Olivia again. I couldn’t have been more grateful for her newfound bravery.
Rowena sighed and glared at me. “Theodora went to Lord Strongfoot and I came here to notify Lana. All of us were trying to come up with a plan to rescue you. How did you escape?”
“I managed,” I said. “But now we need to save Queen Cordelia and expose the duchess.”
She thinned her lips. “Amarante, they all know you’re a witch. They won’t want your help.”
“Rowena—”
“Look what they’ve done to you,” Rowena said, taking my hands. They were covered in dirt and grime. The scratches and bruises inflicted by Karen and Narcissa were still red and angry. I had almost forgotten about them.
Ash looked at my arm, then looked away. “She’s right,” he said in a low voice. “You shouldn’t go back to the palace. It’s too dangerous.”
“What about the queen?” I demanded. “How will you save her? How will you expose Duchess Wilhelmina?”
“I’ll manage,” he said with a slight smile.
“Listen to him,” Rowena said. Her eyes were rimmed red. “Lana agreed to let you stay here. Theodora and I will stay too. You’ll be safe again.”
“You want me to hide here for the rest of my life,” I said, disbelieving. I turned to Ash. “And you think you can save your mother without a witch-made antidote. You’re both insane.”
Rowena looked at a loss for words.
“Amarante, listen—” Ash started.
“No. You listen.” I gave him a hard look. “I spent ages helping you with this case. Why aren’t you letting me help now?”
“They were going to execute you!”
“Because of Narcissa. Because of the duchess,” I said. “I was making a truth potion that day. I wanted her to confess. It would solve half our problem. Captain Greenwood would’ve been freed.”
“And then what?” Rowena interjected. “Everyone knows it’s a witch-made poison. A witch will still be blamed, even if it isn’t you.”
“I refuse to cower when I can fix this,” I said.
A voice came from the back. “You’re right. But not without me.”
Lana strode in, her olive eyes flooded with unreadable emotion when they fixed on mine. “I was the one who caused this. Fifteen years ago, I created a foul poison and sold it out of spite for humans.
“A woman bought a vial from me—the only one I ever sold. Even then I realized the error of my ways. No human deserves what that vial contains.”
I stood. “Lana.”
“I’m sorry, Amarante,” Lana said, shaking her head. “I was a fool. A hateful, bitter fool. I need to set this right.”
Tears welled up in spite of myself. “What changed your mind?”
She touched my arm. “You. And Seraphina. She never strayed from her morals. Neither did you.” Lana turned to Rowena and Ash. “Give Amarante a chance. She is not one to be protected.”
“But...but they’ll kill her!” Ash sputtered.
“They won’t if she saves the queen, boy,” Lana said sharply.
Rowena sighed. “You’re right. Seraphina would’ve wanted this.”
My throat tightened. “Thank you.”
Lana turned to me. “Now. I reckon you need my help.”
The next thirty minutes I spent finishing my truth potion, which involved boiling the duchess’s hair over high heat until it dissolved. I only had a small vial of potion, so I was careful with the flames lest it all evaporated. By the end of it, I had half a vial of coppery liquid.
I pressed it into Ash’s hand. “Make sure Duchess Wilhelmina ingests this during the ball.”
“I will,” he said.
We were out in Lana’s garden before her personal passageway. She had altered it to lead just outside the palace grounds after I told her Ash must go back for my plan.
“Rowena and Elowyn will show you there,” I said. I turned to the door to get them, but paused at Ash’s expression. I sighed. “What is it?”
“I never apologized,” he said.
I merely stared.
“For everything,” Ash continued. He paced the length of the garden, shoulders tense as his boots dug into the dirt. “I put you in danger. I let you in on the investigation when I knew you were just a debutante. And when you needed my help most, I abandoned you. All this happened because of me. Amarante, you suffered because of me.”
He glared at the floor, his hands twisted in his sleeves. I had never seen him so agitated. His face said it all. Guilt. Anger. And if I wasn’t mistaken, self-loathing.
“Ash, I...” I shook my head.
There were too many things I wanted to say. But I merely folded his hands between mine. “You’re ruining Lana’s basil. She’ll throw a fit.” With a small smile, I squeezed his fingers and let go.
Rowena and Elowyn bustled out the back door at that moment.
“To the palace we go, then,” Rowena said to a bewildered Ash, clapping her hands together. “We’ll lead the way.”
LANA WAS IN THE POTION room when I returned, brewing the antidote in her cauldron.
“Any luck?” I said.
She stirred the contents. “I believe I’ll be able to whip something together by morning,” she said. The counter was a mess of vials and herbs.
“And it’ll cure the queen?”
Lana pressed her lips together and sighed. “Not entirely. It will heal her for the time being, but her lifespan will be much, much shorter.”
“Isn’t there anything more you can do?” I asked.
“Well, I am missing an ingredient,” Lana said, crushing a sprig of nixgrass with her mortar and pestle. “Do you remember our first lesson?”
I nodded slowly. Antidotes needed a bit of poison in them to truly work. “Manbane. You need more manbane,” I said. “Can’t you make more?”
“I vowed I would never again,” Lana said, shaking her head. “But even if I were to, I no longer have the ingredients required for it. They were exceptionally foul.”
I paced the room, wishing I hadn’t sent Ash off so soon. “The duchess must still have some,” I said. “We could search her rooms for it and—”
Lana set her mortar down and crossed her arms. “You must have a death wish,” she said.
Frowning, I mirrored her pose. “Queen Cordelia has to be saved. How
