Chapter 26: What Iris Stole

They found Iris in Nora's old bedroom. Not hiding. Waiting. She sat before the mirror in Nora's pearl combs, Nora's white dressing robe, and Nora's mother's moon necklace fastened around her throat. The sight hit harder than Nora expected. Not because Iris looked beautiful. Because she looked like a thief trying to become a ghost. "You came back," Iris said. Nora stopped in the doorway. "Where is Maeve?" Iris touched the necklace. "You always ask about servants first." "You always confuse that with weakness." Darius entered behind Nora, and Iris's confidence flickered. Rowan tried to push past the guards. "Iris, what did you do?" She laughed. "Now you ask." Nora moved toward the dressing table. The mirror showed the room behind her: Darius, Rowan, guards, Lina standing small and furious by the wardrobe. It also showed the bed where Nora had once curled around pain from Iris's tonic while Rowan slept elsewhere. Iris lifted the moon necklace from her throat. "Do you know what this does?" "It belonged to my mother." "It belonged to her because she was supposed to marry better than your father. Because she had winter blood. Because she could have carried the crown-moon line if she had not wasted it on a weak little family." Nora reached the table. "Who told you that?" Iris smiled. The answer chilled the room before she spoke. "Thornveil." Darius stepped forward. "How long?" "Long enough to know Nora was more valuable barren than dead. Long enough to know Rowan would do anything to keep Blackridge from collapsing. Long enough to know the rejected wife was the key everyone ignored." Rowan said, "You went behind me." Iris turned on him. "You were easy. You wanted a pretty Luna and clean accounts. Thornveil wanted blood. I wanted what she had." Nora looked at the necklace. "You cannot have what you tried to destroy." Iris's hand tightened. "I can have Maeve." Nora went still. "Where is she?" "Safe, unless I send word." Darius said, "You will not leave this house." Iris's smile returned. "Then neither will Maeve leave hers alive." The necklace began to glow. Not silver. Blue. The mirror darkened. In its glass, Nora saw another room: a cellar with old stone walls, Maeve tied to a chair, blood on her mouth, eyes open and furious. Nora reached for the mirror. The image changed. Another memory. Rowan in this bedroom months ago, holding Nora's mother's necklace while Iris stood behind him. Iris saying, If she conceives before the rejection, Thornveil takes everything. Rowan answering, Then make sure she does not. Nora felt the floor tilt. The necklace showed betrayal. Not symbols. Not hints. Memory. Rowan grabbed for it. Darius caught his wrist and twisted until Rowan dropped to one knee. Iris shrieked and threw the necklace toward the fireplace. Nora moved without thinking. The chain burned her palm, but she caught it before it hit the flames. Pain shot through her hand and into her stomach. The baby answered. The room filled with white light. When Nora opened her eyes, the mirror no longer showed Maeve's cellar. It showed a map. Blackridge land. The old north road. A hunting lodge near the frozen river. Maeve was there. So was Cassian Thornveil. And beside him stood a woman Nora had never seen, wearing a crown of black thorns.