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“Try to get it back?” Evelyn sighed. “I did. After exhausting the library in Nua before I left, I sought texts elsewhere. Nothing. No witch loses their bronntanas. Sure, it can become weakened and need rest, but it’s never . . . gone. So I traveled to the mages, visited temples, prayed to the Sun Goddess.” Evelyn shook her head. “All I heard was the voice of my father, his last words to me before he died.”

“And what were they?” Tovi asked.

“Believe,” Evelyn whispered.

“Well, sometimes the strongest magic is belief,” Tovi said, laying a hand over Evelyn’s.

A bitterness coated Evelyn’s tongue, and she wasn’t sure she agreed with Tovi. She believed plenty. In the prophecy. In the Sun Goddess. In the efforts against vampyr. Why had she lost her flame? Perhaps, because her bronntanas had been gifted by the Goddess herself, the Goddess had taken it back.

Tovi shifted in her seat, pulling her hand back. “Speaking of Kade, has your ‘valiant’ and ‘courageous’ betrothed come sniffing about?”

Her friend mocked Kade’s portrayal in the pamphlets, and Evelyn managed a laugh.

“No,” she said. “He’d never betray the ‘wishes of the Elders.’”

Considering he hadn’t attended her parents’ funeral, this wouldn’t be any different. Evelyn couldn’t explain why, but his absence had left a sour taste in her mouth. If they were to be husband and wife, shouldn’t he have come to offer support?

Evelyn shook her head. It no longer mattered. She’d run from her duty and their union. She was here as Saige Ferriwether and no longer third-born Daughter of the Goddess.

“Have you heard of the vampyr in Callum?” Evelyn asked.

Tovi straightened, and her mouth fell open. “A vampyr? Evelyn, how in Goddess’s name would they make it here?”

Evelyn shrugged, still wondering the same thing. “I don’t know, but a young woman was murdered. I saw her body today. All the signs fit.”

Tovi sipped her wine, licking her lips and swirling the burgundy liquid. Sultry, bashful. Tovi possessed an air that demanded attention. Men at university had followed her like bees to honey, but she never seemed to notice.

“Well—”

“Tovi, you failed to mention your friend is a striking sight,” a gruff voice said.

Evelyn turned to find a rake of a man leaning against the doorframe. Jade eyes—twins to Tovi’s—zeroed in on her, trailing her from head to toe. Riven possessed the same allure as his sister. Tall, thin, and limber, with his long, pale blond hair pulled to the side, a few thinly braided strands throughout. Gaunt cheekbones, a curved smirk of a smile, and a walk more like a prowl.

As he reached the table, he outstretched a hand stained by printer ink. Evelyn expected a simple handshake, but he planted a kiss on her knuckles, his jade eyes never leaving hers.

“Tovi also failed to mention her brother is a flirt,” Evelyn said with a raised brow.

He laughed and his eyes flashed, Goddess, with determination.

“Riven, Evelyn is off-limits, and you very well know that.” Tovi stood and invaded Riven’s space, pushing him from the table as she gathered their wine glasses and empty bottle.

Riven’s gaze still flicked over Evelyn, conveying interest. “Well, from what you told me, Tovi, Evelyn is a runaway bride, which, I believe, contradicts your last statement.”

Shocked, Evelyn looked at Tovi.

A look of guilt crossed her face, and then she waved her hand. “Riven knows, but don’t worry. He has no friends or any acquaintances to even blab to.”

“Well, that’s a relief and a trait I don’t doubt,” Evelyn said.

Riven placed his hand over his heart and pretended to wince. “You wound me, Miss Carson.”

Tovi grabbed her coat, and Evelyn gathered it was time to leave. Her magic sensed the tension between the two siblings. Tovi had explained earlier that she’d arrived to keep Riven in line as he operated the business during storm season, but Riven didn’t enjoy being monitored.

Evelyn stood, putting on her coat by the door.

Tovi joined her and turned to Riven. “Evelyn was telling me about a vampyr murder in Callum,” she said. “Who did you say it was?”

“McKenna McCarthy.”