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Nothing. No one-sided smirk or eyes like smoky quartz, and who was I kidding? He wouldn’t risk exposing himself just to come to a silly market.

“Did you see something you liked?” Emelle asked me, misinterpreting my sudden perusal of the market.

I hesitated. My pockets had been reduced to a single coin, and my mind flitted back to the body oil we’d passed. But at that moment, I caught sight of a tent at the edge of the market, where a man with sagging cheeks was smoking a cigarette between two racks of hanging blankets for sale.

I knew him immediately. He’d given me a letter from Fabian once, the one that had first led me to the abandoned classroom my father was now trapped in.

“Actually, I’m going to go grab Fabian something. I’ll catch you guys later?”

Emelle’s gaze followed mine to the tent. She gave my hand a comforting squeeze, and Lander nodded. “Yeah, of course. See you later, Rayna.”

Air spiked in my lungs as I tried to take in a full breath. Too many memories—too many unanswered questions—came swirling back, stuffing themselves down my throat. The vampire bats. Their story about my mother. Fabian’s lack of a story about my mother and the way I didn’t know any more about the lost princess Chrysanthia after all this time.

I started toward the edge of the market, Felicity clinging to my back while Willa continued to sit on my shoulder.

Maybe this time would be different.

The classroom door creaked as I stepped inside.

Fabian was slumped against the wall on the far end, where he always was. For one heart-clashing moment, I thought he was dead—

Before he gave a guttural inhale.

My own breath stuttered out. Not dead. Just asleep.

I couldn’t deny he was looking more gaunt lately, though. For all the food I brought him, his cheeks had hollowed, his collarbone was jutting out, and even his gray-streaked curls were now… limp. Like they didn’t have any fight left.

Felicity clambered off me, and I used my finger to set Willa down. Treading lightly so as not to wake him, I picked my way through all the piles of objects still cluttering the room and draped the quilt I’d just bought over his lap.

Fabian jolted, jade-green eyes flashing open. Nightmares seemed to carousel through them before he focused on me and they softened.

“Oh, Rayna. It’s you.” He blinked down at the quilt I’d picked out, one stitched with bright rectangular lines and crosses that either resembled dragonflies or skeleton keys depending on how you squinted.

“I’m sorry.” I winced. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“No, no.” Fabian tugged the quilt closer. “I’m so happy whenever I get to see you. I shouldn’t be sleeping through the day anyway. It’s just—”

“Hard to tell time when you’re locked in here,” I finished for him, trying to paste on a smile and failing spectacularly. “I know.” I glanced back to where Felicity was inspecting her new hat in the shiny surface of a candlestick while Willa poked through an overturned goblet. “We were just stopping by.”

I didn’t want to hound him with questions when the bags under his eyes were like two dark sides of the moon. But Fabian sat up a little straighter.

“What is it, Rayna?”

“Nothing. You’re just… withering away, and there’s nothing I can do.”

He reached out and stroked my cheek with a soft smile. “What else?”

My heart wanted to crack right open. Even after all these years apart, he knew there was something else. And I knew he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep until I told him, or else he’d fret all night.

Sighing, I lowered myself until I was cross-legged next to him.

“Dearest Rayna,” I recited from memory. “I received your letter by crow, and I believe I’ve correctly decoded your message. However, I’m afraid, as I’ve always been, that you will come to loathe me if I tell you the details of what happened a little more than eighteen years ago. You are my greatest love—” A lump filled the base of my throat. “My proudest achievement, and I’ve only ever wanted to keep you safe.”

The air seemed to cleave between us, spilling all the unspoken words out into the open as soon as I was finished. Without actually touching it, I pulled my crescent knife from its sheath and sent it floating to rest on the floorboards before us.

Fabian stared at it, forehead creased. “This is long overdue, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”