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“Isaidlet me handle this,” Kato snapped. Then to Aiden, “It took metwenty minutesto find him. And then when Ifinallyget here, there’s no posted mender, no chart, and apparently no standard of fucking care. If this is your idea of treatment—leaving him to die behind a canvas flap—then we’ll be taking our business elsewhere. Don’t think that just because you’re the only healing park in town that I won’t find something better. You’re not the only one that can treat a Curse.”

“He’s not Cursed,” Aiden said mildly, like he was used to facing down enraged family members.

For the second time, Kato blinked, because apparently that was all he was capable of doing now. “What?”

“I ran some tests. They all came back negative. Skye’s fine. I put him in here to get some sleep until I could get around to treating the wound on his neck. This one, though…” Aiden turned back to Taly. “She sustained a high-grade magical trauma—”

“That’s just a fancy way of saying aether burnout,” Taly interjected with a roll of her eyes.

“—and issupposedto be under observation.”

“I observed myself,” Taly said. “Turns out, I’m fine.”

Aiden didn’t even blink. “That’s not how it works.”

As they continued bickering, Skye sat up, wincing a bit as he shifted. He held the marked shoulder stiff, like the tension in those lines was pulling him sideways. “I liked your speech.”

Kato’s head snapped toward him. “Shut up.”

But his mouth quirked, just enough to be smug. “If I do die, I want you to read my eulogy. You have, and I mean this, such a way with words.”

“I said shut up.”

“Does this mean we can get matching lockets? Because I want mine engraved.”

Kato understood now why Taly was always trying to kill this little shit. Skye was just the kind of person you wanted to strangle.

So, he did.

“I’m going to kill you,” Kato growled, and lunged for his throat.

“I’m healing!” Skye yelped, twisting half-under the blankets. “I’m in a medically fragile state—ow. Get off!”

The cot slammed against the back wall of the tent, knocking a lantern off its hook. Canvas groaned on the poles, one of them bending visibly.

Aiden and Taly paused mid-argument.

Aiden arched a brow. “Should we stop them?”

The tent shuddered as the cot tilted. Skye gasped, “Help—” then choked on the rest.

Taly shrugged, rubbing at a smudge of power on her jaw. “They’re fine.”

Another thump. Something tore.

Aiden sighed and went back to checking her pulse. “Hold still.”

Chapter 63

Sarina. Was. Drunk.

Delightfully so, she thought as she stumbled down the empty street. The old clock tower in the distant Central Square chimed the hour. It was nearly dawn, or what passed for it during Solnar. If she squinted, she could make out theslightestlightening on the horizon.

They’d talked for hours, sitting at the bar and drinking and laughing until night turned to morning. It was the latest Sarina had stayed out in, well, a long time. The first time since she could remember when she’d felt a…sparkof something vital, something shimmering and warm and too long buried awakening like an ember in her heart.

251 years since Madoc died—she’d finally stopped counting the months. But if she was being honest, it had been longer than that since she’d truly feltawake.

“Careful,” Brielle said, gently guiding Sarina back onto the sidewalk and away from the lone horse-drawn carriage plodding down the street. The Fey in the driver’s seat, a Lowborn man with kind eyes peeking out from beneath a worn gray scarf pulled all the way up to his nose, nodded a silent greeting.