And what of our kisses?I had leaned into them.I had wanted them to mean something.My heart ached at the possibility that it was all a deception, part of an elaborate ruse.He couldn’t care for me, not really.What a fool I had been.I didn’t even know how to find him again.
But there was one person who might have some answers.If I reallywantedanswers, that is.If I wasn’t afraid of what I’d find.
I jumped up before I could lose my nerve.
Mrs.Crowe’s shop in the Underworld was as dark as it had been the last few days.My gentle knocks went unanswered, and the shades over the windows concealed everything within.
“Mrs.Crowe,” I called, first quietly, then louder.The tavern next door was noisy, but even so, a few people standing outside glanced my way.When there was still no answer, I banged hard on the door and shouted, “Mrs.Crowe, it’s important!”
Finally the door creaked open until just a sliver of her face was visible.
“Are you insane?”she hissed.
“Mrs.Crowe, please let me in,” I pleaded.
She scowled and shut the door.I was about to bang on it again when the sound of chains rattling came from the other side.
When the door creaked open all the way, she waved me in.“Come, quickly!”
The moment I was inside, she shut the door and locked it.
“Thank you,” I said.“I have to ask you about Ember—”
She cut me off with a shush and a sharp gesture, then waved me into the back room, past a curtain.Countless metal and glass devices filled every horizontal surface.The two of us had spent many hours in here as I had refined my craft.
She cranked the handle of a large centrifuge, which emitted a loud whirring sound.
She leaned in close.“Tarnasau’s spies are everywhere.This should keep them from hearing us,” she said.
How any spies could hear us when we were locked deep in her house was beyond my comprehension.I hoped she wasn’t getting irrationally paranoid in her older years.
“Last time I was here, you said that some people could detect Emberborn.Can you tell me more about that?”I took a deep breath.“Because I think I might be one of those people.”
Despite the noise, she still cringed when I said the wordEmberborn.“You ask too much of me.”
“Please, Mrs.Crowe,” I pleaded.“I need to understand what’s happening.”
She let out a long breath, as deep a scowl on her face as I’d ever seen.“I’m taking a perilous risk even talking to you.But I’ll be leaving soon anyway.”
“Leaving?Where are you going?”
“Thornfell.”
My jaw dropped.“Why would you go to that horrible place?”
Thornfell was a secluded town far to the east at the end of the Jagged Coast.Its only purpose was to serve Thornfell Keep, the king’s private citadel, where it was rumored that he conducted nightmarish medical experiments.
“I have…unfinished business there,” Mrs.Crowe said.“I’ll talk to you, but I have two conditions.”
“Name them.”
“First,” she said, “what I tell you must never be traced back to me.”
“Of course,” I said.“And the second?”
“You must never seek me out again.”
My mouth dropped open in shock.I had known Mrs.Crowe for years, and the thought of never seeing her again made my stomach churn.
