“Funniest thing, I feel the same way about your general presence,” Roan murmurs, but his brother’s already snoring.
Kaan brushes past me, gently squeezing my shoulder. A quietI’m here when you’re ready to talkthat makes me feel like the world’s biggest asshole for keeping the blood bind to myself.
Siharna’s right. I need to be honest with him. But it’ll have to wait.
If I tell him before the assassination is complete, there is no reality in which he waves me off to kill someone deep in his brother’s territory—by myself—while I’m being sporadically tortured. He’d insist on accompanying me on the job. And should things go awry, he’d implicate himself without a second thought.
Unacceptable, given he stands for the well-being of an entire kingdom. The stakes are too high. His survival,imperative.
I won’t drag Kaan or The Burn into the bloody dirt with me. I’d rather fail.
He stalls beside the table, arms crossed as he looks down on Roan’s …mess. “How’s this going to work?”
“Simplified version?” Roan asks without missing a single etching beat.
“Please.”
“I’m building a cage for a parchment lark. As previously mentioned, the kid’s somehow blocked from receiving larks, preventing them from locating him. But once I’m done constructing the cage, it’ll double as a small pocket of neutral airspace intended to render the blocker useless. Then we just tuck a lark inside and tell it to deliver itself to the protégé. And—”
“Use it as a compass,” Kaan finishes for him.
“In theory.” Roan pauses to push his cracked spectacles up his nose, wincing as he says, “It’s a prototype. And I’ve just realized I’ll need to account for the Moving Mists if they get any closer, given how much they confuse the larks. It’ll take me a beat to get it working right.”
My heart drops.
“How long’s a beat?”
His eyes shift to me. “A cycle. Two at the most …hopefully.” He flashes me an awkward, lopsided smile. “It’s much more precise work than slapping some blood on a wall and blowing it up.”
I nod, turning as I tuck my hair back off my face and internally combust.
Well,shit.
I can’t slip away untiltheydo. Meaning the longer it takes for Roan to finish his invention, the less time I have to get back to Sereme, severed heart and eyes in hand.
Time’s chewing.
Gnawing on the development like it’s a stubborn piece of gristle, I stalk toward the windows, rip the homespun curtains wide, and gasp as Líri drops onto the thick branch directly ahead. She drapes upon it, dulling her shine until she’s almost blending with the tree; eyes closed, snout pressed flat against the runed windowpane.
Though I doubt she can see through, I’m certain she can sense me.
Pyrok plants his hip against the sill and stamps the lid on his flask, yawning from his two-beat power nap. “Something tells me the thriving colony of swinging meerits is going to take a hit over the next few daes.”
Internally, I wince.
I edge right and rip open the next lot of curtains, revealing a broadview of Bhoggith in all its steaming, mud-bubbling glory. Or at least, what’s not smothered by the mist now blanketing half the bog.
My gaze bumps from nesting mound to nesting mound, snagging on the odd rocky trail poked through the mud like stepping stones. Remnants of paths used to raid some of the nests, no doubt, though they’re mostly destroyed.
Looking through the tree’s gangly branches, I see the clouds have cleared enough to reveal a skyladenwith Moltenmaw moons, my heart punched by the sight.
“I didn’t realize there were so many in this area.”
Kaan steps up beside me, making the entire right side of my body tingle. “Moons? There weren’t. Not until Cadok took the stone throne.”
I watch him scour the view. Wait for him to continue.
“Moltenmaws mate for life.” He pulls the curtain farther back, revealing some of the wall’s crumbled remnants struck through like a dotted line of giants cowering in the mist. Pointing to where we can barely spot the bold precipice—twin to the western one pressing in on the bog like dual fists of stone. “That outpost has long been used by The Fade’s militia. As with the one on the west.”
