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Ryn slipped into an alley and stopped by a triad of large clay pots with painted geometric designs. She tightened her cloak at her neck as she reached inside one. “I think the Vafat are following our smell or something,” she said. “Maybe it’s my perfume.” Howls echoed across the sky as she hauled a bag out of the largest pot. She split it open, unearthing three swords. “We might have to fight to get out. But it isn’t far. We’re almost there, Xerxes.” She handed a sword to Xerxes first, flashing him a hopeful smile from beneath her hood.

“What’s not far?” Xerxes’s fingers wrapped the handle, and he turned the weapon back and forth, the familiar feeling releasing buzzing anticipation into his veins.

Ryn gave Norkin a sword next. The wind fluttered her hood against her cheeks as she turned back to Xerxes, her hair spiralling in the gales. “General Reza is waiting just beyond the city where the desert begins.” The corner of her mouth tugged again. “The negotiation team only came to the palace to get word to me about it. Your army wants you back, Xerxes. Your whole kingdom wants you back.”

Xerxes’s fist grazed over the swelling heart in his chest. “Are you just saying that so I’ll fight with everything I have to get out of here, Ryn?” He eyed her.

She smiled and nudged his shoulder toward the way they came. “I expect you to do that anyway, King. I’m just making sure you know what you have to live for.”

“I know what I have to live for,” he murmured as she walked ahead. He studied her small frame, her messy hair, the way she carried her sword like she hadn’t a clue how to use it. Truly, if he saw her and knew nothing about her, he would laugh if she tried to tell him she’d slain a giant.

Xerxes smirked as he followed her from the alley. His fingers danced, tying his sheath to the copper belt around his robe and tucking it beneath his cloak.

The nighttime dark began peeling away as they came into a street lined with flickering brass lamps and slow-moving chariots. They kept their heads down as B’rei Mira citizens hooted, spilling out of buildings, chanting in their language, smoke puffing from long pipes in their mouths, metal jewelry hanging off their bodies.

Echoes of rushing water filled Xerxes’s ears as they veered left. Norkin split away when B’rei Mira warriors marched by checking faces in the crowds. He kept to the opposite side of the road, trailing behind for a while. Xerxes noticed Ryn glance over her shoulder as they moved between buildings. She did it again a moment later as they came to what Xerxes realized was the edge of town where people were sparse and the noise of rushing water roared. She frowned as she pressed flat against a building, waiting for Norkin to catch up.

Ahead, a massive, gushing trench of water wound back and forth, dipping into a tunnel nearby. The whole man-made river was guarded by a high fence of iron spindles. It looked like the river came out somewhere on the other side of the tunnel where Xerxes couldn’t see. Beyond that… was desert.

Xerxes released a small breath at the sight of the orange rolls of sand, the whispering wind picking up grains and fogging the air with dust. The sun threatened to come up behind it, the sky a reddish gold hue in the distance.

“That cursed snake cry…” Ryn’s murmur reached his ears.

“What are you talking about?” Xerxes asked. “Are you frustrated we’re being hunted?” He put a hand on the hilt of his sword. “Let them come, Ryn. I’d give my left arm to be able to fight beside you, you know. I’ve felt that way ever since I saw the Gold Maiden at the Last Stand battle,” he rattled on as they came to the edge of a building.

A pause. She said nothing about his compliment. And then…

“You know I love you, right?” Ryn whispered. Xerxes forgot what they were talking about.

She peered around the building where Xerxes couldn’t see, her hood hiding her face. He stared until she glanced back at him, dark lashes over brown eyes. “You know I’ve always loved you? Even during the first Heartstealer trials when I realized you weren’t a monster at all?” She turned and stood straight before him. “Even if you would have married someone else, I would have understood. Because I love you, Xerxes,” she said again, a strange dip in her voice that brought both thrill and terror. “You’re loved.”

“We’re jumping in the water system, aren’t we?” Norkin asked quietly as he scurried up behind them.

“Yes.” Ryn unearthed a gold flute from her tunic like she hadn’t just said something that had reached into Xerxes’s chest and caught his lungs in her fist. “The Per-Siana army in the desert is ready for whenever I alert them. The water is moving fast, so it might feel like you’re drowning once you jump in, but it will carry you through the tunnel and out the other side where General Reza is waiting with army divisions to pull you out.” Xerxes noticed her hand fall to the hilt of her sword. “We have to run for it. A few Vafat are waiting just around this building. I’m certain they won’t hesitate to plunge into the water after us and sacrifice themselves to drown us.” She pointed to a half-built bridge over the river with a steep slope and a long drop into the water. “We have to jump from there. It’ll take too long to climb over the fence.”

“I’m ready,” Norkin said, bracing himself to run.

“Ryn, wait—”

“Go!” Ryn pushed Xerxes forward, and he stumbled after Norkin, breaking out into the open street. His feet hit the cobblestones, his chest pumping as his body broke into a sprint for the platform.

Norkin made it to the top first and reached back to pull Xerxes up with him, but there wasn’t space for two people side-by-side to jump together. So, he flashed a grin and leapt off the end, and Xerxes gaped as he sailed down, red robe and cloak flapping as he splashed deep into the river, his blond hair swallowed by water.

A sharp flute blast rang over the city, and Xerxes whirled to catch Ryn as she made it to the top. “Go, Xerxes, go!” she shouted at him. But his gaze settled on what came up the slope after her.

An army of Vafat. At least thirty, all growling, long swords out, moving as fast as spirits in the wind. And the drawn sword in her hand.

“I’ll fight with you—we can—we might be able to—”

“Xerxes.” Ryn’s eyes watered, her smile not quite making it to her face. “I was conflicted when I arrived here. But I really only have one mission in this life, you know.”

Xerxes’s brows tugged together as Ryn took a step back. As she raised her leg.

As she kicked him off the platform.

Xerxes’s body lurched back, fingers clawing for purchase he didn’t find, his robe rippling around him as he sailed over the edge, his limbs turning weightless.

His heart.