Page 112 of Down Comes the Night

“I recognize that look in your eyes,” Una said dryly. “What’re you thinking?”

“You and I are the ones who captured him, which means we’re the queen’s favorites in everyone else’s eyes.”

“Right.”

“And you’re a Captain of the Guard.”

“Right,” she said, more hesitantly.

“Which means no one will question us if we visit his cell. It’ll be easy to get in, and as long as we time it right and disguise him, we’ll be able to walk out the front door.”

“That is the most absurd, incautious plan I’ve ever heard.”

Wren braced herself for rejection.

“But since his execution is tomorrow,” Una said, “it’s the only one we have.”

Wren let out a shaky breath. While they could easily clear the North Tower’s security checkpoints, she wasn’t as sure they could getout.If they slipped up, they would hang alongside Hal. While it was a sentence Wren was willing to face, she couldn’t ask Una to do the same. “This is far from guaranteed success. You’d really die for Hal Cavendish?”

“I would gladly see him hang. But for today, I will put aside my feelings and tolerate his existence. What matters is the truth and the greater good. But you seem to think he’s worth saving for his own sake.”

“I wanted to hate him. I did hate him.” Wren lowered her gaze. “But then I got to know him. He’s patient and perceptive and… good-hearted, deep down. Nothing can ever change what he did, but he wants to make things right. I have to put my faith in him and believe there’s another path for Danu and Vesria.”

“And what is that? Without justice, we have nothing.”

“Justice got us here. Justice will kill us all.”

“So what do you propose instead?”

“Forgiveness.”

“Forgiveness?” Una scoffed. “That’s a pretty thought, but we can’t change centuries of war. It’s in our blood now.”

“Dialysis, then. One person at a time.”

“Impractical as ever.” Una laughed tonelessly, a broken sound that resolved into a sigh. “I’m sorry, Wren. I really, really am.”

In the end, that was what broke her. Those quiet, childlikereallys.

“I forgive you. And I’m sorry, too. I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to put so much on you. After I was suspended, I was so scared I wasn’t thinking straight. I just couldn’t give up on Byers, and I was so worried you’d be next. There was a part of me that still—”

Una winced. “You don’t have to say it.”

“Ineedto. Not talking about it never made it go away, as much as you wanted otherwise. I still loved you, Una.”

“I know,” she said hoarsely. “But I never could have given you what you needed.”

No, she couldn’t have. For weeks now, she’d known that. At Colwick Hall, she’d been too busy to think much of Una—and when she did, she realized, it wasn’t with the same lovesick pining she’d felt in Danu. Wren still loved her. Just not in the same way anymore.

“I know that now,” Wren said. “I just wish we could have had this conversation sooner.”

“I was a coward.” Una bowed her head. “I always believed nothing scared me until… Wanting you made me more vulnerable than I was ready to be. Maybe it makes me selfish, but with the fraternization laws, I couldn’t put you before my job.”

“I understand.”

Just like that, everything between them was laid bare. The horrible tangle of hurt and anger and confusion between them tugged a little looser. Wren thought she could see a wobble in the firm line of Una’s mouth.

The day Una cries, I will crumble. The whole world might.