Chapter 6: The East Tower

Cassian didn't answer until the cart rolled through the gates.

"I'll tell you inside," he said. "Not in front of the horses."

Ravenmoor Abbey rose over us in the dark, all broken arches and lit windows.

I didn't remember it. My body did.

My shoulders dropped when the wheels hit the cobbles. My feet found the first step before I looked for it.

I hated that more than anything so far.

Odette stood at the top of the main stair with a lantern.

She had changed into a pale grey dress, and her bandaged arm lay folded against her waist.

"Cassian," she said. "You've brought her back."

"The Hollow is in my custody," he said. "So is she. It's within the law."

"Of course." She turned the lantern toward me, and her smile was warm. "Elspeth. I hope the tower isn't too cold."

It was such a gentle thing to say that I nearly thanked her.

Then she looked at the ring on my wrist. For one half-second her eyes went flat.

It was gone before I could be sure I had seen it.

Tobias led me up and around, along corridors that smelled of wax and old stone, to a round room at the top of the east tower.

A bed. A basin. A fireplace with a fire already lit.

A heavy iron bolt on the inside of the door.

"Your old room," Tobias said, and his voice cracked. "I kept it aired."

I looked at the bed, and the shelf with the cracked blue mug, and a pair of worn gloves hanging by the window.

They were my size.

None of it was mine.

"Thank you," I said, and I meant it.

He left. I slid the bolt across.

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