The confession took longer than Nyla expected.
She had returned to the free clinic an hour after leaving it, driven back by a question that had been gnawing at her since she'd walked out into the grey morning. The question was simple, but the answer, she suspected, was not. And she couldn't walk into the Spire without knowing.
Raina was still in the back room, still surrounded by her boxes of files and her dismantled computer and the ghosts of a career she'd abandoned. She looked up when Nyla entered, her expression shifting from surprise to resignation in the space of a heartbeat. She had been expecting this. Or perhaps she had been dreading it.
"You came back," Raina said.
"There's something I need to ask you."
"Only one thing?" A ghost of bitter humour flickered across Raina's exha
