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“They’ll only get worse.” She directs her next sentence at Riss. “You wouldn’t want your charge to become comatose on your watch, would you, Riss? Might look off. Especially after she’s already had one attempt on her life.”

Cosmer speaks out. “No. I don’t like it.”

“You don’t like it because you don’t like it? Or because you don’t understand it? Because those are two very different things.”

“I don’t like it because I don’t want you anywhere near Ara,” he snaps. “You’ve not been Fully Integrated for long, Meg.”

Meg smiles, faintly. “And yet, Dezeeves has me stationed in The Bridge. Must get quite boring down below, still sparring with the punching bags?” Her lips tweak further. “I was sorry to hear it took you so long just to make it to second.”

Face contorted, Cosmer lunges forwards – but Meg steps forwards too, and grabs his wrist.

She shuts her eyes and inhales the air by his skin, deep.

He stares at her in shock before he snaps out of it, snatching his wrist out of her grip.

“Never touch me again—” he starts.

But Meg, opening her eyes, is talking over him. “Very interesting.”

“What is?” Riss asks hesitantly.

“Cosmer has blood magic on him, too. A different user than the user on Ara.” She adds, licking her top lip. “Milder magic. Used twice. Recently.”

Cosmer jerks, hard. Water sloshes around him.

“I knew it!” he yells. “It was Drake. I told you all he cheated! And on my ship, too. It was like I couldn’t move...”

Sisters.

It’s confirmed, then.

Drake has blood magic. Just as I’d felt somehow, when he grabbed Cosmer.

And now that I really think about it, I’m starting to wonder if he’s also used it on me.

I let my thoughts think themselves through. Run time back in my head, to the first time I met him.

He was panicking. I wanted to get closer to him. Show him I meant no harm.

But then I no longer did. It took me a while to be able to stand up. And he’d seemed surprised, that I’d even been able to.

Then on Cosmer’s ship. I was trying to get him off Cosmer. But it was like a wall had been put up, and I…

I stopped.

Something bothers me.

My voice is edged. “Cosmer. It was like you couldn’t move? Or like you didn’t want to?”

He fidgets in the water. “I don’t know. What does it matter?”

“Just answer the question. This is important.”

Maybe there’s something in my face that convinces him to be straight with me because he says, serious, “Like I didn’t want to.”

“Riss,” I say now, turning to her while my pulse races. “When Drake disarmed Chapp, you said you didn’t see it.”

“Right.”