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“The cut on your neck. The lash scars on your back. When too much of the mineral gets in our blood, it can sever our connection to the magic—” She stopped herself when there was a loud rap on the door, but I’d heard the last word clearly:permanently.

Was she right? I’d always thought if I could scrub the malarite dust off my skin, my magic would return. If it didn’t—skies, I couldn’t think about that now.

A guard’s voice bellowed through the closed door. “The matron wants you two back in the lower level now!”

Without hesitation, Sable and Krish bustled about the room collecting their things.

“Wait, no, don’t leave,” I begged, glancing nervously at Meat’s unconscious form on the floor.

Krish didn’t even seem to hear me. “Hurry up!” she snapped at Sable, eager to leave.

“I’m sorry,” Sable whispered, her pained expression telling me she was already worried about her little brother. She scurried out of the room behind the Jakeen girl, and I was left alone.

In the silence, I could hear my heart pounding.

With the two guards asleep, this was my one chance to find a way to escape. I couldn’t slip through the doors with the other guards stationed outside, so I tore through the room, searching for secret passages behind all the tapestries and trapdoorsunderneath the rugs. Then I pulled out drawers, toppled furniture, threw books on the floor, looking for keys or lock picks or anything useful.

There was nothing.

While I was trying to figure out what to do next, a hand clamped over my mouth.

Hot breath hit my cheek. “How’d you know red was my favorite color?”

Meat was awake.

10

Jeddak

“This is not good news,” I said to Kah when I left the Magi’s tent and stepped back out into the chilly night air of the marketplace. “Before, Sal made it sound like the stone wasinMalengard. Not agirlwho has amapthat canleadus to the stone.”Blazen Magis and their riddles.

“It’s not the worst news, either. We know exactly how to find the stone now,” Kah said from the necklace.

“The map might as well be in the fire pits of Kalkut and surrounded by a wall of deadly bramble,” I said, pulling the hood of my cloak over my head as I trekked south away from the market center. “That would be easier to get to than stealing it from Bloodbain’s prisoner.”

“You’re being dramatic.”

I wished I was. “Even if wecanreach her, she’s not going to hand over the map. You saw the way she looked at me on the platform, Kah. She hates me. She’s never going to trust me after what I did. And I don’t blame her.”

“You seem more worried about the girl than the stone.”

“What does that mean?” I said hotly, dodging a wagon rumbling down the avenue.

“I know how you get, Jeddak. I saw how you looked at her in the mine. You need to stay focused on finding the stone.”

“I did notlookat her,” I argued.

“Well, you nearly blew our cover to help her.”

“What? Did you expect me to just stand there and let that guard attack her?”

“No, but it wouldn’t hurt for you to think before diving headfirst into every blazen fight.”

“I do not—” I cut myself off, refusing to have this same argument with Kah again. I resisted the urge to chuck the pendant containing his voice underneath the rolling wagon wheels. The only thing that stopped me was that Lila had given me this necklace before it contained the Magi’s spell. The circular metal charm was etched with a symbol of the sun.You’re the light of my world, she’d told me. I wished I could talk to her now. Somehow, she always knew how to calm the fighter inside me who never wanted to back down.

I released a frustrated exhale and abruptly changed the subject. “We need to get some supplies if we’re going to pull this off.” We had less than two days before this spell wore off, and I planned to be long gone from Malengard when it did—along with the map.

As I walked down the avenue, I scanned the row of tents and booths, looking for a supply vendor who was open this late.