sometimes I wore the skins of other street children with high standing in their packs; sometimes I became an alley cat or a rat or a gull. And then I learned that if I made myself prettier—if I made myself beautiful—when I begged for money, it came far faster. I was wearing one of those beautiful faces the day magic fell. And I’ve been stuck in it ever since.”
“So this face,” Aelin said, “isn’t your real face? Your real body?”
“No. And what kills me is that I can’t remember what my real face was. That was the danger of shifting—that you would forget your real form, because it’s the memory of it that guides the shifting. I remember being plain as a dormouse, but … I don’t remember if my eyes were blue or gray or green; I can’t remember the shape of my nose or my chin. And it was a child’s body, too. I don’t know what I would look like now, as a woman.”
Aelin said, “And this was the form that Arobynn spotted you in a few years later.”
Lysandra nodded and picked at an invisible fleck of lint on her dress. “If magic is free again—would you be wary of a shape-shifter?”
So carefully phrased, so casually asked, as if it weren’t the most important question of all.
Aelin shrugged and gave her the truth. “I’d be jealous of a shape-shifter. Shifting into any form I please would come in rather handy.” She considered it. “A shape-shifter would make a powerful ally. And an even more entertaining friend.”
Aedion mused, “It would make a difference on a battlefield, once magic is freed.”
Rowan just asked, “Did you have a favorite form?”
Lysandra’s grin was nothing short of wicked. “I liked anything with claws and big, big fangs.”
Aelin swallowed her laugh. “Is there a reason behind this visit, Lysandra, or are you here just to make my friends squirm?”
All amusement faded as Lysandra held up a velvet sack that sagged with what looked to be a large box. “What you requested.” The box thumped as she set the sack onto the worn wooden table.
Aelin slid the sack toward herself, even as the males raised their brows and subtly sniffed at the box within. “Thank you.”
Lysandra said, “Arobynn is going to call in your favor tomorrow, to be delivered the following night. Be ready.”
“Good.” It was an effort to keep her face blank.
Aedion leaned forward, glancing between them. “Does he expect only Aelin to deliver it?”
“No—all of you, I think.”
Rowan said, “Is it a trap?”
“Probably, in some way or another,” Lysandra said. “He wants you to deliver it and then join him for dinner.”
“Demons and dining,” Aelin said. “A delightful combination.”
Only Lysandra smiled.
“Will he poison us?” Aedion asked.
Aelin scratched at a piece of dirt on the table. “Poison isn’t Arobynn’s style. If he were to do anything to the food, it would be to add some drug that would incapacitate us while he had us moved wherever he wanted. It’s the control that he loves,” she added, still staring at the table, not quite feeling like seeing what was written on Rowan’s or Aedion’s face. “The pain and fear, yes—but the power is what he really thrives on.” Lysandra’s face had lost its softness, her eyes cold and sharp—a reflection of Aelin’s own, no doubt. The only person who could understand, who had also learned firsthand exactly how far that lust for control went. Aelin rose from her seat. “I’ll walk you to your carriage.”
She and Lysandra paused among the stacks of crates in the warehouse.
“Are you ready?” Lysandra asked, crossing her arms.
Aelin nodded. “I’m not sure the debt could ever be paid for what he … what they all did. But it will have to be enough. I’m running out of time.”
Lysandra pursed her lips. “I won’t be able to risk coming here again until afterward.”
“Thank you—for everything.”
“He could still have a few tricks up his sleeve. Be on your guard.”
“And you be on yours.”
“You’re not … mad that I didn’t tell you?”
“Your secret could get you killed just as easily as mine, Lysandra. I just felt … I don’t know. If anything, I wondered if I’d done something wrong, something to make you not trust me enough to tell me.”
“I wanted to—I’ve been dying to.”
Aelin believed her. “You risked those Valg guards for me—for Aedion that day we rescued him,” Aelin said. “They’d probably be beside themselves if they learned there was a shifter in this city.” And that night at the