“We’ll leave after Nocturne.” Resolve made my voice hard. “But first, I have to do something.”
Coeur d’Or’s halls were mercifully empty once we left the Oubliettes, but I still cast a haphazard invisibility illusion to hide us from unseen eyes. We made it to Belsyre Wing unaccosted. The residence itself was deserted—the staff had all returned to the estate with Sunder and Oleander. The only attendants left were my own handmaidens, who were either watching the Ordeals in the Oubliettes or taking time off for personal errands. Quickly, I shoved into my room and packed a few belongings—gloves and a fur from the last time I visited Belsyre, a sturdy pair of boots, jewelry and cash for bribes.
“Now can we go?” Luca hissed, impatient. “The longer we wait, the more likely the Husterri will catch us.”
“I’m sure they’re still combing the Oubliettes for me. Heirs aren’t supposed to just disappear.”
“All the more reason we should leave while we can.”
“Just one more stop,” I promised.
I found the entrance the servants used to come and go unseen, and Luca picked the lock. Beyond, the servants’ quarters were even more circuitous than the palais’s labyrinthine halls. Corridors and stairways branched away between food stations and racks of clothing and sleeping cots.
Luca’s hand was a vise on my bicep. “Where are you trying to go?”
“Lys Wing. Lullaby’s rooms.”
“This way.” Luca trotted along a corridor stacked with crates of wine. I followed as he navigated the warren of rooms and entranceways. He didn’t hesitate once. Finally, we burst out of a hidden doorway into a foyer draped in gardenias and opals.
“Lys Wing, as requested.” Luca bowed.
“Thanks,” I said, impressed. We snuck into Lullaby’s unlocked chambers, but she hadn’t yet returned from the Oubliettes.
“Now what?” Luca shoved his hands into his pockets.
I stared at the blue drapes, rumpled bed, and half-eaten boxes of chocolate truffles. “We wait for Lullaby to come home.”
“Why?”
“I can’t explain.” My feet suddenly felt like two rocks attacked to my legs. I sank onto a divan. “It’s just something I have to do.”
Luca paced around the room, unease written plain on his face.
“Do you want to tell me why you’ve been pretending to be Gavin’s friend, and how you knew your way around the servants’ quarters like that?”
Luca pulled a face. “Let’s just say, when Gavin first showed up in the city, it wasn’t the first time I’d heard his name. I didn’t trust him or his intentions. So I resolved to get close to him—to become his friend, and learn his secrets.”
“And?”
“He’s—careful.” Luca looked at the ground. “And he has a way of earning your trust. When you’re around him, it’s almost like—like you’re incapable of suspicion. Sometimes I’d ask leading questions only to forget what I was trying to discover until hours later. I’d tail him into the city only to wind up laughing and drinking with him at a party.”
“His legacy,” I said. “He glamours you.”
“I guessed something similar.” Luca frowned. “And there’s some connection between him and Sainte Sauvage. After today, I’m beginning to think he orchestrated this entire thing from the beginning.”
I shook my head, slightly awed. “I had no idea you were spying on him for me.”
Luca flushed a dull red and looked at the floor.
“It wasn’t for me?” I narrowed my eyes. What did he just say?It wasn’t the first time I heard Gavin’s name. The only other person I knew who had serious dirt on Gavin was— “Scion’s teeth, Luca.Oleander?”
Luca’s eyes flashed bright. “It’s not like that.”
“I didn’t say it was like anything!” But maybe it was. I suddenly remembered two empty glasses in his apartment. How he’d lit up when I’d said Oleander’s name at thehidden selvesparty. How well he knew the route through the servants’ quarters from Belsyre Wing. I clamped my teeth on an incredulous laugh bubbling in my chest. Honestly—were any two people in the daylight world more different than Luca and Oleander?
The chime of high-heeled footsteps stopped me from pushing further. I put a hand on Luca’s arm as Lullaby stepped into her room. She took one look at us both, and loudly yelped. She threw the bolt on the door, then flung herself at me. She smelled like fear and fury and the close, caustic scent of the Oubliettes.
“Scion, Mirage! Dowser and I were sick with worry when you never finished the Ordeal!” She was holding back tears, and I loved her for it. “After Gavin won, we all waited for you to return to the dais, but you never came. They organized search parties—half the palais is still searching for you. Or what’s left of you.”
