The night is indeed long and tedious. Alicia avoids the travellers as she's always had to do when she wears her red scarf and hood. She tried not to have many dealings with them during the war, but somehow she was always dragged back into their numerous skirmishes.

She sits with her back against a tree, watching the fires glow in the distance as the travellers tell their stories and drink their ale. As Alicia, she would have joined them, hanging onto every word of their tales about the Faceless queen and her army of immortal warriors.

Everything changed when she discovered they weren't just stories.

Alicia lifts her head as the old woman approaches, the bones and rocks that dangle from her wrists singing a gentle song.

She stops before Alicia. "The woods by the river," she says, inclining her head to the shadows of the woods. "Lena will see you there, Raven."

Alicia nods, gets to her feet and grabs her satchel. She begins walking to her horse but the old woman stops her.

"You've come back for a reason," the old woman says, "and so soon after the queen's death. Do you know what happened?"

"I can't tell you," Alicia murmurs, glancing over her shoulder at the woman.

She looks to the fires, to her dwindling people. "Can you answer me this; is there a chance? Is there a chance to cure the Reaper's Curse? To stop the grand duke? To save the exiles?"

Alicia looks down at her scuffed boots. She's been asking herself that question too. Is there a chance to unseat the grand duke, to gain back power in Muovea? Is there a chance Samantha is really still alive beyond the walls? She doesn't know how far the grand duke is willing to go to accomplish whatever it is he has planned.

But she knows how far Lena Lisenka is willing to go to stop him.

"I don't know yet," is all Alicia replies with before she pulls herself into her saddle and rides for the trees.

She leaves behind the travellers and their stories and doesn't look back. Times have changed since she last sat amongst them, laughing with them, dancing with them amongst the embers and ashes. She felt free with them, but freedom isn't what she was meant for. Her duty is to her family. Her duty is to Muovea as its future queen.

Entering the shadows of the woods, a shiver rakes down Alicia's spine. She draws in a breath and slips her hand into her satchel to brush her gloved fingers along the handle of the revolver, a hollow reassurance.

Tugging the horse to a stop, she slides from the saddle and searches the darkness around her, knowing that Lena will make herself known when she feels ready to.

Her stallion snorts, breath fogging the air and stamps a hoof. Alicia settles him with a hand stroking his broad neck, a part of her eased by the animal's presence.

"What is so urgent that you take me out of hiding and away from my daughter?"

Alicia turns as a woman approaches, bathed in darkness.

"And dressed as the Raven again."

"Lena," Alicia says, pulling the scarf from her face and pushing back her hood.

"It's been a while, Alicia." Lena steps into the light of the moon, a thick blanket around her shoulders. "I thought you would have got the message that I didn't want to see anyone when I ignored all of your requests."

"This is important," Alicia replies and swallows as Lena tilts her head, letting the moonlight touch her skin. The silvery light illuminates the ruined skin of the right side of her face, marred with a savage burn that leaves her right eye closed and her brow seared away. It's been a long time since they were face to face and Alicia hasn't seen the scar, only the sizzling skin as she helped Lena burn herself.

Most people don't look too closely at a face like hers, which serves her well as a woman who's meant to be dead.

"You've ignored me for a year and there are things you need to know. Don't think I had any choice in this."

"You wanted to ask me what happened to Samantha Safronov."

Alicia dips her chin. "She was working with you. With the rebellion."

"She was."

"Did she know? Did she know who you are?"

A bitter smile curves her lips, the wind teasing the curls of her dark hair. "Who I was. And no, she didn't. Sam wouldn't have worked with me if she knew I was married to the man she's trying to destroy."

Alicia wraps her arms around herself and nods, unsaid words drifting between them. In the past six years, they've had to do terrible things to survive. They're no longer the same people they once were. Lena Lisenka is no longer Elena Sandian who gave the grand duke the means to destroy this world so she could have a life worth living.

How ironic that the only way to escape was to fake her own death. With Alicia's help.

"Samantha stole the tome from him," Alicia says, steering her thoughts back to what's important right now. The past is in the past, let it stay there.

"I know. And when Sergey realised she didn't have it anymore, he exiled her."

"Do you have it?"

"I do."

Alicia lets out a breath. "Do you know how much of it he translated?"

"Enough to be dangerous. Is this all you came to tell me? Things I already know?"

"The queen is dead," Alicia says, the words sour on her tongue.

"I know that too."

"The grand duke poisoned her with the Reaper's Curse."

Lena hums and gazes into the trees. "That seems like Sergey's style. Do you know why?"

Alicia digs into her satchel and pulls out the notebook she swiped from the laboratory. "Reyna discovered a doctor who was posing as a historian. She asked too many questions, I found the answers." She hands Lena the notebook who begins flipping through it. "They had one of those creatures from the tunnel in that laboratory, Lena."

"Ghuls," Lena murmurs and Alicia nods. "Sergey had translated more than I'm comfortable with him knowing. The man has too much power already."

"He's trying to find a way to control the Ghuls. Like the Faceless queen did in the stories. He wants an army, Lena."

"That fits with what he's written in the tome," she muses as she snaps the book shut. "But neither of these books say why."

Alicia closes her eyes for a moment, wishing Lena could have given her more answers. But at least she's verified the things she's discovered. With this, she could incriminate the duke, show Muovea the monster he really is.

Lena sighs. "There are pieces to the story that I'm missing because Sergey has been killing or exiling anyone he deems a threat. Have you found anything else?"

"No, but we can't let him get control of those Ghuls."

"Let's hope he doesn't." She hands Alicia back the notebook. "Bury this where you buried that map of the tomb."

Alicia snorts as she slips the book back into her satchel. "Beyond the wall? I don't think that's possible."

"You buried it beyond the wall?" Lena questions, pressing her thumb to the crease between her brows, right on the edge of her scar. "We may need it."

"In my defense, it was during the war, before the wall was sealed."

Lena rakes her fingers through her hair. "This doctor, did you see him?"

"I did. Why?"

"Did he see you?"

Alicia's lips part as she recalls smashing a jar over the doctor's head. "I don't believe so. But I had to hurt him to get out."

"Alicia," she starts, stepping forward. "Sergey knows you were close to the queen. If he suspects she leaked the information she discovered, then you're going to be the one he suspects she leaked it to. And he knows someone was in that laboratory."

Alicia meets Lena's eye and lifts her chin. "I know."

"You know? Then why did you do it?"

She studies Lena's scar and what she did to erase herself after the mistakes she made. Elena died sometime during the war, and so did Alicia. "Because I'm beginning to realise how far I'm willing to go as well. I plan to use my influence as the next Queen of Muovea to expose him."

"This proves nothing. He'll twist this evidence, make people believe it's all in the name of his search for a cure."

"I'll make it work."

Lena's lips twist and she takes another step forward, gripping Alicia's upper arm. "Alicia, listen to me. You've given enough of yourself for Muovea. You've already sacrificed so much to right this country. Give the reins to someone else."

"I can't do that, Elena. What I did wasn't for the betterment for Muovea, it was so my family could have riches and luxury. It's time I did what was right."

"You go any further, you try to tear down the duke, and he will ruin your life."

"I ruined my life during the war. He can do nothing that hasn't already been done."

"He'll kill your family, Alicia. Or worse, exile them."

"He won't."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because my mother is close with him. How else do you think I was allowed to be a part of the royal family?"

Lena quirks a brow. "I just assumed you used your charms."

Alicia scoffs. "Please, the only man I've ever really been with I'm hardly even with. It's a marriage of convenience."

"And what are you going to tell the prince about all of this?"

Alicia looks down at her boots and shrugs. Sebastian is a puzzle she hasn't yet worked out. Sebastian deserves to know everything, but the duke watches him so closely that she could put him in danger if she does.

This situation is already complicated enough.

"I'll tell him only what he needs to know right now. I can't put anyone else at risk."

Lena lets out a breath, fogging the cool air. "You're prepared to sacrifice everything you built for yourself to bring down Sergey?"

"Isn't that what you did?"

"I did what I did to protect my daughter from her father. Everything I do is for her."

Alicia wraps her hands around the strap of her satchel, the gun within feeling like it weighs more than it does. "I don't want anyone to have to do what I did just to have a semblance of a life. I know what it ends up costing."

Lena rubs her lips together before she nods. "Very well then. I'll make sure to set up a line of communication between us. We have to act fast, before Sergey does."

"I'll go back to the palace. See if there's anything more we can use to bring this bastard down."

"Just don't get caught."

The corner of Alicia's lip twitches. "When have I ever?"