Page 60 of The Black Key

She turns to leave and calls back over her shoulder. “The Exetor will be here tomorrow morning at eleven. Be ready and in the foyer at ten forty-five. Sharp.”

I LOOK IN ON GARNET THAT NIGHT AFTER I BATHE, BEFORE attending to Carnelian.

I find him taking Coral’s miniature tea sets out of their glass display case, wrapping them in brown paper, and putting them in a box.

“Hey,” I say. “Are you okay?”

He looks down at the saucer in his hand, a looping pattern of silver and gold etched around its edge. “I wasn’t really sure what to do with all these. But she loved them so much. I didn’t want Mother to get her hands on them. She’d probably have a good old time smashing them against a wall or something.”

“That’s really nice,” I say. “Coral would appreciate it, I’m sure.”

Garnet wraps the saucer up and places it in the box. “Are you all right? You weren’t hurt, were you?”

“No,” I say, remembering the way my instincts took over, joining with Air to protect me from the worst of the debris. “I’m fine.”

“She didn’t . . . I mean . . .” He clears his throat. “Did she suffer?”

“No,” I say quietly. “It was . . . instant.”

He nods.

“I’m so sorry, Garnet,” I say. “First your father, and now . . .”

“It’s . . . I’ll be all right.” He sounds dazed. “Everything is getting real, isn’t it? It’s not just a vague plan back at the White Rose anymore.”

“It isn’t,” I agree.

“Ash must be losing his mind.”

I frown. “Why do you say that?”

Garnet’s eyebrows shoot up. “Violet, he knows you are—sorry, you were . . . Coral’s lady-in-waiting. You can bet the entire Bank knows about the bombing and her death. He understands how the Jewel works—he’d know you’d have been with her at that fitting.”

“Oh no,” I gasp, my hand flying to my mouth.

“Lucien will find a way to tell him,” Garnet says.

“Or Rye,” I add.

“Rye?”

“He knows.” I fill Garnet in on what happened earlier.

“That’s really great,” he says. “He could be helpful at the Auction House.”

I know he means it but the sentiment comes out halfhearted. I understand the feeling. I’m so exhausted, all I want to do is curl up under the covers of my bed and not come out for a day.

But I have to face Carnelian and then meet Rye tonight in Ash’s old chambers. I give Garnet’s arm a squeeze and he smiles wanly. I leave him with the tea sets and head to Carnelian’s room.

I’ve never been inside it before. Maude only showed it to me in passing on my first day as a lady-in-waiting.

I knock. “Come in,” Carnelian says from within.

Carnelian does not have chambers like I did when I was a surrogate. Her one room is large and airy, with a view of the garden. It contains a four-poster bed, a round mahogany table with two chairs, a vanity, and a chaise lounge by the window. One wall is lined with bookshelves. Another has a pretty painting of a farmhouse that reminds me of the White Rose.

She lies in bed, the bandage on her shoulder poking out from beneath her nightdress. Her arms rest at her sides, but her face is alert. From the way she’s looking at me, it’s clear she hasn’t forgotten the moment she recognized me earlier, before she slipped into unconsciousness.

“So,” she says as I close the door behind me. “You came back.”