Manon looked up from her paper. “We were walking along the bridge. Next thing I knew, Beni was getting me out of bed. You?”
“Similar memories. Nothing in between the bridge and waking up at home. Who do you reckon was behind it all? It can’t have been only Laylani.” Scarlett filled Manon in on what Beni had told her about Laylani’s conversation with their doctor and then described the dark moment with Moira Ashworth at the funeral. “Do you think it could all be related?”
Manon’s eyes grew cloudy. “Moira and Laylani working together to kill Jules? Goddess above. If that’s true…”
“Could Laylani have been involved in Dad’s death? They were having a rough patch, but I thought she still loved him,” said Scarlett. “They were together for so long, and they had Beni.”
Manon lowered her voice to the quietest whisper as she looked at Beni, who was asleep. “I don’t think she loves anyone. Not even—” She inclined her head toward him. “She likes the wealth and prestige of being a Heroux, but I don’t think she loved your father. She’s a narcissist, possibly a psychopath, and I’m bloody glad to be getting away from her.”
“Before today I might have said your views were extreme, but given what she did to both of us, I’m inclined to agree. Why do you think my dad married her?”
“Politics,” said Manon. “Goldenrod votes. He thought you needed a mother. She was charming in the beginning.”
Scarlett regretted asking. Manon’s answer depressed her so. “Inever asked…”
“What is it?”
Scarlett’s voice was quiet. “You and Dad got along, but you weren’t warm and fuzzy with him. You’ve always hated Laylani. Why didn’t you go back to Clair de Lune after my mum died? You could have been free of them, and maybe…”
Manon gave her a small smile. “Maybe Jules would have let you come for long visits? His beloved daughter and heir away to Clair de Lune while he was too busy with work to accompany her?”
Scarlett frowned. “Still, if I couldn’t have visited, you could have come back to Soleil to visit me. You didn’t have to stay full-time, right?”
Manon shook her head. “No. It wouldn’t have been enough. When your mother died, I promised myself I’d watch over you as closely as she would have. That’s why I stayed.”
Tears pricked Scarlett’s eyes as she reached over and squeezed her grandmother’s hand. Manon had lived a life she hadn’t wanted and had almostdiedjust to be close to Scarlett. “I feel bad you sacrificed so much for me, but I’m grateful.”
“Now, don’t feel bad about it! I don’t. It’s been one of the greatest joys of my life to watch you grow up. You look so much like your mother. She’s still here when I’m with you. And now we’re going to Clair de Lunetogether—a beautiful silver lining to this whole shitty experience.” Manon grinned.
Scarlett choked out a laugh and leaned in to hug her grandmother, resting her head on the older woman’s shoulder.
When she pulled away, Manon patted Scarlett’s thigh and returned to her reading. Time flew by as Scarlett studied every section of the newspaper, wishing she had a notebook to write down her racing, jumbled thoughts as she tried to come to grips with everything she’d missed.
Hours later, Scarlett blinked and looked up from her reading. Beni’s eyes were still closed, but he stirred like he might soon wake. Scarlett peered out the window at the much-changed landscape. Clouds cloaked the sky. The marshes on the outskirts of Soleil were now giving way to rocky terrain as they approached an enormous mountain range. Scarlett’s eyes grew wide, and she pressed her face against the glass to look up at Mont Noir. It was bigger in real life. The cursed black ice that had inspired its name glittered on the bits of the peak visible through the clouds.
Scarlett glanced away from the window in time to see a young man in a University of Soleil sweatshirt walk by their table in the direction of the dining car. The smattering of passengers she’d seen were probably the few visa holders allowed in Soleil or people visiting family abroad.
Manon peered out the window. “We’re about to go under the mountain. That’s where the firewall takes effect. You’re going to lose phone service.”
Beni blinked awake and leaned toward the window. “Whoa, look—there’s a staircase going up into the mountain.”
The steps looked wide enough for two lean adults to stand side by side.
“Those steps are ancient,” said Manon. “Before the Hieratian Empire built the tunnel through Mont Noir, that stairway was the only way in or out of Clair de Lune from the Soleil side for anyone without a magical means of travel.”
“I learned at school that people used to die on that staircase all the time,” said Beni.
“I read that’s why the Soleil accent is so different from the Clair de Lune accent even though we’re not that far from each other,” said Scarlett. She didn’t add that daydreaming about Brayden’saccent had caused her to do an internet search on its origins. Better to let her grandmother assume it was general interest—or an interest in Manon’s accent, which was lighter than Brayden’s but still cute—that had inspired the deep dive.
The train whooshed into darkness as they passed through the mountain. Little lights along the aisles of the train lit up as they were immersed in blackness, and Scarlett shivered as the temperature dropped. She reached for her coat, jammed under her seat, and handed Beni his jacket as well. He put it on without argument. Manon had never taken hers off.
A full forty minutes later, they finally emerged on the other side, and Scarlett gasped as she glimpsed Clair de Lune for the first time. The train sped across an expansive dark lake. There was nothing but water on either side of the train, giving the illusion they were floating. The blustery sky hinted at rain. Beni and Scarlett were glued to the windows as Manon looked on from her aisle seat. The train flew over the lake’s edge, passing massive hills covered in mossy green bracken and trees. The trees became thicker the farther they went; the closer they got to the city. And the closer she got to Brayden.
CHAPTER
EIGHT
As she stared out at the foreign landscape where Brayden had grown up, an undercurrent of excitement raced through Scarlett. Though the circumstances were dire, butterflies in her stomach fluttered at the idea of finally seeing him. She ran her fingers through her dirty hair. It was obvious she hadn’t had more than a sponge bath for weeks. If only she could’ve met him on a normal day. She could freshen up in the train bathroom, but she’d have to ask Beni for help getting her toiletries out of her bag, and even if she did make it there on her dad’s cane, it wasn’t like she’d be able to wash her hair. She’d seen the bathroom on the way in, and it was tiny, with a minuscule sink.
