She Was Supposed to Stay Broken, So I Let Her Think She Had novel · Chapter 7 of 40

Chapter 7: The Question She Would Not Answer

'Open the locked cabinet,' I tell Dov. Kael waits beside Fen at the counter, the placement notice between them, still sealed and still useless to anyone who cannot name its destination.

Dov checks my face before she takes the key from her apron. She does not ask why I need the cabinet open. That is one of the reasons I trust her.

Kael watches me. He has brought Fen because the order has already failed once in front of witnesses. This time he wants an answer he can carry away.

The key turns. Dov opens the cabinet and reaches past jars of dried herbs for a brown paper packet. A small cloth pouch shifts at the back.

Its mouth has fallen open. Dark red cord shows inside, knotted at both ends.

Dov sees where I am looking. She closes the cabinet door with her hip, packet in hand.

'An old keepsake,' she says. 'A difficult birth. I kept the cord after the mother asked me to.'

I accept the explanation without asking for the mother's name. Dov's fingers stay on the cabinet key. The pouch remains out of sight.

The ordinary things in this room have their own uses. The herbs. The locked cabinet. A tin of cough medicine marked with its first dose, waiting for Aldren to carry it where he said he would.

Kael's notice has no such certainty in it.

'Sera,' he says, 'do you know where Vessa was moved?'

The question arrives cleanly. No accusation. No order. He leaves room for me to fill in the part he cannot verify.

A low amber shimmer gathers around his head. His spoken question keeps its place. Beneath it, another voice comes through, lower and private: She may know. If she tells me, I can establish where the notice sent her.

I go still. The counter and the paper packet lose their edges for a moment. His thought holds alone, separate from the things he has said aloud.

Then the apothecary returns. A stove ticks in the back room. Dov lays the packet beside her scales.

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