"I..." My throat closes, and I have to try again. "I didn't know."
Saskia looks at me for a long moment.
"That could have been for me," she says. "Or Ysolde. Or Brynna. That potion could have been meant for any one of us. It could have ruined any one of our lives, and now it has ruined Mirelle's. And you didn't think to tell us?"
I won't cry.
I won't cry.
"Why did you come here?" I ask. "If you think I'm... whatever you think I am. Why come to my shop?"
"Because Torgan told us where he bought it," Brynna says finally. Her voice is precise and cold. "At the spell shop in Starling Vale. We thought you might know something."
"And you do." Saskia practically spits the words. "More than we thought."
"We need Noemi to look at Mirelle and tell us exactly what was done," Ysolde says. "How long it holds, and whether it can be undone."
I look between them, wanting there to be something I can do to change the past.
There isn't.
Instead, four strangers look back at me. Mirelle looks blankly. Saskia looks betrayed. Brynna won't meet my eyes. Ysolde's face has gone deathly still.
My hands shake as I take off my apron.
"It's only two blocks," I say. "Follow me."
Noemi is grindingsomething at her counter when the five of us come through her door. One look at my face and she stops.
"Lissy?"
"Look at her," I say, gesturing toward Mirelle. "Please."
Something in my voice tells her how serious this is, because Noemi comes around the counter without another question. The sisters part for her, bringing Mirelle forward.
Mirelle stands in the middle of the spell shop, patient, hands folded, admiring the vials on the shelves like a woman waiting for a coach.
Noemi looks into her eyes. She takes Mirelle's wrist and holds two fingers to her pulse. She says a word I don't know, softly, and passes her palm in front of Mirelle's face.
Mirelle doesn't react at all.
"Congratulations on your engagement, my lady," Noemi says gently. Conversationally, like she's testing the water. "The whole town heard about the proposal."
Mirelle cocks her head. "There's no engagement. I ended it."
Noemi stills. "Why?"
"It isn't meant to be."
"Do you miss him?"
"No."
One simple word.
Then a faint crease crosses her face, there and gone. Some buried thing surfacing for half a breath.
"I keep waiting to," she says. "It seems like I should. But... I don't."
