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For someone so brave, there was so much fear in her.

“You might not need my help, but I’m offering it anyway.” I took a half-step closer, allowing the wand to dig deeper into my chest. Heat from the tip burned through my silk shirt and seared my skin, but I didn’t care. It was nothing. “You will come to Château du Mer as my guest while I put down this threat.”

“Stay? I can’t stay.” A hysterical laugh burst out of her. “I’m just a piece of driftwood floating through this city. Remember?”

I didn’t believe she was driftwood, no matter how hard she was trying to convince me of it. She was so much more than that.

Tears flashed in her eyes. “All I want to do is disappear.”

I had wanted the same thing. Once. And I had. I had disappeared. Some might argue I was the authority on disappearing.

“You still can,” I reassured her. “But the magick you used to break through their ward will leave a trace they can follow. Let me make sure no one can. ”

“Why?” she said, voice breaking. “Why are you doing this?”

I stared at her, unable to move. My lips frozen. The truth was right there.

I had been a ghost for eight years, and seeing you in the harbor reminded me I could live again. The thought of seeing you slip away into the dark, alone and surely hunted, is not something I can stomach.

“Tell me!” she demanded.

The pleading in her voice and the tears in her eyes compelled my lips to move. I reached for a lie that was also true.

“Because I swore an oath to protect the people of the Unified Territories. A coven in my city means war, and you are a witness. Sheltering you is not kindness, Miss—” her name still eluded me, but I didn’t press. “It is my duty to protect you. The Sea Lord does not leave a witness to die in an alley.”

A look flashed across her face. “Your duty?” she repeated, as though testing me.

I nodded. “My duty. That’s all.”

Tears still lingered in her eyes, but the bracing left her shoulders. She lowered her wand an inch. “This changes nothing,” she said, straightening her spine. “Della and I are only staying until you clear out The Drowned Goose. Then we are leaving.”

Chapter 13

Ébranlée

CORA

The moment the Duke turned his back, I wiped watery trails off my face and chastised myself.

Get it together, Cora. Get it together!

I repeated the words over and over, but I couldn’t get my body and my thoughts to cooperate. My hands were shaking, and I felt like I was going to be sick all over the floor. A coldness began to spread from the center of my chest all the way to the tips of my fingers. My veins felt like empty pipes. Almost like… like my magick had disappeared.

Focus on the next task.

The door to my room was practically hanging from the hinges, and while the dedicated drunks weren’t paying it any mind, a few were craning their necks up the stairs to see what all the noise was about, including Widow Martell. She had one hand on the banister, her wrinkled brow furrowed.

A spell. I needed a spell.

Lifting my wand, I called to the magick inside my veins, but no spell answered. Bile burned the back of my throat, and my wand arm trembled.

No. No, no, no.

My magick. It was gone. How could that be? I was carrying three relics.

Gran’s voice filled my ears. “A witch can only hold so much magick inside her at once, child. We may be Gorrath’s descendants, but we aren’t demons. Use too much too quickly, and you’ll end up powerless for seven days.”

Seven days. I couldn’t be without my magick for seven days!