me to get a doctor?”
Fie mopped at her face to buy herself a moment. When she surfaced, she had the best answer she could scrounge together: “Allergies,” she blurted out. “It’s just—allergies.”
“I see,” he said, in a way that meant he did not see at all. Then he rubbed the back of his neck, sheepish. “I apologize, I … may have moved … things … a little too fast, earlier.” She gave him a blank look. “In the tomb.”
Fie’s brow furrowed, still groggy. He hadn’t seen the visions of Ambra’s life, had he?
“When we kissed,” Tavin clarified, cheeks darkening. “I-I got a bit carried away.”
“Oh.” Fie shook her head distractedly. “No, I liked it.”
She’d seen Ambra’s life. She hadn’t called the spark from that bone. It had swallowed her whole anyway. Animal bones did that, aye, because they knew no better. Human bones knew to wait, not to offer their gifts or their secrets so freely.
But Ambra’s skull had just drawn her in, like it was part of her.
Tavin’s voice jostled her from her thoughts. “I want you to know,” he said, fumbling for words, “that if you feel like you have to go along with whatever I want, because of who I am—you don’t.”
His fingers were tracing unseen patterns on his wrist, where a glamour hid the scars.
Fie couldn’t stop herself; she reached over and caught his hand. “I know.”
Now, Niemi hissed. Take him. Finish what you started in the tombs. He’ll be ours.
The notion turned Fie’s belly. So did the notion of hearing him say Niemi’s name in the close, shuddering way he’d once breathed hers.
She let go. “I should probably go lie down. In my rooms. For a bit.”
She didn’t want to. She wanted to stay here with him, in a room that felt real. Fie wanted to unroll all his scrolls, look in his mirror, pick out the tangle of jewelry, run her hands over every bit of it until she could find a way to forgive him for selling her Crows to the queen.
But Fie had come to the palace to keep her oaths. So she let Tavin walk her back to the guest quarters, let him leave her with a quick, soft kiss on her cheek, made herself ignore the tension in his shoulders as he left.
She’d expected her room in the guest quarters to be empty. Instead, her door swung open to a chorus of mews.
Fie blinked. Jasimir and Khoda were seated on the ground, trying to wrestle a black-and-white cat into some sort of vest. More cats were lounging about the room, pouncing on carpet fringe, napping on the bed, or grooming an ear. Barf herself rolled on the carpet beside Jasimir, squirming in another of the vests.
Jasimir looked up and grinned, tapping a new-minted badge on his Sparrow uniform. “Cat-master,” he said brightly. Then his grin slipped. “What’s wrong?”
“What happened in the catacombs?” Khoda asked.
Fie sat in one of the overstuffed chairs. A small cat with a tortoiseshell coat immediately leapt onto her lap and curled up. She buried her face in its fur. “I didn’t hear anything. It all made me sick, there were too many bones, I just—” Fie made herself lift her head and take a breath. “In the Tomb of Monarchs, I touched Ambra’s skull.” Khoda tensed. “It wasn’t supposed to—bones aren’t supposed to do aught unless I ask, but it did, it showed me Ambra’s life.”
“Why would it show you that?” Jasimir asked, bewildered.
She didn’t want to say it out loud; it was the same as the feeling from the Well of Grace, from Little Witness’s watchtower, the same droning dread. She said it anyway.
“Last moon, I went to the watchtower of Little Witness. The shrine-keeper there is Little Witness reborn, and she remembers everything. She told me the Crows have a Birthright, but it was stolen. That if I wanted to get it back, I had to keep my oath. I thought she meant our oath, Jas. I thought getting you to Draga wasn’t enough, that I had to put you on the throne. But Ambra … Her skull grabbed me, and I saw her—I saw her swear a Covenant oath with Crows, to save her life.”
“But she didn’t keep it,” Khoda finished, quiet. “And now it’s yours.”
Jasimir twisted to look between him and Fie, letting the black-and-white cat in his lap go. “What are you saying?”
“Fie is Ambra reborn. Well, the latest one, that is.” Khoda leaned back, trying to sound casual. “Congratulations. You’re