“When am I ever up to no good?”
“Last week. When you lie about Lorcan saying good idea to wander in open so you trick Eponine.”
“It’s been one week?”
“Tà, Fallon. I thought you dead and say goodbye to all friends for my final voyage.” Her face is stark white beneath her black makeup, and her eyes shine with what I soon realize are tears.
A wave of shame and guilt closes over me at the stress I put this wonderful, sweet woman under. “Oh, Aoife.” I take her hand and squeeze it tight. “I’m so sorry I lied. I didn’t mean to cause you so much grief.”
“Ha fios.”
“I know you know, Aoife, and I know apologizing won’t erase all I did, but I hope you’ll find it in your heart to forgive me.”
She expels a deep sigh and squeezes my fingers back. “I not angry with you. I angry with myself. I knew Catriona wanted harm you, and I didn’t do what I should do.”
My fingers drop away from hers. “What do you think you should’ve done?”
“Make her leave Antoni house. Make her talk.”
“The fact that you didn’t may very well have saved my life.”
“How so?”
“Dargento would’ve found another way to hit me. Catriona may have owed him, but she was strong enough to drag her repayment out. She was brave enough to wear the wig that was supposed to grace my head.” My heart lets out a dull beat. “She sacrificed herself to save me.”
“She should’ve killed Dargento instead of sacrifice herself. Sacrificing is coward way out.”
My head rears back. “That woman died because of me.Forme. She was not a coward.”
Aoife’s mouth puckers. Clearly, she doesn’t share my opinion, but she’s gracious enough not to debate this further.
“I was on my way to find Phoebus.” I stare into the hallway beyond her. “Do you know where he might be?”
She looks toward my bedroom windows, at the quickly darkening sky. “At this hour, you probably find him in Baths.”
I frown. “And you know Phoebus’s bathing schedule, how?”
“The Baths are public hot-water pools. You not heard of them?”
“No.”
“I heading back to my room. They’re on way. I show you.”
As we walk side by side, Aoife is uncharacteristically quiet, but so am I, both of us reliving our shared time in the Fae lands. At some point, she nods to an archway that is extra-wide as though built to accommodate a soaring Crow. Perhaps that was the intent of the architect who built this kingdom in the clouds.
“Take stairs down, and you find Baths.”
As she walks away, I call out, “When’s our next lesson?”
“You want lessons still?”
“Absolutely.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow sounds perfect.” Even though I’m a little down, I wrangle my lips into a smile, which I keep in place until she turns the corner.
Once she’s gone, I pluck up my skirt and start down the stairs. It takes almost five full minutes to reach a grotto heaving with steam, chatter, and many,manynaked bodies.
