what he thought about me. Did he believe I was with the Blackcoats? He hadn’t called for my arrest. He hadn’t said anything to Raine.
Yet.
I wasn’t about to relax when it came to Korr. He’d let me go, but I didn’t trust him for a second. He was dangerous, unpredictable, and clever. He had power over me because of what he’d done, and those who held power like that always took advantage of it sooner or later. I knew one day he’d use that power to get something from me, something he wanted. The question was only what...and when.
“Korr has taken up residence here,” Ann said. “To keep an eye on Raine, he says—and to torment him, I think. They do not get along. They snarl at each other like dogs both wanting the same bone.”
“I’m surprised Raine hasn’t hung him from the trees yet.”
Her lips tugged apart in a rueful smile. “Officer Raine is afraid of him, I think. They have a history.”
The bread was heavy as a stone in my hands. I saw Ann look at it a few times, but she dragged her gaze away. I ached to give it back to her, but my stomach knotted, and I thought of everyone at home. We were all hungry. We all needed food.
And there wasn’t enough.
I dragged my mind away from that. I had other things to worry about, too. My new assignment from Adam. The PLD. We were running out of time.
“Ann,” I said. “If Korr had something he wanted to keep safe, where do you think he would keep it?”
She frowned. “You should probably stay far away from Korr.”
I couldn’t do that. “Where, Ann?”
She bit her lip. “He has his office in the new Farther building...you’ve been there.”
An uncomfortable silence wrapped its tendrils around us. I’d been interrogated by Korr after Ann had given him my name—something I’d only later learned was due to her being an agent and under orders. It had not been the brightest moment in our friendship.
“All right,” I said. “But is there anywhere else where you think he might keep something important?”
“In his room here, perhaps,” she said. She shifted uncomfortably and averted her eyes. “But I really don’t—”
“Show me?”
Reluctantly, she motioned for me to follow her. I put the bread down and together we went through the kitchen door and into the hall. Sunlight glanced off polished wooden floors and glittered on lamps and chandeliers. It seemed even more opulent than I remembered.
“Raine had things brought in from Aeralis,” Ann explained in a whisper.
We crept up the staircase to the second floor and went left, into the guest wing. Ann stopped at the third door and touched the knob with her finger. “This is his room,” she mouthed, and then she gestured for me to head back downstairs.
I hesitated. I put my hand on the knob. Surely it would be locked...
“Lia,” Ann hissed, and I dropped my hand and followed her.
But a plan was already brewing in my head.
~
I checked the traps on the way home. One gaunt, half-starved squirrel. It was pitifully inadequate to feed four people, but we’d have to make do. I trudged for the farm, mulling over the things I’d seen and heard in the village.
Jonn worked at the table while the meat cooked. He had pages of notes spread around him, and stacks of my father’s journals formed a wall at the far side of the table. He scribbled and sketched and occasionally stopped to turn the PLD from side to side, staring at it with a scowl of concentration before bending over the journal in front of him once more.
“Making any progress?” I asked, joining him at the table.
He didn’t look up from the page he was scribbling words onto. “Some.”
So he was still angry with me. I suppressed a sigh. “Jonn…”
“I’m working, Lia.”
I left the table and went to check on the meat. I was boiling it into a stew. At least that way it might stretch a little further.
Everiss watched me as I stirred the pot. Her eyes reflected the fire, and she held her injured shoulder