The craziness simply did not stop.

  Petyr had gone out seeking Avesta, and instead came face to face with Mora and her less than delightful companion searching for the same thing.

  Obviously, there was no way Mora could be involved in this in any meaningful way…

  That only left the pirate—that Vares was about as trustworthy as a skinned snake.

  Before he reached home again, Petyr stopped in the middle of the road, tilting his head back as if lost in the stars, though his ears strained for the slightest rustle of movement from the forest. Avesta was supposed to be on the lookout for him. Where the hell are you?

  When she did not show up, he gave in to his exhaustion. Fine. Have it your way.

  It had been a long day, after all.

  No one was up and about when he came back home. Petyr strolled by the door that led down into the basement, wondering what his father was up to. He certainly could have gone down and tried to bring up everything from before again…

  But better not.

  Petyr sighed and headed up to his room.

  He had barely peeled off his pants halfway when a sudden knock at the door made him stop. He hitched them back up quickly. “Yes?”

  The door cracked open and Alis peered inside. When she saw it was safe, she padded in and sat at the edge of his bed, hands folded patiently in his lap. “Petyr.”

  In the window at her back, he could see the fully lit moon casting its light across the forest. Avesta, where the hell are you? he thought, wondering if he should be worried.

  His eyes then swiveled to Alis. “Don’t tell me we need to talk again.”

  “I imagine what happened with Jayne left you shaken.”

  “Sort of, I guess,” he admitted, sitting down next to her. He sighed. “I not only feel bad that she’s dead, but I feel bad that no one cares. I feel bad that her life doesn’t seem to have mattered all that much. And I feel bad that I’m one of the people who has to feel bad, because we were never that close, and I never liked her that much to begin with.”

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  Alis took a deep breath and patted his knee. “No one plans to die,” she said calmly. “It just happens.”

  Petyr gave her a long look, questioning her matter-of-fact tone. “She was murdered.”

  Her warm eyes swiveled to lock with his. “Your father told me about that. That you said something about that Anders guy. That he told you your father’s known as Squeezer. That’s nonsense stuff, honey.”

  If it was nonsense, then why be so keen on making a point of it? Something about the way she spoke rubbed him the wrong way. For the first time since he’d known Alis, the voluptuous warmth of her presence did not bring him comfort and arousal so much as a sense of high suspicion.

  Petyr smiled and nodded, playing dumb. “So he’s not known as Squeezer?”

  “Maybe among them he is. But what does that have to do with us?”

  “Anders killed Jayne.”

  Maybe Gregory had told her that. Maybe he hadn’t.

  But Alis showed no great signs of distress.

  “Well…” she began, her focus moving back inwards as she slowed down contemplatively. “Jayne shouldn’t have spent her time around people like that. That’s not on you.”

  It was strange that she would even imply that. Did Alis seriously think Jayne would be the type to be hanging out with the leader of the bandits? Surely no one who laid eyes on her could be that naive.

  Alis raised her hand to his head and gently stroked it, staring at him with eyes full of adoring affection. “I think what we need is some family time to get over all these nasty events. I’ve spoken to your father about that, you know. You’ve wanted so much to go to Astra, so why not stop by on a visit? Take a little vacation.”

  A vacation to the capital? Petyr’s heart skipped a beat. Gods, he couldn’t even put into words how much he wanted that. How long he had been waiting to get back there. To see the city with his adult—or, well, almost-adult—eyes and explore its sights and wonders.

  And its girls.

  “How does that sound?” Alis teased.

  Nothing sounded better right now than leaving everything that had been happening behind to sort itself out. After all, why was it on him to see it through? He hadn’t done a goddamn thing. “It sounds great.”

  Alis stood up. “Great. Then tomorrow we can plan it out and start packing.”

  In an instant, he had gone from pondering everything to do with Jayne and Anders, with Mora and Vares, with Avesta and her noble origins, to focusing entirely on this trip.

  Once Alis was out of the room, Petyr dropped back in bed, crossed his arms under his head, and glanced out at the night sky. Very soon, he might’ve been seeing those same stars and that same moon from Astra.

  Back home. It’s been too long. Way too long.

  His gaze, heavy-lidded with eager sleepiness, drifted from the sky—only to land on a familiar figure melting off the shadowy treeline.

  The moment she stepped into the moonlit garden, her head snapped—right to his window.