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Anton followed. “How?”

“I have some of his blood.” She still had a vial left from what she had drained from him ages ago—the last she had saved from the tests she had run. It had to be enough.

Anton arched an eyebrow, but he didn’t argue the point, instead switching tactics. “You don’t know what you’re walking into. It could be dangerous.”

“Which is exactly why you need to stay here,” Shan said. “Because I can’t be looking out for you, too.” She saw him wince but pressed on. “If I don’t make it back, you’ll need to go to the King. Tell him everything—your blood or his, as long as Samuel or I live—”

“We can find you,” Anton said. “But why don’t you go to him now?”

“Because I don’t trust him with Samuel!” She stopped, the truth that she had been avoiding hitting her hard. “I don’t trust him to save Samuel.”

Anton stared at her for a long moment. “He means that much to you?”

Shan didn’t bother lying. “He does.”

“Then go.” She turned to him in shock, but he just nodded—encouraging.

She didn’t say goodbye—she didn’t make any promises she couldn’t keep. She just pressed a kiss to his cheek and turned on her heel, her feet light and silent as she ran to her laboratory to grab the vial of blood. She didn’t even stop to reset the ward afterwards, she just continued on her way.

Dragging a claw against the back of her hand, she quickly lapped at the fresh blood. As it passed her lips, everything around her stilled and sharpened, her magic reaching out to find bridges to build and bind. But she didn’t want that now, so she focused her power inwards, making herself quicker and stronger. Not superhuman, but peak human. She might be slight, but she was determined, and she had years of Blood Working and training on her side.

Throwing open the trapdoor to the rooftop, she pulled herself up onto the cold tiles. The sky was an endless void above her, just starting to turn light. For a moment the panic she felt vanished, her focus crystallized into this one, vibrant thing. This freeing moment, here on the rooftops, thrumming with the power of the magic in her veins.

Grabbing the vial, she thumbed off the top and pressed it to her lips. She let Samuel’s blood flow into her, filling her with power and life. And best of all, just the faintest sense of where he was. The thinnest of threads, but still.

It was enough.

The vial slipped from her fingers, and she let it fall to the roof, where it clattered and rolled off the edge. She heard it break on the cobblestones below, shattering into hundreds of pieces.

“I’m coming,” she swore.

She turned west, away from the sea, and burst into motion.

Chapter Forty-Three

Samuel

Samuel woke slowly to the sound of a bitter argument, the voices rising and falling as they went back and forth. He attempted to lift his hand to his eyes, to rub the sleep from them, only to feel it snap against a slab of cold metal, pinned by leather restraints.

Isaac.

He tried to sit up, to scream for help, but he was bound and gagged, strapped to a metal table like an offering to a dark god. Panic seized him, and he thrashed against the bindings, tugging at the leather. But they were too tight, and he collapsed back against the table, gasping into the gag.

“You’re awake,” Isaac said, moving into his line of sight. Beyond him, Samuel could make out that he was in some kind of laboratory, implements of Blood Working scattered around them. But unlike Shan’s laboratory, or the Eternal King’s, this room was dark. Cramped. Dank.

“I’m sorry,” Isaac continued. “We couldn’t let you…” he gestured vaguely towards the gag, and Samuel narrowed his eyes at him. Of course. They couldn’t risk him using his power, marching them straight to the King and forcing them to confess—exactly like they had planned to.

Though—we?

He pushed himself up as much as he could and was just able to spot a familiar figure hanging back against the wall. Cold, ice eyes. A shorn head. The dark robes of the Guard.

“Ah.” Isaac glanced over his shoulder. “Yes. I didn’t do this all by myself. You know Alessi, don’t you?”

She stepped forward, her face expressionless as she studied him like he was some kind of specimen. Samuel lurched away. It made too much sense—they had seen a Guard helping him flee the central square, and Alessi had been the one finding all the bodies, leading the investigation. She was perfectly positioned to deflect attention away from the real culprits.

It was brilliant.

“Listen,” Isaac said, drawing Samuel’s attention back to himself. “It doesn’t have to be this way. You can still join us.”