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Desfan seemed grateful for that. “I can escort you to the carriage, if you’re ready.”
Clare took his offered arm, and everyone in the room bowed as they made their farewells and moved for the door.
Out in the street, the carriage was waiting. Desfan handed her up into the conveyance, and Clare’s mouth opened to deliver a thank you, but her heart seized and her blood ran cold.
Sitting on the bench was a single, long-stemmed rose.
Chapter 26
Bennick
Bennickstaredattherose in his hand, trying not to crush the thorny stem between his fingertips. The velvet petals were partially open and such a deep crimson they almost looked like blood.
Standing in the street outside the orphanage, his ears rang. His heart hammered.
Zilas.
“Where did this come from?” Venn demanded of the driver.
The Mortisian man gestured toward the crowded street. “A child carried it over. He wanted to leave it for the princess. I saw no harm—it’s only a flower.”
Clare was pale. She’d nearly jumped from the carriage, and she still looked a little unsteady as she stood by the open door, one hand braced against the doorframe, the other fisted against her stomach. She looked to Bennick, and all he saw was her fear.
His gut knotted.
Karim’s low voice cut through the tense silence. “It’s from the Rose. Isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Venn said tersely. “It has to be.”
Desfan’s face was grim. “Would he truly use a child to deliver a taunt?”
“He would,” Bennick answered without hesitation.
Karim’s eyes narrowed. “Whatisthe message?”
“The rose itself is the message,” Clare said, her words trembling slightly. “He’s still hunting. And he’s here, in Duvan.”
Bennick lowered the rose, the back of his neck prickling. The street was still crowded, and though Mortisian guards had coaxed them back from the carriage, they were staring. A sea of faces, but Bennick couldn’t find the one he searched for.
“Get into the carriage,” he ordered Clare.
She climbed in at once, Venn right behind her.
Bennick turned to interrogate the driver, but nothing helpful was revealed. The child had come a half hour ago, and hadn’t given a name. The driver couldn’t remember anything significant about him, and he didn’t know if he was one of the orphans.
Desfan returned to the orphanage to ask questions there, but Bennick didn’t believe the serjan would learn anything useful.
Surprisingly, Karim remained with Bennick, sending two Mortisian guards to accompany Desfan.
Bennick wanted to tear through the crowd and find Zilas, but he refused to leave Clare. Or give his half-brother the satisfaction of seeing his panic—if he was even still here, watching them.
He couldn’t feel him. Wouldn’t he feelhim?
“You should return to the palace,” Karim said. “There’s nothing more to be learned here. And despite how it looks, it could have been an innocent gesture.”
Bennick’s first instinct was to argue, but Karim might have a point. Other children had thrown flowers at Clare’s feet when they’d arrived at the orphanage.
But none had been a rose.
