“Why are you here?” I pull back, calmer now, and Dominic lets me go.
“I am to be your personal security detail.”
“But—”
Dominic brings a finger to his lips and looks around the room. For the first time, I look past the antique furniture and soft, silky draperies. I try to see the room through the eyes of a man who has spent his whole life looking in shadows, chasing down ghosts. And I know even the room around us can’t be trusted.
“Come with me.” Dominic starts toward the doors, and I follow. He never wavers as he leads me down wide corridors and narrow staircases. The halls of the palace twist and turn. It’s not a building—it’s a maze that runs horizontal and vertical. Maybe I’m the Minotaur, I realize. Maybe it’s better for the world if I never find my way outside.
But Dominic doesn’t have that problem. Soon, he’s pushing through a door and leading me out onto the palace’s grounds.
White gravel crunches underfoot as we walk along manicured paths, between tall hedges and beneath shady trees. I had no idea that the grounds were this large, this grand. But it shouldn’t surprise me. It certainly doesn’t surprise Dominic.
“You know the palace.” I don’t know where the words come from. It’s hardly the most important thing. But the Scarred Man lived inside my mind for years, and now every piece of him I come across makes him less villain, more human. Dominic isn’t a figment of my imagination anymore. He is flesh and blood and here to help me.
“I have had occasion to learn some of its secrets, yes,” he says.
“But not all of its secrets?”
Dominic’s eyes stare into mine. “The palace of Adria is five hundred years old—older in places. No, Grace, I don’t know all of its secrets. I doubt any one person does. And it is better that way, I believe.”
He’s not talking about secret societies or lost princesses. Adria is a thousand years old. Even older in many ways. And that many secrets could press a person down, grind her into dust.
“What about you?” I ask.
“What about me?”
“Does anyone know all of your secrets?”
Dominic shakes his head. “You do not want my secrets, Grace Olivia,” he says, and I don’t doubt that it’s true.
Eventually, the garden path leads to a massive glass house—a giant room that isn’t like a room at all. Dominic opens the door and, immediately I feel the air change. It’s hot and humid. The floors are tiled and damp, and everywhere I look there are plants and flowers. Bushy green ferns and orchids so fragile they look like I could crush them with the tip of my little finger. I tell myself not to touch a single thing.
“So now can you tell me why you’re here?” I ask, spinning on him.
“I’m your protection detail,” he says, as if I’m silly to have forgotten so quickly.
“Why are you here, Dominic? Why aren’t you with Jamie?”
“Jamie is no longer in danger.”
“Do you really believe that?” I can see on his face that he doesn’t. Danger is a way of life for people like Dominic. He sees it everywhere and has for a very long time. He will for the rest of his life.
So the Scarred Man doesn’t lie. He just says, “I am where Jamie wants me to be.”
“Jamie doesn’t know where you are.” I shake my head, defiant. “And he definitely doesn’t know why you’re here.”
Dominic eyes me. “What brings you to this conclusion?”
“Because I know my brother.” I turn from Dominic, walk down a long row of flowering plants. “And I know that if the royal family doesn’t kill me for taking this deal, Jamie will.”
Dominic doesn’t tell me that I’m wrong. “Jamie is fine. He is safe. He is getting stronger. And I am where I need to be.”
I know better than to argue. I can’t change anyone’s mind, not even my own. So I just ask, “Do you know what my mom found here?” It’s the only thing that matters.
I look around the plants. A few feet away, sprinklers spring to life, coating a long row with a very fine mist.
“Electronic surveillance doesn’t work in here, does it?” I ask, and he nods, almost impressed. “That’s why we’re here. No bugs in the greenhouse.”
“Grace—”
“Before Mom died, she took a trip. We know she went to see Alexei’s mom at Binevale. And we know she came here—to Valancia. I think she found something, and the royal family found out, and that’s why they wanted her dead. Did she tell you what she found?”
“Is that why you’re here, Grace Olivia?”
The Scarred Man sees too much. The Scarred Man knows too much.
“Keep your enemies closer, right?” I shrug. “She found something, and they’re terrified I have it. So if you know what it is or where it is or—”
“Have you ever seen the grounds before? The gardens of Valancia? They’re quite famous for people who care about such things.”
“Answer my question, Dominic. Do you know what she found?”
“Have you ever heard of this house?” Dominic looks up at the glass ceiling overhead. The pieces fit together like those in a puzzle, and the light that comes through is almost ethereal in its glow.
“It’s a nice greenhouse. The nicest. But I don’t care about greenhouses. I care about whatever it was my mother found!”