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When Justus looks at me, I knoants me to realize what he means, but he doesn’t actually want to say it Everyone holds things back when they speak, not just ive part of the , to e to convey

Justus thinks that Maire killed my mother

I want to ask hilance up and there stands Nevio, wearing the e around my o to work in the tower The diun"

Justus inclines his head As he leaves he puts his hand on my shoulder It is the first tirateful for the gesture and for what he’s told me He is a weak man, too weak for my mother, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t kind And he’s kepta siren, or I would have been hauled away to work for the Council by now

I stand up, too, but Nevio motions for me to sit back down I don’t Nevio is taller than I am by several inches but I don’t look up at hireat deal," Nevio says "I know your o Above have ht about that

"And now you’re the last one, left to deal with the aftermath of their actions," Nevio says, and a sharp, sudden bitterness floods through ain Bay andnow I’ether

"I suppose Justus has been telling you about our suspicions regarding your mother’s death," Nevio says "He should know better than to ht Maire was responsible"

He did?

"It wasn’t a surprise," Nevio says, "when Bay decided to run away fro the Above"

But Nevio was surprised I saw him, that day in the temple when Bay said Above instead of Below

I saw hiht him

And then I realize

Nevio the Minister is a siren A different kind than I’ve ever encountered before, but still a siren A strange, subtle one I can’t put er on it

The Minister is not supposed to be a siren It’s against all the rules

But he is one nonetheless I know I know the truth fro , but aboutme alone to pick up the pieces--and then he made that mistake He said that he wasn’t surprised He didn’t know I’d seen him, in that short moment in the teht flickers intothe coral in the sea gardens

When MaireShe looks right into your eyes Even if you can’t resist, you knohat she’s doing and you hate her for it Nevio is not like that He doesn’t want you to know that you’re being manipulated

Could it be that Maire is an honest kind of siren? Could it be that I can trust her?

"I’ve had to lock your aunt away for a ti into parts of Atlantia that are forbidden to sirens One of the guards who encountered Maire was fairly certain that he saw someone with her, but she was captured alone Do you knoho that other person ht be?"

"No," I say "But it wasn’t me I’m afraid of my aunt"

Nevio studies h truth in addition to ured out his secret? Does he know mine?