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“We’re in Lowtown on your wedding day.”
I sighed. She would not understand the shoe. I did not understand the shoe. But I had to offer some kind of sane explanation. Something better than the world pulling us together.
“I need to say goodbye and return something of hers.” I swallowed. “I need her to promise to be safe.”
Her hand loosened as she met my eyes. “You love her.”
It was not a question. I nodded anyway, too tired to deny it.
“And you offer her nothing. Let her go.”
She released me and I wondered how much to tell her.
“She’s risking her life. I need to make her leave Tal behind and live her life.”
Koshka set off again, this time leading the way and the crowds split when it was clear she would rather crash into someone than step aside. It seemed I had said something right.
I might not know my city as well as Alexei had, and was far from Vanya’s familiarity, but I knew enough to be surprised at the fine townhouse in the middle of Lowtown.
“This is where she lives?” I had imagined a shady moneylender, a king of thieves who sent women to seduce the rich and powerful. This was the pride of an otherwise bleak street.
“You gonna ring the bell?” Koshka asked and turned to stare down those gathered in the nearby alley.
She was right to be cautious. If someone came close enough to see my distinctive eyes and arrived at the incredible conclusion that the king stood in Lowtown with only one guard, they would completethe stoning they’d started when I lay barely conscious only two blocks from here.
I lifted my hand and swallowed my reluctance. I was not here to argue. Only for goodbye and asking forgiveness for presuming she did not care. She had saved my life too many times for that.
The bell had barely sounded when a fair-haired woman in a fine lilac dress and sparkling avian mask opened the door, clearly on her way out.
Her eyes widened, before narrowing on me.
“What do you want?” Her voice was vaguely familiar, though I could not imagine where we had met. I searched behind her for Tempest’s familiar form.
“I’m here for Vanya.”
She closed the door behind her. “Of course, you are. I didn’t expect you came to see me. Not that anyone should come after first tearing my home apart and then leaving her in my care.”
“Who are you?”
“Her sister. The one who told you her name after you found me tied up on the floor. I’m still waiting for a ‘thank you.’”
I wracked my mind, finally remembering the cursed maid tied to the bed. At least that explained the mask. “And that’s how you talk to your king?”
“I watched you stumble of your own tongue while undressing my stepsister with your eyes every time she was not looking. I’ll speak as I want. You’re the one on my doorstep.”
I could not deny that. “You were not really a lady’s maid, wereyou?”
“Not a role I would ever volunteer for.” The woman expertly locked the door behind her back. “She’s not here. Come back later. Or, even better, do not.”
I was now blocking her path and from her exasperated huff, she wanted nothing more than for the king to leave her step. My hand closed around the shoe, feeling sillier by the moment. But I had come this far and was not returning with it.
“This is hers… I think she might want it.” I held it out like the paltriest of offerings, the scuffed leather and broken string looking even worse in daylight.
“A single shoe.” It was something between a question and a statement. I could not fault her.
“I believe she has the other. She said it belonged to her sister…”
We both stared at it.
