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I tiptoed forward, straining my ears with each step.

When I reached where another hallway intersected the one I stood in, I stopped. The talking had ceased, but I picked up on sounds of chewing loud and clear. The human couldn’t be far away and now she was feedingsomeone. Dying to know who it was, I eased forward to peek around the corner.

The human didn’t notice me as she passed a roll through the bars, then a leg of chicken. As the cell she faced was on the same side of the hallway as me, I couldn’t see into it. However, the imprisoned sounded male. Could he be another slave?

That didn’t sound right. In the Vampire Kingdom, if a slave misbehaved enough, they’d either be sold or killed.

Was a rebel in the cell?

That struck me as odd too. In the White Bear’s Pit, I’d witnessed King Magnus sentencing other rebels to death after their crimes. And even if Vale and his soldiers had captured any rebels since last night, why would this slave be feeding them? They’d only have been imprisoned for hours.

Unable to help myself and counting on the human’s inability to see well or far in the dark, I leaned forward, hoping to glimpse the person in the cell, but then my foot caught on a crack, and I fell forward, catching myself with my hands.

A gasp rang out, and I looked up in time to watch the slave stand and sprint in the opposite direction. I pushed up and ran after her. When I reached the cell she’d crouched in front of, I leapt over the abandoned plate of food.

“Wait!” I called out before remembering I might not be in the hidden palace anymore and a jailer could be down here. I promptly shut up and used my breath to sprint after the human.

Thanks to her stifled gait, she didn’t make it to the end of the hall before I caught up and grabbed her.

“Stop. Please,” I hissed. “I don’t want to hurt you. Or tell on you.”

She fought, but I yanked her to face me, and for the first time since I’d been following her, I got a good look at her face.

My lips parted. I recognized the human. She’d been in the kitchens the night of the Courting Festival’s opening ball.

The slave stilled. Her eyes went wide, and her hand trembled as she reached up and touched my scar.

“You,” she whispered. “You’re alive.You’ve come back and you’ve hidden so well. I’ve been too scared to make contact, but . . .” She didn’t finish but flung herself at me, wrapping her arms around me.

I stood there, dumbfounded, as the slave held me in her trembling arms. This human knew me. Or, at least, she thought she did.

“I’m sorry.” I pulled away to take in her watery gaze, her trembling chin. “I didn’t mean to scare you, harm you, or anything of the sort, but I have to know . . . who do you think I am?”

Chapter 28

VALE

Islammed shut yet another shanty door.

“Nothing?” a soldier asked.

“No,” I replied, my emotions barely restrained. Considering I’d been trained in the army to keep my emotions in check under pressure, that said quite a lot. Today we’d found a cache of rebels, but in many other ways, the search hadn’t gone to plan.

While searching for the vampire, I had come across three fae in a home—all drained of blood. From the looks of them, they’d been a family: a mother, father, and youngling of around Filip’s age. It turned my stomach to remember them, bloodless and frozen on the floor of their hut.

And they weren’t the only bloodless fae we’d come across. Far from it.

“Any sighting of the vampire?” I asked, hoping for some goodnews.

“We’ve been all over Rall Row, my prince. Asked as many of the residents as we could too. No one has seen one.” He eyed me, and I could feel him questioning if I’dreallyseen a vampire.

A part of me almost wished I’d hallucinated the creature, but I hadn’t.

“The Warrior Bear is as useless as his father!” one rebel, a mouthy, reedy, young male, cried out from where ten others were being kept under guard. “I don’t know why anyone gave you control of Winter’s Realm when you can’t even find aso-calledvampire in a city of fae. You’d think they’d stand out, wouldn’t you?”

As much as I hated to admit it, the rebel spoke true. In a city of fae, a vampire would be obvious. Especially one with red eyes and wearing the uniform of the Red Assassins.

Then again, if anyone knew how to hide, it was those very assassins, which told me one thing: the vampire recognized me.