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Kah entered the alcove and dropped something he was carrying in his mouth beside the waterskin. Our eyes met. I could tell he wanted to speak, but his words didn’t reach me. That’s when I knew—the malarite had severed our connection.

Skies, no.

Suddenly, I had to force air into my lungs. No matter what had happened in my life, the bond between us had never been broken. The overwhelming feeling of loss was crippling. I felt like a piece of my soul had been ripped away, leaving behind nothing but a hollow expanse in my chest.

“Jeddak, are you all right? What did Kah say?” Raven said, her eyes wide with concern as she glanced back and forth between us.

“I—” I started to tell her that everything was fine, but I couldn’t. For the first time in my life, I didn’t know if anything would be fine again. Not if I couldn’t connect with Kah. Not if we couldn’t reach Askeland in time because of this stupid injury. Nothing was going according to plan. The problem was, Raven didn’t even know what the plan was.

When I didn’t respond, she picked up the bundle Kah had brought. “What’s this?”

I studied the pile of silvery-green leaves with jagged edges in her palm. “It’s basamweed.” I offered Kah a faint smile of thanks. With a nod, he retreated to the courtyard to keep watch. I swallowed the lump rising in my throat. “It’ll help my wound heal faster,” I explained to Raven, trying to focus on anything that wasn’t this painful pit of emptiness growing inside me.

“What do you need me to do?”

Per my instructions, Raven used a stone to crush the basamweed into a paste to release the oils. When it was ready, she untied my bandage and spread the paste directly onto the wound. It burned like she’d just lit me on fire. I gritted my teeth to keep from shoving her away.

“Sorry,” she said.

While she replaced the bandage, I leaned my head back against the wall again and closed my eyes to wait for the burning to subside. I was exhausted, and my skin felt hot and sweaty despite the fact I was freezing. I needed to conserve my strength and give the basamweed time to work.

When she was finished, I felt her touch my necklace. “Is this an amulet?”

“No …” I faltered. I didn’t want to talk about the necklace Lila had given me. “It’s just a reminder of home.” It wasn’t a lie. It wasn’t the whole truth either.

“It’s beautiful,” she said, her fingers now moving to trace along my chest tattoos. “What do your markings mean?”

I could tell she was trying to distract me from the pain. I let her. Her touch was making me feel calmer while the pain and emptiness raked my body. Within a few minutes, my ragged breathing slowed.

“I was born with most of them, just like all Kovaks,” I said, not opening my eyes. My voice was hoarse from the pain. “Mine are similar to my father’s. Except for a few. Like this one.” Without needing to look, I touched the marking below my collarbone in the shape of two crossed staffs with a circle of fire around it.

“How did you get it, then?” Our fingers brushed together as she drew her fingertip across the symbol. My skin tingled at her touch.

“A Magi.”

“A Magi?” That seemed to surprise her. Some people feared the Magi tribe because of their unbound magic and cunning tricks, like Sal Sahteene and other Magis who demanded much more than a few secrets in exchange for their services. But not all Magis were untrustworthy.

“One of the powerful ones,” I said, pausing to catch my breath. Talking hurt. Breathing hurt. Everything hurt. “I heard he has many names, but my people call him The Northman. When I was born, he came down from the north woods to bestow my parents with a gift. This was the gift—a permanent protection spell for their firstborn child.”

“Um, I hate to say this, but I don’t think it worked very well tonight.”

I had to agree with her. The protection spell had never prevented me from getting injured, which had always made me curious about what itwasdesigned to protect me against. Maybe the Magi from the north had played a trick on me after all.

“But fortunately,someoneprotected us,” Raven added.

The bowman.

I opened my eyes to look at her. “A friend of yours?”

She shook her head and let her fingers fall away from my chest. The pain instantly intensified. “I don’t think so. If the bowman knows me, why stay hidden? I thought it must be someone you knew.”

“My only friends are Kovaks. And they’re not known for hiding in the shadows during a fight.”

“Then who do you think it was?”

“I don’t know,” I said, staring past Raven toward the courtyard. The wind howled outside the alcove. “No one lives around these ruins anymore.”

“Could someone have followed us here?”