Page 67 of Where Shadows Bloom

Not my most elegant words. But in the aftermath of the impossible, I felt like a child again, eager to express what had just occurred.

The color drained from her face. “What?! Lope, you couldn’t possibly—you wouldn’tattemptsuch a thing; you’re too smart—”

“I did.” I stepped through the darkness of the library into the beam of light coming from the corridor and swept her hands in mine. “I lit the candle, and I made a sacrifice—”

“Why?”

“I needed to know. I needed to ask about the king—”

She pressed a finger to my lips, her eyebrows furrowed. Then, she slowly moved her hands to cradle the sides of my face. “Come to my chambers,” she said. “We must speak alone.”

19

Ofelia

With Lope’s hand in mine, I whirled into my bedroom. From my pocket, I procured the long golden key to my chamber and locked it, my hand trembling all the while.

Lope, Lope, fighter of Shadows, calling upon the king of monsters?!

I leaned back against the door and held my spinning head. Lope’s cheeks were flushed, and her eyes gleamed in an almost hungry way, the way I’d seen when she was ready to dive into battle.

She was serious. Her plan to find Shadows in the king’s garden—she wasn’t going to give up on it. To the point where she was nowinvitingtrouble.

“Lope, this mustend!” I begged in a scratchy voice. “Gods, theking of the Underworld? Think of what he could have done! He is the creator of the Shadows. He could have killed you if he felt so inclined!”

“I do not fear such a thing.”

It was as good as if she’d said, “I want to die.” The very thought was like a spear through my chest, and I clutched at my heart like the wound was real. “Ifear it, Lope! You fling yourself into the arms of death so carelessly! What is itfor?”

“You,” she said.

My bleeding heart was clawing at itself.

No. I didn’t want that. I didn’t want her in danger, I wanted her safe, I wanted her torest. I wanted to dance in the king’s ballroom and see her sitting in a chair beside my throne. If she wouldn’t dance with me, at least she’d stop for one moment. Stop fighting, stop worrying... so I’d find some measure of peace in her lovely eyes.

“What you do,” I said, voice trembling, “it isn’t for me. Why do you keep looking for danger, looking for some sort of sadness where there isn’t any? There need not always be some sort of tragedy, something to rescue me from.”

With a sigh, Lope said, “I’m sorry. I cannot blot out such things, my lady.”

“Stop calling me that.”My lady. My lady.Such distance between us. Even during a conversation as important as this one. Even when I waspleadingfor her to show me her truest, deepest self.

Lope squeezed her eyes shut. “The... the Shadows and the missing women. I do not know how they are connected, but I do know that your father is a dangerous man.”

“He’s not,” I insisted. I smiled, remembering the wonder I’d witnessed, the fact that by magic, by the enchantment of the gods, I’d seen my mother again. “He showed me the Hall of Illusions today, Lope, and do you know what I saw? Dozens and dozens of mirrors. And within was my heart’s desire. I saw a vision of my mother. She looked so real. It was impossible. It wasmagic.The gods really did bless him.”

Lope frantically shook her head. Her expression was a mirror of my own: desperate and pleading. “The god of Shadows says otherwise. He says that King Léo made a bargain with him!”

Confusion, shock, anger, tightened my muscles. “Lope, why would you trust the word of amonster? Surely he speaks in lies!”

“I believe him,” she said, her knuckles turning white. “There have been three women in the king’s circle who’ve gone missing: Françoise de la Valliere, Eglantine’s mother, your own mother—and yes, Iknowit is said that she is in Lantanas, but—we only havehisword of it. What if she ended up wherever the others did?”

My mother. Just when my anxieties about her were starting to heal, Lope was tearing open the wound. And for what? What did she gain from this constant search for trouble and danger?

“I cannot account for Eglantine’s mother,” I whispered, “but as for Françoise—she did not disappear. She received anopportunity to sing in an opera company in another kingdom! She left on her own accord—”

“Do you have proof of this?”

I dropped my hands to my sides. “Be reasonable! What other explanation could there be?”

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