Aria.
The waiting was the worst part.
I sat on the edge of the cot with Diana's ribbon twisted between my fingers and I listened to the palace settle around me and I tried to do what Eryx had said.
Stay. Wait. Trust.
I was not good at any of those three things.
I thought about Freya. About Cade carrying her down the corridor with her head against his shoulder and her face the colour of old ash.
I thought about the arrow. The way it had looked, broken off close to the skin, and what that meant about how much time she had been lying in that cupboard before we found her.
I stood up.
Sat back down.
Stood up again.
The room was too small and too quiet and the empty cots were doing something to me that standing still was making worse.
I moved to the window and looked out at the dark
