold.

“I used the service stairs. They were outside. I thought everyone would be in the garden.”

Her fingers tightened around his.

“There was no one in the garden.”

She could still see the open doors. She would always see them, she thought. The difference tonight was that there was someone beside her while she looked.

“The Korvath syndicate wanted my father's coalition broken. He wouldn't give them what they wanted. They killed my family to make sure the people who came after him would.”

“And someone got you out?”

“A member of the household guard found me near the outer wall. I wasn't hiding properly. I was just standing there.” Her throat closed. “I didn't make a sound.”

“You were hurt.”

“I wasn't. Not then. They were hurt. They were dead, and I was standing in the garden following the rule about not crying where anyone could see.”

Dhomhes turned toward her.

“You were fifteen, and your house was burning.”

“I should have⁠—”

“What?”

She opened her mouth. Nothing came out.

He waited, then touched the edge of the blanket where it had slipped from her shoulder.

“If Tivek told you that story, what would you tell him?”

She looked at him sharply.

His eyes held hers.

“I wouldn't blame him.”

“No.”

Her face crumpled before she could turn away.