Folke and Kendan both jolt in surprise. I don’t know what Matron White told them about what happened in Bremcote, but apparently, she left out some key details.
Did she tell them Sabine is fae?
She pins her judgmental eyes on me as she touches the key emblem dangling from a gold chain around her neck.
“By the blessing of Immortal Iyre,” she says. “I fell into the earth—right into our cellar, where my fall was broken by burlap apple sacks.” Her lips purse. “I got my share of burns while getting out, but at least Igotout. I cannot say the same for any of the others.”
Kendan rests a hand on his forehead. “Anyone care to explain what you’re talking about?”
Matron White slides me a smug smile. “Do you want to tell them, or shall I?”
I groan inwardly, shifting my weight from one foot to the other to buy time. After the shock of seeing the old bitch alive, my first concerns go to Sabine.
I heard her footsteps on the castle’s second floor. Is she okay? What is she going to do when she learns ofthis?
“What did the Matron tell you?” I ask Kendan.
He exchanges a look with Folke, both of them wary. Slowly, Kendan explains, “She showed up here just a few hours before you did. She said there had been a fire at the Convent of Immortal Iyre.”
“That’s it?” I ask, keeping my eyes firmly on the Matron. “Nothing about Sabine?”
My heart slams behind my ribs. In a few words, the Matron could ruin everything. She knows how dangerous Sabine is. How unpredictable.
The Matron smiles thinly at me. “I’ve been eagerly looking forward to sharing the miraculous news.”
I narrow my eyes, not trusting her for a second.
“Miraculous?” Folke echoes.
Her wrinkled cheeks pull into a wide smile as she lifts her hands toward the heavens in reverence. “Immortal Solene has risen, and it is my great honor to spread the joyous news. All this time, she slept within the convent’s young ward, right under our roof!”
Folke chokes on a breath, coughing. He pulls out his flask and takes a sip. “Wait. Your ward? You meanSabine?”
He whips his head around to me.
Slowly, still tense as an iron spring, I nod.
Folke spits his whisky back into the flask and fumbles to screw back on the lid. “Fuck!”
“Oh,” Kendan says, looking stunned. “Oh.”
“We weren’t planning on telling everyone just yet,” I mutter in Matron White’s direction through clamped teeth.
I’m still waiting for her to reveal that Sabine burned the convent and killed every Sister inside.
Tried to kill the Matron, too.
But the old hag just keeps her hands raised in that annoying fucking reverential pose.
Lord Kendan hasn’t said a word. I can’t read how he’s taking this news in his heart’s beat. It’s faster than usual, but not the rat-a-tat of fear. More like…intrigue.
I sigh.I guess the jig is up.
“There are six woken fae in Volkany,” I explain. “King Rachillon is Vale. He stabbed Sabine with a knife, and she came back as Immortal Solene. But she’s still Sabine,” I snap defensively. “She’s both. The goddess and the girl. She can glamour herself so she looks human. And she’s the only one of the gods with any semblance of morality. Iyre included.”
The Matron ignores my slander of her patron goddess as she clasps her key charm again.
Folke taps me on the shoulder, urgently, and jerks his head toward the corner.
