Page 50 of The Iron Hex

“Technically, you don’t,” Evangeline answered, sitting up straight and looking directly at Eira. “You wanted them back to find me, and now you have.”

“Evangeline,” Hugo said, his voice a low growl. “Eira has a right to know what happened to her own memories, even if we found you. There are other reasons why her having her memories back will be useful, anyway.”

The princess looked at Hugo, concern in her eyes, a silent interaction happening between the two of them. Evangeline asked without words if they truly wanted to know the answer, and Hugo instantly knew it wasn’t going to be good.

“Trust me when I tell you it doesn’t matter anymore who cast it,” she said, finally.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Hugo said, his anger rising with each prickly evasion from the princess.

“Eira...” Evangeline trailed off, ignoring the warning in Hugo’s tone.

Hugo looked to Eira, her brow furrowed as she tried to decipher the evasion she used to know so well from the woman who had been her best friend before everything changed.

“Itdoesmatter. Who cast the spell? Why do you think it doesn’t matter? Were they killed?” Eira asked breathlessly, her words all running together.

“Eira,” Evangeline said, her voice thick with grief. “Eira, darling, it was you.”

Eira balked. “No,” she whispered. “No, you’re lying.” Eira turned to Hugo, frantically searching for answers. “Is she usually a liar? Is this normal for her?”

Her eyes brimmed with tears as Evangeline watched with little reaction. Had becoming a rabbit made her lose even more of her empathy? The princess had always been icy and devoid of emotion, capable of hiding her true thoughts beneath a humorless mask, but this was something else entirely.

“It was only supposed to be for six months. The spell was meant to expire, and your memories would come back.” She turned toward Hugo, eyes still locked on Eira. “You cast it in a rush though, we’d been in Cilirien only long enough to set up the shop and we hadn’t found a memory witch to help us. The Iron Retinue showed up in town and we thought they were going to find us... you of all people know how persistent they were,Commander.” Evangeline’s eyes cut sharply to him. If looks could kill, Hugo would be dead. “Eira figured that if her memory was gone, then a truth-sense witch wouldn’t be able to decipher that she was lying, because she wouldn’t have been lying.”

They sat in silence.

“It felt like our only solution,” Evangeline spoke again as she fiddled with the locket on her neck, voice quieter this time as her eyes flicked to Eira over and over again.

“So why is my memory still gone then?Yearslater?” Eira asked, voice thick with held-back tears and frustration.

“I... I don’t know,” the princess said, eyes softening as she looked back to Eira. “You must have made a mistake, or the Flow wouldn’t listen to you once your memories were gone. I’m not a witch. I don’t pretend to understand the machinations of what you can do.”

“Amistake?” Hugo said incredulously. If it wasn’t so horrifying, it would be funny.

“Oh my,” Eira said, standing and pacing. “I need a minute. I need to wash my face or something.”

Eira walked away toward the creek, lighting a lantern with trembling fingers before she left. Silence fell as the two of them watched Eira walk as far as they could see into the darkness of the night.

“You’re not going to follow her?” Evangeline snarled at him from across the fire.

“Aren’t you?” Hugo responded.

“I’m not leaving you alone for a minute,” Evangeline spit, her thick brows arched and angry.

“You don’t have to like me for what we need to do to succeed,” Hugo said.

“Oh, well thank you for your permission, high and mighty Commander Venton of the Iron Empire,” Evangeline spit.

“Commander Venton” sat strangely in Hugo’s ears. The last time he’d heard a title with a last name was before the Iron Empire had risen... before Lord General Kerrigan used first names to allow his soldiers to rise based on their own merits, and not on the backs of their family names.

“I’m not a commander anymore, Princess.” Hugo smiled, flicking pieces of a twig he’d been breaking apart in his hands into the fire in front of them.

“You know what I never noticed, Commander?” Evangeline said, repeating the title he’d learned to hate.

“Don’t call me that,” Hugo grunted.

“I never noticed the way your gaze melts when you look at her,” the princess chuckled darkly. “I was so wrapped up in being a princess, I never noticed that you were in love with the viscountess.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hugo said, hoping denial was enough to get Evangeline’s attention off of this topic. It wasn’t.