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My gaze drifted to the side, noting Chol, but I refused to actually look at him. Not after she’d exposed me like that. I cleared my throat, then strode toward them. “What are you looking for?” I knew what I was looking for—a way to change the subject. The moment the words left my lips, I noticed the sand.

The shifting sand.

It moved in a way I’d never seen before, not following the pattern of the wind. The grains raced with each other to a destination they seemed to know, as if they were alive. Alaina’s creased brow hinted that she wasn’t directing their movements with her magic, but merely watching. Assessing.

“This is the company you keep?” Chol leaned close to keep the exchange just between us. Clearly, they’d avoided my questions so far.

“They’re…new friends,” I said, peering up at him over my shoulder. Our faces nearly grazed he stood so close. The warmth coming from him caressed my back, and I shivered against the humid night air.

“Look!” Alaina exclaimed, catching all of our attention.

I hurried over, keeping my focus on the preternatural way the ground moved by her command. Footprints indented the sand, as if someone invisible walked among us. No, several invisible someones. But the movements didn’t look right. My hand reached behind me for Chol, as if knowing exactly where he stood, and I clutched his arm, watching it unfold.

A rising stampede of footprints, forming and receding until they nearly vanished. Then Alaina reversed the direction of her open palm, as if turning a doorknob with slow, deliberate ease. I followed her gaze, watching fresh footprints mark the sand. Before, I realized, I’d been watching in reverse, but now it played out as if in real time.

A set of frantic, sloppy steps, until the sets of a few others converged. A massive divot formed, the footprints marching around it. Sand flew in all directions.

“He struggled,” Chol said beside me.

I pieced together what I was looking at. Somehow Alaina was recreating the night Raf had died, summoning the elements to replay the murder.

“The reports suggested he’d been in a tavern brawl before staggering to die alone,” Chol whispered.

So he’d seen the reports himself about this previously unidentified person’s murder. And the reports of the treasury funds. He must hold a high rank in the castle to gain access to these things. What if I’d seen him at the ball, or the luncheon? Maybe he was a guard.

“No, I heard he was jumped by a group. Whoever they are,” I glanced at the moving footprints, “definitely killed him.”

We all watched until the divot stopped moving, and the other footprints retreated down the beach. Her hand dropped to her side, the glow extinguishing from it. “He must have learned information and got caught before he could report back.”

Evenita moved to her side, gathering her arm between her own. “Sor mae tousa, il liedium noctura tempus. Yur streama fortunus al enchantmi et tul.”

Alaina echoed the words.

I waited a moment, allowing them the reverent silence the unknown phrase seemed to call for before asking, “What does that mean?”

“Go easy into the endless night, my friend. May fortune smile upon you in the next life. Roughly translated,” Evenita said.

“In the old language of the divine?” Chol asked from over my shoulder. At some point while I held onto his arm, his other hand found purchase on my waist. A tiny fire erupted between my thighs at his possessive touch.

Evenita simply smiled in confirmation.

The question danced in my eyes: who are you? He merely shrugged in response. I would have punched his shoulder if the situation didn’t require a delicate touch.

“What kind of magic did you just use?” I asked, hoping that wasn’t inappropriate.

“Young Alaina here bends time,” Evenita took it upon herself to answer.

“Wow, I didn’t even know that was a thing,” I admitted. Tolerance for magic? Yes, I had that. Knowledge of it? Nothing beyond school taught basics.

“That was why you wanted to see the body,” Chol said, “to find clues about his cause of death.”

Alaina only nodded, not tearing her eyes away from the spot in the sand where her friend took his last breath.

“Looks like our attempt is in vain. There will be no tracks to follow across the wood-plank pier,” Evenita said, placing a consoling hand on Alaina’s shoulder. “I’ve been unable to see those responsible through my visions. They shield themselves well.”

I could hear the sadness and burden she carried, like perhaps she blamed herself for not being able to do more.

“Wielding time is a rare magic, indeed. You need to be careful. I don’t know what business you have here, but I don’t recommend staying in town,” Chol said, his hand still warming my side.