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Petrik groans at my words and hides his head in his hands. I feel a little guilty, but my first loyalty is to my sister, not my friend.

I continue, “The three of us used a portal to travel to Ravis’s Territory to find her. We did, and she and Petrik made it back through the portal. Kellyn and I were captured. It was awful,” I rush to add. “I didn’t know if you were safe. If you survived. I was trapped a territory away, trying to escape to get to you. I’m sorry it took so long.”

For the second time today, Petrik gets socked in the face.

But Temra doesn’t stop there. She throws herself at him, fists and feet flying. Petrik holds his arms up to try and stop any more blows.

I grab her and haul her off him, her limbs flying every which way as she tries to leap back at him.

“She was in danger! She was captured!” Temra shouts at the scholar. “Oh, just when I started to consider forgiving you for keeping secrets about Kymora! Then I find out that you wentandliedto me about where mysisterwas. How could you? Put me down, Ziva!”

“Not until you calm down,” I say.

“I’ll calm down when I get some answers!” she shrieks.

Petrik works his jaw; I think her fist clipped it hard. A popping sound comes out of his head.

“I was trying to spare you,” Petrik says feebly.

“What?” Temra says. I don’t think she heard him over the sounds of her fidgeting and grunting. But her body finally goes still, so I set her down but prepare myself to intervene if need be.

“You were so injured,” he explains. “You almost didn’t make it. I didn’t know if you could handle learning Ziva was in danger.”

“Oh, so now I’m some delicate thing!” Temra snaps.

“No, no one would ever say that!” Petrik says. “Ziva had just sacrificed herself to save you. I wasn’t about to let that sacrifice be wasted by you plunging yourself into danger to go after her. Ziva wouldn’t have wanted it.”

“You meanyouwouldn’t have wanted it,” she spits back at him. “What about what I wanted? I deserved the truth!”

“I know you. You wouldn’t have been able to help yourself. You would have marched across the country and stormed Ravis’s gates. You can’t take on an army alone. You can’t—”

She hits him again before I can react.

“I hate you,” she says before stomping off.

Petrik’s nose is bleeding again. He hunches rather than stands upright.

“Petrik,” I say. “Thank you. Truly. You saved her more than once.” And then I follow after Temra.

I hadn’t seen much of Skiro’s palace the first time I was here. My mind was set on saving Temra and little else.

But now, as I run after my sister, I’m taken through unfamiliarpassages. Unlike Ravis’s empty halls, Skiro’s are fit to bursting. Tapestries and carpets insulate the rock. Portraits line the walls, and I wonder eerily if any of them are magic portals to other places in the world. The artist’s signature is the same, a looping mess of letters that I can’t actually read. Any empty space of stone has been painted directly. Animals, sceneries, anything living and flourishing.

Skiro is a lover of all kinds of art, and it shows in every bit of his palace. He has a fondness for creation, not destruction. There’s no way he’ll be prepared for the fight Ravis is bringing to him.

Temra lets herself into a set of rooms, leaving the door open so I can follow.

When we fled Lirasu, we took nothing with us save essentials. No personal trinkets or mementos, so Temra doesn’t have anything from our old lives to decorate her rooms at the palace. But her walls are filled with books—gifts from Petrik, I’d wager—and a weapons rack has been recently mounted to one wall.

She’s too angry to talk right away about what happened, so I bathe in silence while she paces back and forth in her room, mumbling her fury to herself.

As soon as I’m clean and in borrowed clothes, I tell Temra I’m leaving to check on Kellyn. As much as I’d love to stay, I already know she’s safe.

I need to know how Kellyn is doing.

He’s unconscious but clean when I find him, and the arrow is gone, which has to be a good sign. Serutha stands over him with her fingers held out over the wound.

I don’t say a word, lest I break her concentration.