“Nice disguise,” she says. “It wouldn’t have worked.”
“Tragically, we’ll never know for sure,” I say.
“It’s your eyes,” she says. “You can’t disguise eyes that soulless.” She pauses. “It’s also your height. Anyway, I know why you’re out here.”
“Do you?” I say.
“You were looking for the Red Roses,” she says. “And eavesdropping on us.”
“Why would we do that?” I say innocently.
“You’re trapped in our city,” she says. “You can’t scheme against us. Nothing you do will work.”
“Oh,” I say. “How unfortunate.”
She eyes me. She’s very unhappy about the eavesdropping. I can tell. She looks like she’s trying to remember every word she said to her brother.
“So… the vide?” I say. “Is that what you call it? Your little shadow pet?”
“Oh, it’s not a pet,” she says.
“What is it?” I say.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she says. “Also, since it obviously isn’t clear—I’m asking the questions. We’re not sitting around having cake in my parlor.”
“Having experienced both, I still prefer this,” I say.
“My people love having cake with me,” she says, indignant. “I make them happy.”
“And you make me nauseated,” I mutter in Occhian.
“What?” she says.
I remain pointedly silent. She looks like she’s seriously considering putting the bag over my head again.
“I saw the painting you did of us,” I say. “I liked it.”
“I was trying to make you look evil,” she says.
“Well, I look fantastic. Can I take it back to hang in my parlor?”
She puts the bag over my head again. She shifts, and I think she’s looking around for her brother. I wait patiently in the dark. I don’t know very much about Verene, but I know that she won’t be able to sit quietly for very long.
A minute later, she pulls the bag back off.
“Why?” she says.
“Why what?” I say.
“Why did you even end up here? In Iris?”
I can tell the question has been bothering her since she found out where I’m really from. I’m a mystery. I like that.
“We got lost in the catacombs,” I say.
“But why?” she says. “What were you trying to do?”
I stay quiet.
“Did you already know there were other cities when you set out?” she says.
I don’t answer. I’m just going to let her decide all of this for herself.
Her dark eyes linger on my face and the chocolate smeared all over it. Then they go to my ruined hair. I wonder suddenly if she thinks I style it this way on purpose. I don’t care what she thinks of me. But also, the thought is mortifying.
“You’re not just someone who got lost,” she says. “You want something.”
I tilt my head as gracefully as I can while lying on the floor. “What do you think I want?”
She gestures to herself. “This.”
I scoff. “I don’t want you.”
I’m not one of her people. I’m not besotted with her just because she’s my ruler who also happens to have very good bone structure.
“I think you want what I have,” she says. “I think you’d like being worshipped by a whole city. I think, maybe, there was a reason you left your old city. Maybe you thought you could come into a new city and… what? Take over? Are you regretting that yet? Have you realized just how much you underestimated me?”
The back of my neck is very warm. I don’t trust myself to say anything, so I just look at her imperiously.
She plants her hands on either side of me and leans forward. I can see straight down the front of her shirt. Not that it matters.
“Let me tell you a secret,” she says. “I can rule Iris the way I do because I’m a good person. I have principles. I do what’s right for my people. They can see that, and that’s why they love me.”
“You’re stealing from my city,” I say.
“I’m helping Iris,” she says.
“And in the process, my people are getting hurt,” I say.
“Well—” She falters, just for a moment. “I’m pursuing the greater good. Sometimes, sacrifices have to be—”
“That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard,” I say.
“What?” She bristles. “That I have something I believe in?”
“I have something I believe in, too,” I say. “I believe in myself. I believe that I can change things no one else has ever been able to change, and do things no one else has ever been able to do. I don’t care if people love me, or if they think what I do is good. But rest assured, they’re going to know I was here.”
She draws back. She’s looking at me with revulsion.
“So all you care about is whether or not you come out on top,” she says.
I shrug. “It’s where I deserve to be.”
“I bet he’s terrified of you,” she says.
“Who?” I say.
“Your accomplice,” she says.
I swallow hard. Ale’s not terrified of me. He respects me. It’s not my fault if she can’t tell the difference.
“He obeys me,” I say, with forced carelessness. “That’s all that matters.”
“Don’t tell me he’s your paramour, too,” she says.
“I have better taste than that,” I say.
She raises her eyebrows. “Oh really?”
I feel the sudden urge to clear my throat. “So, let’s talk about your brother. Do you both give your blood to the vide? Or do you make him give up more of his, for the greater good?”
“I don’t make him—” She cuts herself off, pressing her mouth into a thin line. “I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to find out more about the vide. You think that if you stop it, you can escape Iris.”
I don’t say anything. I wait to see what she thinks about this particular plan of mine.
“Well, you can’t stop it,” she continues. “But I’ll tell you this much—Theo and I are working together. I would never make him do something he doesn’t agree with. I couldn’t, actually. We’re both very stubborn.”
“So you two are on the same page about everything?” I say.
“Everything that matters,” she says. “We did recently stay up half the night arguing over a card game, but I was right, and he’ll realize it eventually.”
“You’re not both the leader of Iris, though,” I say. “And that works just fine?”
“Here’s some more advice,” she says. “Don’t try and turn me against my brother. We’re… well, I can’t explain it to you.”
“You could at least try,” I say. “I’m such a good listener.”
“You don’t know what it’s like to have someone at your side,” she says. “Not the way I do.”
I roll my eyes. “Yes, it was very special of you two to be born at the same time.”