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She took my empty plate. “Any dessert for you, miss?”

“Sure, but could you deliver it to my room across the way?” I pointed to the inn.

She nodded.

“Excellent,” I said. “Do you think you could follow these instructions?” I tossed the note I had scrawled on the table, along with a healthy sampling of gold coins. Aralinth was a small city with inhabitants that lived for centuries. I was willing to risk my purse that she knew every resident well enough that she would know exactly whose name was written on that note.

She scooped up the gold and the note, reading it twice over before she nodded. “What time will you be requiring the call?” Her lips pursed as she bit her cheek.

“Give it an hour.”

The tails followed me back to the inn. When I got to my room, I pulled the large curtains open along the wide windows. Anyone posted on the rooftops opposite the inn would have a direct line of sight into my room. First lesson in spy craft, it was easier to control a narrative if I let the watcher believe he had all the information.

I drew a bath. It sat in the middle of a large room, marked off from the rest of the suite by a wall of sea glass. Bright blue hues scattered across the white tile floor from the faelights. Whoever Riven had sent to watch me would be able to see enough through the glass to tell that someone was inside but not much more. I undressed, knowing the tail on the rooftop could only see the blurred outline of my body.

Thirty minutes later, a knock rattled against the door. I smiled into the water.

“Come in,” I called. I heard the door open and click shut.

Dynara stood in the doorway dressed as a chambermaid. She was carrying a load of towels.

She raised a brow at the sight of me in the tub. Even in the soapy water, I knew she could see everything I tried so hard to cover up. Her smile faltered as she noticed the scars on my arms. Her eyes trailed up to my shoulders before she turned away. I stood, reaching out for a towel, shielding her from the ghastly wounds on my back.

Dynara’s eyes met mine. Her lips pinched, but she didn’t say anything. She only gave me a stiff nod. She carried scars of her own. She wouldn’t judge me for the ones I’d given myself.

She passed me another towel for my hair, and I dropped it on the floor. We both ducked under the sink. She ripped the pins out of her hair. A cascade of brunette waves fell past her shoulders. From a distance she looked enough like me.

Dynara wrapped a towel around herself, pulling her robe down far enough that her shoulders were bare. I quickly dried off and pulled on a matching set of robes that I had stolen on the way to my room. When we stood, it was as if we had switched places. I was now the maid and she the assassin.

“Thank you,” I said, still a bit surprised that she had come with only a note to convince her.

“Make the king wish for death before you give it to him,” she said, brushing her fingers through her hair.

I left, carrying out the used towels and concealing my bag beneath them.

When I reached the outer hallway, I dipped into an empty closet and changed. I pulled my weapons out from the bag and holstered them along my body. The last thing I put on was my cloak and hood. I stepped into a stairwell at the far corner of the building and slipped into the dark alleyway.

I marked the two tails easily enough. One was perched on the roof across from the inn. The other was dressed in blue sitting by the tavern. If Riven meant for his scouts to watch me all night, they would have to work in shifts. When they traded off, I would follow them and see if they led me back to the Shadow.

THREE HOURS LATER,I watched as the Halfling posted above the apothecary was relieved by another of Riven’s scouts. I lurked in the alley, my cloak melting into the moonless night. I had been disappearing into darkness long before Riven brought his Shadow to life.

The Halfling I followed was young. I couldn’t see his face in the shadows, but he sauntered across the city with a confidence that only came with youth. He cut a direct route under the canopy of closed blooms, then down a back alley without checking for trouble ahead or behind him. He had grown too comfortable on that roof, convinced himself that his target was asleep in her bed.

It was a mistake I found most only made once. If it didn’t cost them their lives the first time.

Riven’s scouts needed to be more disciplined if we had any chance of reaching the king unseen. I would speak to him about better guards. This one was utterly clueless that I had tailed him from the moment he left his post.

We walked to the outskirts of Aralinth, where the buildings started to shrink and darken. Dwellings that had fallen into disarray as the population of the city dwindled. It was not a place I would expect to find one of the Fae, but it was the perfect location to keep your plans out of the watchful eye of one’s uncle. Perhaps Riven had been telling the truth and the rest of the Fae had no part in his schemes.

He finally turned into a decrepit tavern. Dark curtains were staked into the stone at each window. The one closest to us had a loose corner that drifted gently in the breeze. No light shone through the gap, from the road the tavern appeared entirely empty.

But my ears could hear the murmur of conversation through the rain that started to fall in thick sheets. The drops pelted the dirt path to the stables, leaving divots in the ground. The perfect cover to overhear whatever plans Riven was devising.

I needed to know if he planned to join me or kill me.

I followed the Halfling to the stables in crouched strides, making sure he didn’t catch sight of my cloak. Instead of crossing through the stalls, I leaped onto the open gate and pulled myself onto the roof.

The stone was slick from the rain, but solid enough to hold my weight. I slowly crossed to the back of the building, testing each step to ensure the Halfling didn’t hear an unexplained creak from above. I perched above a window, my head leaning over the edge of the roof.