Why are you defending someone who tried to eat you?

I’m not defending her. Well, I suppose I am defending her, but she didn’t try to eat me.

Oh, she only wanted to eat you. You’re right, that is much better.

Kiran shakes his head. “All we know about Mother—Abra—is that she originated from the realm that lies on the other side of the Rip. She’s always been motivated to keep the Rip sutured. There’s nothing for her on the other side, other than the memories of her own suffering. A time when she considers herself to have been weak. Why would she want to open the Rip?”

“Yes, child,” Lydia says. “Do you have an inkling to why the queen might have changed her mind?”

Blaise hesitates, biting her lip and shuffling on her feet. “I’m trying to remember exactly what she said. I think…I think maybe it had something to do with her son Farin. The one who was dead. I don’t remember everything. She had me drugged up a lot of the time, but I feel like I remember her mentioning him in connection to the Rip.”

“She could have been discussing the way the boy perished,” Kiran says. “He died shortly after the Rip was sutured, a victim of the fae curse, more potent in its first generation.”

Blaise shakes her head. “No. No, I’m sure it had something to do with opening the Rip, not closing it.”

She wants to bring him back. That vile female wants to bring him back.

“You said she kept his ashes,” I offer. “Do you think she’s hoping that if she’s able to open the Rip, she can use the power to bring him back?”

My stomach twists at the thought.

She already has my sister to do that, my magic reminds me. Why would she need the red-headed girl?

I relay as much to the group, at which point Ellie answers, “The magic that infected Blaise only came out on the full moon. Maybe Queen Abra hopes to bring her son back sooner than that. Although,” she pauses, thinking. “I suppose several full moons have already passed, so maybe that’s not it after all.”

Evander taps his knee, leaning back in his chair. “That, and it’s not as if our friend Cinderella is all that cooperative when it comes to her hosts.”

Kiran shakes his head. “You knew the parasite when she was bound to a human. Abra, as a fae, would have more power to bend the parasite to her will.”

“Unless she made a fae bargain with it,” I remind him.

“Would it have unbound the parasite from her curse to the moon when Blaise Turned?” Ellie asks me, well, my magic, I suppose.

“No,” I answer for him. I’m already familiar with the answer from my magic muttering about it in my head all hours of the day. “It would have taken a different ritual to do that. Blaise, can you remember anything like that happening?”

Blaise shakes her head. “No. No, I don’t think so. Not that it couldn’t have happened while I was drugged. But I feel like I would have realized.”

“You feel like it. How comforting.” Lydia eyes Blaise with suspicion, but before Blaise can answer, Lydia turns to Marcus.

He must be prepared for the question because he says, “Piper is bound to no such curse. Her Gift works so long as she has an instrument to play.”

“So this queen is taking Piper to the Rip?” the little girl whispers quite loudly to Marcus.

“It seems that’s a possibility,” he tells her, and I can’t help but respect the way he doesn’t feel the need to lie to the child. Not even under the pretense of protecting her.

“Well, at least we know where she’s going,” I say. “That means we can intercept her.”

“That’s assuming we’re right about her going to the Rip, which I’m still not convinced of,” says Kiran. “From what we know about Abra, it’s in her core being not to allow the Rip to be opened. Remember the Council meeting? She was more than happy to assist Asha when she thought Asha was suffering under my hand. She didn’t hesitate to place poison in my cup. But when Calias demanded Asha’s death after her display of what she could do with her magic, Abra voted to put her to death. It seems Abra would do most anything to keep that Rip closed, even offer up someone she clearly believes to be innocent.”

I nod, biting my lip. Kiran’s logic is sound.

Blaise shuffles again, a bundle of nervous energy. It seems she doesn’t enjoy speaking of the queen, though I can’t blame her, not after the torture she suffered.

“But,” Blaise says, “she’s already shown she’s willing to compromise what’s right for something she perceives as more important. What if the game changed for her when she realized she could get her son back? What if she doesn’t care what she has to do to save him?”

“That would be consistent with her behavior, based on what we know about her from the Old Magic’s story,” I admit. “She risked leading a host of fae into an unsuspecting realm to save Farin from infection. She’d do anything for her son.”

“And who could blame her?” mutters Ellie.

Evander gives her a strange look before returning his attention back to the room.

Kiran shakes his head. “I still don’t think she’d do it. Not again. Not after she sacrificed so much to close it.”

Blaise addresses Kiran. “Why do you think that?”

Kiran levels a stare at Blaise, one of mutual understanding. “She’s managed to lock her past, the part of her she’s ashamed of, behind the Fabric, in a totally different realm. Something tells me, if we could all lock away our pasts like that, we wouldn’t be keen on setting them free.”

Blaise shudders under Kiran’s assessing gaze, at the sheer vulnerability behind his words.

My heart gives a gentle tug toward my husband, and my hand finds its place in his.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Blaise whispers to the room. “I just know in here,” she closes a fist and places it on her gut, “that I’m right about this. We have to stop her.”

Kiran shifts in his chair, his hand grasping tighter around mine. It’s in that moment that, sound as Kiran’s logic might be, I recognize why he’s so unwilling to admit that the Rip might be at risk of opening.

Because if it is, I’m the only person we know other than Piper who could possibly close it.

“I’m sorry, Blaise, but it’s my gut I trust, not yours,” Kiran says.

“Do you have a better theory about where the queen has taken my wife?” Marcus hisses through gritted teeth.

Kiran pales at the man’s anguish, his jaw set and his throat bobbing. “What exactly is it that Piper is Gifted with? Perhaps that could provide us with some answers.”

“She can play songs that call out to children who are hurting,” offers the little girl. “And she can drown people in floating pools of water.”

Those who don’t know Piper all exchange questioning looks.

“Kiran,” I say, murmuring to him under my breath, “I don’t think we can deny that Abra is taking Piper to the Rip. We don’t have another explanation that makes sense.”

Kiran tenses beside me, losing his grip on his hidden power for a moment. Dread, so potent it’s almost crippling, leaks out from him and into my skin.

Horror at what he just did overcomes his face, but I stroke his arm, a silent reminder that I don’t blame him for it.

“It’s not enough evidence for me,” says Kiran.

Lydia places a hand on her hip. “Kiran, you can’t possibly be saying we should do nothing, given Abra’s move against us?”

Kiran levels a glare at his sister. “You spent time with Piper. Do you think she’d betray the world by opening the Rip?”