Alexia awoke to the soft scratch of the nima against her mind. The nima connected to Corinne’s mirror. Corinne wanted to talk.

The clock on the wall read three am Imperial time. A quick calculation and Alexia figured it was late evening for Corinne. A perfectly reasonable time to be calling. If only interplanetary schedules aligned better.

Not that the nima couldn’t carry Alexia through a night or two of missed sleep. It was worth it to talk to Corinne, who was proving to be a surprising joy. Watching her awaken to herself had been a supreme pleasure thus far, and that Corinne had turned out to be a resourceful ally in this matter of the nima—that was the frosting on the cake.

Alexia changed easily to Lady Snow’s familiar face as she moved from her bedroom into her private mirror gallery. Along the way, she reached through the air, a tiny rift through darkspace, to pull a mask from the sealed closet in which she kept them. In mere moments, she was transformed.

She activated the mirror and there was Corinne’s urgent face looking back. “Good evening, my darling.”

“I have something you need to see.”

Alexia liked that about Corinne, her directness. So she responded in kind. “What have you found?”

Corinne held a piece of paper in front of the mirror and a chill went through Alexia. She recognized the charred invitation. She’d written it with her own hand. And if Corinne had found it, had brought it to her like this— “Where did you find that?”

“Beneath the rift. In the middle of the place where the nima had been tainted, there was a void. No nima at all. And a hidden cave where I think whoever did this, whatever they did, it was there. Almost everything was destroyed. I found a few bits of paper that had escaped, and this was among them.”

Which meant one of Lady Snow’s guests—someone else Alexia knew and trusted—had been involved in the attack against her.

Not Vivek. He’d never attended one of Lady Snow’s parties. Had not, as far as Alexia was aware, even known about them beyond the rumors everyone heard.

Someone else. Someone who might still be alive. Someone who might still be…

“We need to talk about this. You and I. In person. I want to see what you’ve found. All of it.”

“How?” Corinne asked.

There was only one answer. “Come to Terris. To the Golden City. I’m having another party soon. You can attend. We have…unfinished business.”

Corinne looked down, her dark skin flushing darker.

“And then we will look at everything you’ve found and figure out what it means.”

“I don’t know if I can, if I should,” Corinne said without looking back up.

Alexia had no help to offer. This was a decision Corinne was going to make on her own.

“My mother won’t like it,” she said softly, as if to herself. Then she took a deep breath and looked back up, her face resolute. “But this is important. If there’s someone still out there who’s a threat…” She nodded, agreeing with her own words. “Yes. I’ll do it. I’ll come.”

“Lovely, darling. I’ll make arrangements for you here. Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention.” She pressed her hand against the glass. “I’ll see you soon.”