"Play the rest."
My own voice sounds strange in the security room. Thin. Sharp. Like it belongs to someone standing too close to a cliff and pretending she is not looking down.
Evelyn does not argue. She reaches for the tape player with steady fingers, rewinds a few seconds, and presses play again. The room fills with static first, then Mary's tired breathing, then her voice.
"I marked him with Elara's name because Victor's people were only looking for the Montague girl," she says. "If they found a baby wearing her bracelet, they would take him out before Richard's men could stop them. " I kept the real girl with me. I gave her my surname. Vale. The girl I ran with is Elara. The boy taken later is Elias."
No one moves; no one even breathes right. Stare at the machine like it might chan
