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“Holden stored his necklace for safekeeping,” I said, fresh determination spearing me forward. Perla had saved me twice now. It was my turn to do the same. “We need to find it.”

“I can help with that.”

We spun in unison at the sound of Finbar’s voice. He stood on a jagged outcrop, pressing a handkerchief to his ear. Red bloomed through the fabric.

I gathered my specter under the surface—finding my power far more manageable in Erik’s absence—and tugged Perla behind me.

“I don’t wish to hurt you.” Finbar looked grimly between us. “Your king did a good enough job of that already.”

“You knew he was here,” I gritted out. “Did you know what he was going to do?”

Finbar raised a brow. “Did you?”

“If my pushing him off a cliff didn’t immediately lend you the answer to that question, then I don’t see how a verbal confirmation will be of much use to you.”

Finbar’s mouth formed a grim line, the sea crashing against the rocks behind him. Then: “I know where Holden stashed his necklace.”

I jolted, feeling the movement mirrored in Perla. “Where?” I asked.

Finbar studied me again. “You’re a Wielder?”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t come here on the king’s orders?”

“No.”

“You came on Rheya’s orders?”

Though I was simmering with impatience, I hesitated. Unsure of what answer would satisfy this prince who’d committed treason against the empress, I opted for the truth. “I came at her request.”

Finbar considered this. Then he lowered the bloodied handkerchief from his ear and marched past us. Perla and I exchanged a glance. But without any options left to us, we strode after the prince.

“He stored it in his tent after you both left to change,” Finbar said, breathing fast. “If you can get past the guards, it’s yours.”

“I don’t think the guards will be a problem,” Perla murmured as we slowed onto the sands that had once been as white as snow.

Now fragments of earth and rock littered the landscape, larger pieces of stone still tumbling from the Aarai Cliff. The stench of ithoric stung my eyes, and my vision blurred on the flood of people, some running toward the devastation, most running back toward safety. My gaze was fixed on a woman in a green dress, so I saw the moment she sprinted into the open mouth of the Crater.

And I saw the moment a guard caught her by the hair and dragged his knife across her throat.

Perla gasped, covering her mouth. Finbar swore under his breath.

But I was frozen, horrified, recognizing the guard’s face. This was one of the soldiers I’d seen earlier, wearing a Daradonian uniform. But now golden thread shone across his jacket instead of indigo.

“Alissa.” Perla’s voice drew my gaze to the ocean, where the dark water seemed to be coming alive at the edges. Because blots were taking shape through the smog—dozens of figures marching upon the beach in a triangular formation.

Finbar’s jaw flickered. “Those are Ansoran uniforms.”

“But not Ansoran soldiers,” I said, seeing that gold-threaded uniform now glimmering on them all.

A deep dread settled inside me. What had Erik said about the Ansorans parading me around in their political games? I look forward to repaying the empress for the way she degraded you.

And so he’d dressed his guards as Ansoran soldiers, making it appear as though this attack was coming from the mainland. He would slaughter the people of Banarrat and use Rheya’s name to do it.

I steeled my spine as the figures drew closer. “You know how to use that?” I nodded to the knife at Finbar’s belt—the knife he must have retrieved after Perla had wielded it against Erik.

He unsheathed the blade. “Well enough.”