Page 95 of Fragile Oath

“I’m happy for you, Davin,” she said thoughtfully, but something in her tone said that she was dubious, too.

Which was fair, since I was sure it looked complicated from the outside. Stars, it had been complicated from the inside.

“I’m assuming that this isn’t just a social call,” she added as we made our way to the winter gardens. Gracie stooped down to pluck one of the delicate blue flowers that insisted on growing, despite the cold.

She met my eyes then. “Say what you came to say.”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair as I braced myself to broach the subject that had made her shut down twice before.

“You said your father was with you the night Tavish died,” I said.

“I did,” she responded flatly, her gloved hand tightening around the small flower.

“But we both know that isn’t true.”

Whatever ease had existed between us a moment ago, and even at dinner was gone now. Tension filled the space between us for several long, stilted moments. She walked faster on the garden path, visibly agitated.

“I need to know where he was,” I pressed, keeping in step with her pace.

She sighed, rubbing her temple with her free hand.

“Gracie, please,” I said, stepping in front of her and forcing her to meet my eyes once again. “For the sake of whatever friendship we had, please, just tell me the truth.”

I didn’t miss her wince at the wordfriendshipor the way her narrow shoulders deflated.

She tossed the flower to the ground, sighing. “He was where he is every night that my mother isn’t with us,” she said. “With Fiona.”

My jaw dropped. The upstanding, noble, ever-righteous Laird MacBay was having an affair? With Fiona, of all people?

I reexamined the events of the past week under that lens, thinking of his narrowed eyes when she came onto me, his admonishment at her display of jealousy. Not because he was judging me for having a past entanglement with her, but because he was…possessive of her.

More than simple gossip, though, this gave her the motive we had been missing. If she was championing MacBay and our family fell, she could become the next queen of Lochlann. Of course, she had voted in my favor, and she was still angling for an attachment to me.

Then there was MacBay himself, who clearly wasn’t the man he purported himself to be.

It was a hollow victory, knowing I might have just discovered the missing piece that tied one of our oldest friends to being the Viper.

ChapterForty-One

GALINA

I spentthe next day in the library trying to pretend there wasn’t a ticking clock threatening the life I wanted so desperately and the family I had come to consider my own.

Endless walls of elegant white shelves with gilded accents took up the massive space, books on every subject filling them to the brim. Most of them were in the common tongue, but there were at least three massive shelves dedicated to the languages of Socair and Rionn, and some I didn’t recognize.

Golden chandeliers reflected candlelight off the pristine white marble floors and there were small chairs, tables and sofas scattered for studying in any given corner.

It was an exquisite backdrop for such bleak work.

Gallagher and I set up near the herbology section, comparing the poisons from the false teeth to yet another endless textbook. We used most of the available space, with a separate table dedicated to the herbs and plants we were experimenting with to test the effects.

“How is Maisey?” I asked, refilling our water glasses from the pitcher on our table. “Have you asked her about any of these?”

I gestured to the valley lily and bitterbloom we were dissecting. The lily caused abrupt heart failure but didn’t cause inky veins. The bitterbloom had a fruity scent like the Viper’s, but it was closer to citrus than apple, and not nearly potent enough to cause death in small quantities.

It didn’t feel like we were getting any closer.

Gallagher’s shoulders slumped as I set his cup in front of him.

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