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But for once, my issues with Croygen took a back seat. Killian was all I thought of. My memory was full of the boy I grew up with, who became not just my best friend, but my family. One of the only people I truly trusted in this world. And when he left, I pretended it didn’t break my heart, yet it had.

All those feelings of guilt, hurt, anger, and love simmered in my limbs, twitching and moving my body relentlessly.

I couldn’t sit here not knowing the truth. Not knowing if he was only a few kilometers from me.

Lifting my head, I scanned the room, my senses picking up that everyone was sleeping. With a command, my muscles retracted, my bones popping, and in a blink, my four paws landed softly on the wood floor, leaving my tank and undies in a pool at my feet. Leaping up on the windowsill, I glanced back, watching for any movement before I jumped out the window to the ground below.

My paws padded over the cobblestone, my slick black fur slipping into the darkness like it was part of it. It felt good to be in my cat form, to become almost invisible to people, easily winding through the city with no one noticing me. It was freeing, reminding me of how often the stresses of trying to get money and keep my crew together would send me on nightly escapades. I would walk the whole city, letting myself just be in the moment.

Trotting over the bridge, crossing from the Pest to Buda side, my whiskers twitched at the magic thickened by the cluster of fae in one area. The air also held a different weight—a command, power. Confidence that humans and even fae would find daunting. A dominance that didn’t need to be said because it just was.

Guards were positioned at every gate leading up to the palace, and I had no doubt there were more hidden around, unseen. I sensed magic laced around fences, alarms that would set off if things like me tried to slither through. Hopping up on a high wall at the border of his royal grounds, I was able to see what most couldn’t: a clear view of the palace.

The front arched with high windows and doors, a balcony waiting for speeches to be made to the masses. The old royal castle was a mix of neo-baroque, medieval, and modernism. Beautiful, but it felt somber, with fewer embellishments compared to the Parliament building across the Danube.

Soft light glowed from inside the upstairs room of the main building, the chandeliers dimmed low as if someone was awake but wasn’t ready for the harshness of the day to begin. Enjoying the time when it was quiet and still, most of the world asleep, and the demands of the day were still a few hours off.

A silhouette moved by a window like a ghost, causing my heart to ball up in my throat, as if something in me recognized him before my brain did. The figure pushed out the glass doors with what looked like a drink in his hand, sleeves rolled up on his white dress shirt, the top buttons open, letting me see a hint of the tattoo on his chest. One I knew. He ran his hands through his hair with frustration as he stepped out to the railing, the light from the palace igniting his features.

A gasp stuck in my throat, sounding like a yowl, emotion slamming into me with force. Shock shifted my body from cat to human and back again before I reined in control, digging my claws into the stone wall to keep steady.

Oh gods.

I heaved in oxygen, black dots hindering my vision. Deep down, I knew, but I still wasn’t prepared.

It was Killian… my Killian.

Every memory, every tiny detail of my youth, was connected to him, from the moment they found him hiding on our ship to the night he walked away from me for good. It felt like I had locked everything that had to do with him away, and now that box had been torn open, dumping it all out at once, overloading my senses.

“Killian.” His name came out a choked cat cry of emotion, drowning me in memories, sending me into the past.

“Kitty-Kat?” Killian climbed the ratlines up to me, his voice slightly croaking out my name. Every day, I swore he grew another inch just to spite me. The crew teased him all the time now about his deepening voice, what a ladies’ man he was going to be, and the fact soon they’d be bringing him to “shore.” I knew what that meant, and it made me feel ill that my friend would do things with those types of ladies. Another one who would choose those women over me, leaving me alone.

“Hey?” He plunked down next to me in the crow’s nest, knowing exactly where to find me.

I kept my knees pulled into my chest and sniffed.

“Don’t cry.” He tried to wipe a tear away.

“I’m not.” Brushing away the evidence, I scowled at him, though I was angry at myself.

“Are you upset about training?” He spoke softly, like he didn’t want to unleash the wild animal in me.

I was told many times I had a temper, but lately it seemed to be out of control.

“You almost beat me. I swear,” he soothed, like I needed to be lied to.

I glared at him over my shoulder, keeping my head tucked against my knees.

“Then what’s wrong, Kitty-Kat?” He rubbed at his chest, the new tattoo healing. Captain had placed his brand, the tattoo of a pirate, near his heart, declaring Killian as a full crew member.

Even I hadn’t gotten that yet. It made me sick with jealousy. I wanted Croygen to brand me. To claim I was his too.

“Kitty-Kat?”

I exhaled, not knowing what exactly was wrong. My feelings were all over the place, and I felt something was changing with Killian. We were best friends. I couldn’t imagine doing anything without him. I liked how things were, but even in myself, I felt different when he looked at me. An awareness in his touch that bugged me.

“Maybe this will cheer you up.” A smile pulled his mouth, his hand digging into his pocket. “I got you something when Captain took me to the market with him today.”