NIA
I had practiced this.
In the mirror at five in the morning when I could not sleep. In the shower with the water too hot. In the long walk down this corridor with my heart doing whatever it was doing that I was choosing not to examine too closely. I had run through every word of it until I thought I had found the arrangement that made it something I could say out loud.
It still came out wrong.
But Amaris's hand was on mine and that was the only reason I opened my mouth at all.
I started with the estate. The drive to Ironcrest. Two of Lila's people, the blindfold for half of it, the smell of old stone when they took it off. The underground entrance. The mask they pressed into my hands before the door at the end of the corridor.
I stopped there. "There was a door. They told me to put the mask on before they opened it."
I paused.
Amaris's fingers tightened on mine.
"It was not the worst part," I finished.
