Nina’s expression softens, just slightly.
“Good.”
“Good?”
She moves to lean against the altar, crossing her arms. “I needed to know you weren’t looking for a convenient villain to focus your grief on.”
My heart drops into my stomach. “And if I had been?”
“Then I would have walked away. Because blaming Jade might feel satisfying, but it won’t get us closer to the truth.” Her unnerving dark eyes remain focused on mine. “Now I know you want answers—not revenge. Which means we can work together on figuring out whatactuallyhappened to Oliver.”
I study her, not fully trusting her. “Why are you even getting involved with this?”
“Like I told you, Oliver and I were family friends growing up. The Thornes would visit from time to time.”
Pain flickers across her face. It’s quick and controlled, but not quick enough.
I have a big suspicion about why that could be. Oliver was too charming for his own good, and if anyone could break through Nina’s concrete walls, it would be him.
Oliver, however, never mentioned Nina.
“You cared about him,” I say simply.
“I want to know what happened to him.” She blinks away any hint of emotion and pushes off the altar. “There are inconsistencies that don’t add up. Helen Finchman’s recording orbs are everywhere, but they never capture anything useful. And the Council concluded their investigation suspiciously fast.”
“Do you think the Council’s hiding something?”
“Everyone’s always hiding something. But you have the emberlink. Your magic was connected to Oliver’s in a way that goes deeper than friendship, deeper than romance. If there’s anyone most likely to be on my side, it’s you.”
The void in my chest pulses at her words.
“The bond’s healing,” I admit. “It shouldn’t be healing if he’s just far away.”
“No,” she says, gentle again. “It shouldn’t.”
The eternal flame crackles softly, casting shifting shadows across the carved names on the walls.
“There’s something else,” I say before I can think better of it. “Something that’s been bothering me.”
Nina raises an eyebrow. “Go on.”
“My memories of Oliver feel fuzzy and distant.” I wrap my arms around myself. “It’s like I’m watching them through frosted glass.”
Nina’s expression sharpens. “Grief eats holes in memory.”
“I don’t know what it is. I just know it’s not right. And last night, I asked Tobias Cane to help me figure out what’s wrong in my head.”
Her eyebrows lift. “You asked a Council member to search your memories?”
“He has memory magic. And he seems...” I trail off, searching for the right word to describe the man with empathetic eyes who’s crawled his way under my skin and seems determined to stay there. “Sympathetic. When I talked to him about Oliver, he understood what I was going through.”
Nina tilts her head, studying me like I’m a puzzle. “What did he say?”
“He told me he’d help me.” I twist my fingers together, the flame crackling in the following silence.
“Tobias Cane is Council,” she reminds me, as if I could ever forget. “We don’t know why they’re really here, or what they’re hiding.”
“He wants to help.” The defense comes out before I can stop it. “I mean—he seems genuinely kind. When he looks at me, it’s like...” I pause, heat creeping up my neck. “It’s like he actually sees me.”