“I find it highly unlikely the wardens weren’t enough to handle revenants. That job is what they were made for,” Blaine muttered as he slouched lower on the sofa from his spot beside Caris, rubbing a hand over his face. His clothes, Caris noted, were of Ashionen style save for the leather flight jacket he still wore, with its plaid panels curved over the shoulders. His hair was even braided back again, the plait short and tied off with a beaded ribbon.
“Propaganda is what you make of it, and the western provinces have always been susceptible to Daijalan lies,” Meleri said.
Caris unfolded the broadsheet and laid it flat on the table before opening the front page. She froze at the lead article on page two, eyes drawn to the ink-pressed pictures of her parents at the top center of the page. For a moment, everything went quiet, as if the world faded away as she stared down into the haggard lines of her parents’ faces.
“Caris.”
Blaine’s hand wrapped around her wrist, his voice in her ears like a siren bringing her back. The library held no clarion crystals anymore, but when Caris jerked her gaze away from the broadsheet, she found every teacup on the table shattered, with tea splattered everywhere. Damp splotches seeped into the broadsheet, blurring some of the words.
“Oh,” she said quietly, tongue numb in her mouth. She used to be better with her control. She didn’t understand why her magic—carefully leashed over the years—was slipping free so badly now.
Blaine grimaced and let her hand go only long enough to move the broadsheet off the table. Caris made an aborted grab for it, but Blaine didn’t toss it away, merely folded it up to better read the article, eyes flicking across the page.
“I didn’t know they were printing articles about prisoners,” Hyacinth said quietly, sounding apologetic, though her words were directed to Meleri rather than Caris.
Caris clenched her hand into a fist as she stared at the broadsheet that Blaine held. “What does it say?”
Her voice didn’t sound like her own, low and harsh as it was. Blaine reached without looking to grip her shoulder, still reading the article. “Detained for being cogs. You’re mentioned at the end as being wanted for questioning.”
Caris leaned into his grip and turned her head to better see her parents’ faces. “But they’re alive?”
“For now.”
“Who ordered their arrest?” Meleri asked.
“The article doesn’t say.”
“I’d wager good money the order came from Eimarille and not the Collector’s Guild,” Lore said with a grimness to her voice that had her reaching for her teacup automatically before remembering it was destroyed.
Caris couldn’t help the flinch that assailed her body. “I put them in danger.”
“No,” Blaine said, looking up to meet her eyes. “They were cogs before you ever came to the Clockwork Brigade. They knew the risks, just like all of us. You had no part in what has happened to them.”
“They’re myparents.”
“And they sent you on to keep you safe.”
“If I hadn’t been seen casting starfire—”
“We’d be dead,” Lore cut in. “I’m thankful we’re not.”
Caris snapped her teeth together, catching the edge of her tongue. The faint hint of copper crept through her mouth, and she swallowed the taste of it. “We need to free them.”
Lore gave her a pitying look. “We can’t.”
“I won’t leave them in Eimarille’s hands!”
“They are cogs, and when a cog is compromised, we have to let them go.”
“Easy for you to say when your family is here and safe—”
“Do not think for a moment we don’t grieve the people we lose—”
“Enough,” Meleri cried out, cutting through their argument, causing Caris to snap her head around to stare at the duchess. “The prominence of the article about the Dhemlans’ involvement in the Clockwork Brigade was not amistake. This is a lure, and you know it, Caris. We cannot give in to what is a trap meant to bring you back to the capital.”
Caris pushed herself to her feet, feeling flushed and overly warm. “I won’t condemn my parents to whatever horror Eimarille will do to them.”
Meleri stared at her with a fierceness that reminded Caris this was the woman who had held Ashion together after the old monarchy fell and would not be swayed from her road. “Would you condemn all the rest of us and the country as well for your selfishness? Eimarille wants you dead—you must know that. You are a threat to her taking the starfire throne, and she will dangle any bait she can to get you within her reach. You will not survive that encounter.”
