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I snorted my amusement as they fled from the baths with Silver on their heels, naught but their wet skins and a few errant feathers stuck to their damp flesh. Silver grumbled, slamming the door behind them. “You’d think they would have the good sense not to keep pushing when you’re in a mood like this. I thought that at least The Bite of Frost would be smart enough. She saw me right here.”

“They’re getting bolder because the Ard Rí has indulged them with the Grand Market Ball being reinstated. He seeks to turn the whole of the court back into a bawdy house,” I groaned, tossing the last of my clothes into a pile before easing myself into the heat of the waters. “At least with Mabh at the helm, there was balance to the debauchery. Austerity between festivals. Him? Feh.”

“That’s just what we need. More of those running around. Did you see the bailey on your way in?”

“I did.”

“The soldiers are being pushed out into the forest to drill now. You can’t even sneeze between the pavilions.”

“It’s gotten worse since I was gone.”

Silver dragged the stool a respectable distance from the tub I had chosen and took up his whittling again. “Can you blame them? The gentry are being given the one thing that they have always wanted—an excuse to be fops and indulge unbound by any wisdom. His Majesty is giving them exactly what has been missing since Mabh was deposed.”

I hummed, the water around me vibrating with my rumble. “In more ways than one.”

Silver quirked a dark brow at me and leaned back against an empty tub awaiting my explanation.

“He’ll be announcing a war at the Grand Market Ball.”

Silver barked a laugh. “Against whom?”

“Cricket.”

He snorted and ripped a chunk from the octopus that he was creating. “A war against a single human? So, it will be done within a day? What can he possibly think he’ll gain from that?”

“Not against a single human. Against the folus fíodóir.”

His eyes shot up from the aquatic beast and leveled on me in shock. “Against the Void Weavers? But they are just stories! And she’s human!”

“He suspects otherwise.”

His face contorted into a frown. “And you do as well. But a Void Weaver? How . . . How did he come to that assumption?”

Silver was careful in his mutiny. While he would never outright speak ill against the Ard Rí, his contempt was just as solid as my own. It was why I had trusted him, even though others would have been the smarter choice. “Madness mostly. His evidence is slim at best and hinges on the idea that she is, in fact, Fae, and has not been counted among the gentry nor among the peasantry before now.”

Silver grunted and went back to his whittling. “A problem I posed to you as well. No babes are unaccounted for. And if she was a plant by Rictus, when you took her before the council of executioners while in the Maw, one of them would have been able to note her magic among the surveyed censuses.”

I hummed in agreement as I stared into the water. “And then there is what she has told me of her life in Human. There are too many details for me to assume she has made it up. Too many nuances to the story that I had never even heard of. Only a Fae who had lived among them would know about those details. Do you know they have a midden heap specifically for unwanted babies?”

“I try not to imagine the barbaric traditions of humans as much as possible. Some of the things I’ve heard from the humans have made my blood run cold. I know they aren’t much better off here, but there are at least limits to the atrocities they can be subjected to. In Human? I have heard no such limitations. Brutality against each other. Brutality against the world around them. Brutality against the very nature of their existence.” The clip of his knife against the wood filled a space of silence between us for a long while as we each thought of the comparisons that could be made between our different worlds. “So, if she is one of us, who is she? Where did she come from? The Country Fae would have burned the world to the ground if one of their children went missing. The Gentry are required to submit their children for measure and mark when they are born. And none are missing.”

“I don’t know who she is,” I whispered. “I asked her for her name once. She told me she didn’t know it. And it was not a lie. And I have never seen her use magic.”

“That’s not entirely true. You’ve said you felt your own magic move and that night you came to the barracks, you said you felt her pour magic into you to soothe you. Anam cara bond or no, that’s still using magic. Why does the Ard Rí think she is a Void Weaver?”

“The same reason I suspected that she had been stolen,” I groaned. The evidence that she might, in fact, be a void weaver was hard to deny. I knew they were just stories, knew that they were but scary stories used to frighten and amuse children, but it was hard to ignore the evidence. “That first night she was with him, he says he felt her touch his magic. He didn’t go into details, of course, but it was enough to make him push away the best blowjob he’s ever had.”

“Better than yours?” Silver asked with a mischievous grin.

I snorted. “I’ve only tasted a small sample of her skills, Silvertree. We were a bit consumed with each other. But I hazard to guess, yes. Better than my own.”

“Then she must have grabbed on and shook.” He leaned back again, watching me. “So, our problems mount. Do you believe him?”

I sighed and scrubbed a wet hand down my face. “Sadly, on some accounts, yes. I watched him turn on her, Silver. It was quick as a flash. I believe she did touch his magic. I don’t know if she did it on purpose or not, though. That is where I’m not sure.”

“So, you have settled on her being one of us?”

“I think I can deny it no more. There is too much evidence, evidence that I cannot ignore. I suspect I always knew. Perhaps that’s what kept me from her bed all those nights I lay awake wishing to feel her skin against mine.”