I put the pieces together as the great clock began to .
Lord Pryce wanted me alone on the east balcony for an hour. Prince Adrian wanted me there too, at the same time, for his own reasons. Two different men, two different plans, one narrow place.
Whatever was going to happen, it would happen there, or because of it.
"I will go," I said to Nora, quietly. "But you will stay in the , near the windows. Do not leave. Do not eat or drink anything that you did not see poured. If anyone, *anyone*, tells you that I need you, ignore them."
"My lady —"
"Promise me."
"I promise." Her face was white behind her small cat mask.
I looked across the ballroom. At a pillar near the stairs, a tall man in a black mask lifted two fingers to his temple, like a salute.
I walked to the balcony alone.
The east balcony was a long stone , high above the palace gardens. The night was warm, and the full moon hung over the dark trees like a silver coin. The music from the ballroom came faintly through the glass doors.
He was standing at the far end, with his back to me, leaning on the stone rail.
"Your Highness?"
He turned. He had taken off his white mask, and he held it loosely in one hand. In the , his face was very pale and tired and young. Older than the smiling prince in the garden. Much older.
"Thank you for coming," he said. "I do not have much time. Pryce will send someone to look for us in a few minutes, to make sure that everything has gone smoothly."
"Gone smoothly?"
"Elise." He took a step closer. "What I am about to say will sound mad."
"I am listening," I said. My heart hammered against my .
He looked at the dark garden. When he spoke, his voice was very low, and steady in a way that I had not heard before.
"I a conversation. Three nights ago, in the palace library. I was behind a , and two men did not know I was there. I will not tell you their names. It would not be safe. But one of them said, quite calmly, *The Hallowell girl is becoming .* And the other said, *Then she will not see another summer.*"
The balcony was very still. A moth beat against a lantern.
"They said it would happen tonight, Elise," Adrian said. "At the masquerade. Before the midnight toast."
I could hardly breathe. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I like you." He smiled, a tired, crooked smile. "And because I am tired of being the one who is told things too late."
"Your Highness, you must tell me who," I said urgently. "You must give me names. They are planning to —"
"I cannot. Not yet. If I name them, and I am wrong, or if I am overheard, you will not be the only one who dies." He pressed the white mask into my hands. "Take this. Wear it later. If anyone is looking for the girl in silver, they will not find her."
"Then why did you let Lord Pryce arrange this?"
"Because he thinks I am his puppet," Adrian said. A flash of something hard and cold crossed his face. "And a puppet that pretends it has no strings sees a very great deal."
Behind us, in the ballroom, the great clock began to strike a quarter to midnight. He glanced at the doors, and then back at me.
"Elise. Listen. Tonight, someone is going to try to kill you."
"I know," I said.
He stopped. "You… know?"
I should have said nothing. But I was tired of lies, and the moon was bright, and he had trusted me with a secret that could cost him his life. I did not tell him everything. But I told him a little.
"I have known for a month that someone wants me dead, Your Highness. I have been preparing. I am only afraid of one thing."
"What?"
"That they will hurt someone else instead."
He watched me for a long while. Then, slowly, he nodded, and a strange look of wonder came over his face.
"It is not me, you know," he said. "Whatever you have been told, whatever you have imagined, I would never. I need you to believe that."
"I believe you."
"And it is not who you think, Elise." His voice dropped to a whisper. "Whoever you are most afraid of is probably not the one holding the knife."
At that exact moment, the glass doors burst open, and a hand fell on my shoulder.