No one looked relieved to see her. They looked exposed, as though her disgrace had entered the room before she had.
One of Santiago's guards stepped just inside the doorway, bowed minimally toward her father, and delivered the message with brutal economy. "Señor Ybarra." A brief pause. "Master Santiago requests an explanation."
The word request settled over the room with terrible clarity. Everyone understood it was not a request. It was a warning.
Then the guard turned and left. The door shut.
And the silence left behind was so heavy it seemed to thicken the air.
Yona stood in the middle of it, breathing harder than she realized.
Her father spoke first. "What," he asked, though his voice shook with barely contained rage, "have you done?"
Yona laughed, a strange, sharp sound too close to fracture. "What have I done?" She looked at them one by one as though they were the ones failing reason. Then her voice rose. "I tried to remove a parasite from that house."
