“It’s for you,” he said, but he didn’t relinquish it.
Roa touched the box. It was made of copper, engraved with a repeating feather pattern.
Very gently, she said, “Let me see.”
His jaw tightened, but he didn’t prevent her. Just held on to that box as if his own heart lay beating inside it.
Roa clicked open the clasps, then very slowly swung up the lid.
On the velvet bottom lay a single white wing.
Essie’swing.
The pure white feathers, the bloody stump where it had been ripped from her body, the bone sticking out of the flesh... Roa couldn’t look away, even as the sick horror of it rolled like a wave inside her.
Roa pressed her fist to her mouth.
No...
Theo had gone stony. “This is my fault.”
No,thought Roa.It’s mine.
“You let yourself get distracted,” said a voice from behind her.
Roa spun. Rebekah stood before her, dressed in swaths of scarlet, her hair falling loose down her back.
“What have youdone?” Roa snarled, wanting to lunge at her. Wanting to curl her fingers around that elegant throat andsqueeze.
Behind her, Theo shut the box but didn’t put it down.
Rebekah clasped her hands in front of her. “I told you: I can’t afford to have you playing both sides.”
Roa glared at her. “What are you talking about?”
Rebekah calmly made her way toward a small, ornate table set with a glass decanter and three silver cups. “Yesterday my scouts brought me confusing news.” Lifting the decanter, she began to pour. “There are rumors going around the palace. They say the king is more in love than he lets on. They say he’s finally winning over his queen.” Rebekah stopped pouring and looked up, holding Roa’s gaze. “They say the two of you are closer than you seem.”
Roa stared, lips parting. “And you believed these... rumors?” Her fingers curled into her palms. “That’swhy you took my sister’s wing?”
“To remind you of the stakes, yes.”
Roa suddenly remembered the night Dax cornered her in thestable, accusing her of making a deal with Rebekah. Remembered the trace of fear she heard in his voice.
Now she knew the reason for it.
Roa tried to breathe as she watched Rebekah steadily pour the rich, dark wine into the last silver cup. She poured it so smoothly, so calmly. As if she hadn’t just done the cruelest thing imaginable to Essie.
“You’re a monster.”
“Come, now. Once you make the exchange, the wing won’t matter. None of this will matter. You’ll have your sister restored to her true form.”
Rebekah lifted one of the cups and held it out to Roa.
Roa wanted to take the wine and throw it in her face. Instead, she refused it with a solemn shake of her head.
“Besides,” Rebekah said as she handed the wine to Garnet, “you didn’t report last night. So you might say I preemptively came through on my promise.” She turned to face Roa, her eyes dark. “Where were you?”
Roa’s fists shook. “The palace gates were locked. I had no way to reach you. I was trying to—”
