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Another half dozen soturi of Ka Kormac emerged from the shadows, and I stepped back, my chest rising and falling in rapid succession.

I couldn’t kill her. Not like this. Not if I was going to survive.

Slowly, I stepped back, silently replacing my blade and clutching my chest, sure my heart was pounding as loud as a drum.

I turned the corner and found myself once more in the safety of the shadows. But I was not alone.

Mercurial stood there, his arms folded across his chest. He leaned his head forward, sniffing me with a grin. “Very good,” he said. “I’m glad to see my goddess has allowed her mind to think before her body reacts.”

I snarled. “Did you know? Did you know it was her?”

“And to think only moments ago, you were blaming me for his death. How the perception of the world around you changes. Though I admit, it brings me pleasure to see you placing the blame where it rightly belongs. One day, you and your little not-lord might do the same for yourselves, for all the guilt you carry for deaths that were orchestrated before you were even born.”

“I have to stop her. I can’t let her go into power.”

“You can, and you will. But not tonight. Because we’re about to play the long game, Goddess. Bamaria isn’t stable. But soon it will be. Before you can find justice for your father and justice for your mother….”

I gasped. For my mother. By the Gods…there had been a reason why power had gone to my father instead of the next woman in the bloodline. For the first time ever, I considered that my mother hadn’t just gotten sick, she’d been murdered. And most likely, by my aunt. My mother had known…known not to trust her.

Mercurial licked his thumb then pushed back my hair over my forehead and flounced some of my locks across my shoulder. I flinched.

“First, you’re going to find your magic power. I will ensure it. For that is the only way you will pay your debt to me.”

“My magic?” I asked.

“My remembered goddess, did you truly think you had none? No, you just have to come by it through a different path. Luckily, I have a map. Now go in there and play dumb, forget what you’ve seen. And when the time is right, you will strike and have your revenge. And then you will retake the throne of Bamaria.”

“We don’t have thrones here," I said, dully.

He pressed his hand to my armor, the gold warming to my chest, igniting the fire inside my heart and the Valalumir of our contract.

Mercurial vanished, leaving behind only his feline grin. “You will.”