Wicked Like a Wildfire (Hibiscus Daughter #1)(82)

We burst into tears at exactly the same time, and she flung herself into my arms. Above her shoulder, I saw Naisha wipe at her narrow, finely chiseled face, her eyes swimming with tears.

I could think about what that meant in a moment.

But first I held Malina tight, cheek pressed against hers, both of us bubbling with sobs and laughter. “I’m supposed to be a dark angel, I think?” she said. “You know, because I, uh, sing like one? It would be a little hilarious if only I could breathe.”

“Right, of course, and I’m a very dangerous wildflower. But an edible one, that’s the important part.” I sighed deeply into her hair, breathing in its warm scent. Everything in me loosened, as if a terrible coil tightened around the barrel of my insides had been cut free. “I’m so glad you’re here with me, Lina. But what are you doing here? I didn’t think you’d—I didn’t think we’d even see each other, before.”

I jerked my chin at Naisha, who looked like Eve before the apple: a floor-length cream sheath clinging to her fine-boned frame, her platinum hair loose and festooned with flowers and glistening strips of snakeskin along with the scent-ribbons. “And why are you here? Were you Lina’s fluffer? I really drew the short straw with Ylessia, I will say that much.”

Lina drew back away from me, her face shuttering as she shook her head. “No, it was Xenia who readied me.” She nearly spat out the word; clearly she had enjoyed it about as much as I did. “Naisha came to see me after that, Riss. Something’s happening here—it’s not what we think. It’s not what they told us. They’re lying, they all are. And especially her.”

The ribbons in my hair nearly writhed in protest at the maligning of Sorai. “What do you mean? Why would she lie? And wouldn’t you have heard it before now, if something was that wrong?”

“I have been hearing something off, ever since we got here, but it’s all so . . . everything’s so muddied, there’s so many of them, it’s hard to hear properly. I still don’t understand what’s happening, exactly, but Naisha has something to show us. While they’re all still busy.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, hugging myself. Everything in me thrashed against doubting Sorai. Even listening to Malina was beginning to become physically painful, like a fit of ague.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked Naisha. “Why are you betraying her, if that’s what this is?”

She pressed her rosy lips together, her eyes huge and mournful. “Because I watched you grow up,” she said simply. “Malina, mostly, but you too, Iris. I watched you be free, and saw the happiness you managed to find in the world despite all your limitations. With your own names, without being molded into Lisarah and Azareen. Without being curated like the rest of us. So I want to—I want to show you something. I don’t belong to her like I once did, and I won’t again for a while yet. I still remember myself from all those years, enough to want to give you a choice, a true one, while I still can.”

I frowned at her. “I don’t understand. What are you trying to say?”

“I can’t—” She smacked a fist into one palm, groaning in frustration. “I can’t go further than this. If you want to know, we have to go now. We’re running out of time.”

Lina took my hand, squeezing hard. “I don’t think she can say anything more, Iris. But I trust her; she sounds right. So I’m going to go with her, but you don’t have to, because this time it is your choice. Trust Sorai, or come with me and find out whatever it is.” She spread her hands, eyes guileless and bright. “Whatever you want to do.”

I took a long breath and let it out in a quivering rush.

“I want to go with you.”

THE CHALET WAS practically a warren, a terrarium of secret passageways carved into its walls. I wondered how the whole thing didn’t collapse onto itself, riddled as its foundation was with holes, and whether Sorai knew of all or any of these.

I followed the metallic swish of Lina’s feathers, which caught the little light there was, and the clink of the rattling key ring Naisha carried. We bore sideways and down, taking winding, narrow stairways until we reached what had to be the basement, the air drafty-cold and smelling of dank, pressed dirt.

There, Naisha paused in front of a weathered wooden door, bolted in three places. I could hear her hitching breath as she worked three different brass keys into the locks, grunting in a very ungraceful fashion at the effort of turning them.

“Come on, come on, come on,” I whispered behind her and Malina, frantic, bouncing on the balls of my feet. “What if she knows we’re here? What if she knows that I’m—that I’m betraying her like this—”

“That’s the ribbons talking,” Naisha whispered back, leaning into the final lock. “I took a few of Malina’s out, so it’s not quite so bad for her. That’s why I could come to you at all before I rejoin the others. Mine were taken out while I was posing as Natalija; they’re too much bright magic to be cloaked by my gleam, even under a masquerade glamour as complex as mine, and your mother would have seen them through it. So, I had time to get to know my own mind a bit. Unclouded by all the love.”

“Why wouldn’t you have known your own—”

The door finally screeched open, and I caught my breath.