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Thea couldn’t help returning the grin as she unsheathed it and held it out to Anya. ‘It certainly does the job.’

‘I’ll say.’ Anya weighed the sword, testing the balance in her hands before handing it back with a nod of approval. ‘Knew you’d have one of your own the next time I saw you. I heard you carved them up good at the Scarlet Tower…’

‘Did a little more than that,’ Thea ventured.

Anya barked a laugh. ‘Heard that too. No putting the lightning back in the bottle, huh?’

‘Not this time.’ Thea sheathed her sword. ‘Did I fuck everything up? By announcing our existence to the world?’

Anya hopped down from the wall and started down the crest in the land. ‘Guess we’ll find out soon enough.’

‘That’s not exactly reassuring.’

‘I’ve never been in the business of reassuring.’

‘Isn’t that what big sisters are for?’ Thea asked, falling in step beside her.

Anya snorted. ‘I’m a bit out of practice.’

‘No shit.’

Thea followed her gaze to a field of golden flowers at the foot of the hill, where several workers were among the rows, harvesting.

‘You going to tell me where everyone is? What the plan is now that we’re here?’

‘There’s an official meeting of allies due to take place here in two days’ time,’ Anya replied. ‘We’ll make all our plans for the war to come then.’

‘And who are these allies? What happened while I was in the Great Rite and dealing with the tower?’

‘We strategised at the Singing Hare for another day after you left, then we went about carrying out those duties – rallying more shadow-touched to our cause, trying to get word of Artos’ treachery to the remaining rulers…’

‘And?’

Anya shook her head. ‘No luck with the rulers. They’re convinced that the Daughter of Darkness is behind all of this, and Queen Reyna hasn’t left her chambers since the death of her husband. They’re saying she’s in no right mind to ally with anyone. Meanwhile, Artos spreads his poison across the lands like a fucking swarm of locusts.’

‘What of Princess Jasira?’ Thea asked, realising with a start that she hadn’t spared her friend a second thought amid the rest of the realm’s horrors.

‘We think she escaped in Vios,’ Anya said. ‘She’s not been seen with Artos, or anyone else, for that matter.’

‘I should have —’

‘You can’t watch everyone, Thea,’ Anya told her. ‘If she’s in danger, it’s because her own father put her there.’

It didn’t stop Thea recalling Jasira’s scream of terror as wraiths had descended on her carriage on the way to the eclipse. She hoped the princess had someone looking out for her now, but Thea knew the best thing she could do was fight – fight for a world in which shadow didn’t swallow all that was good.

Thea glanced at Anya, the note of vulnerability in her voice nearly palpable as she said, ‘Do you think we can win?’

Anya’s jaw worked before she answered. ‘We can win.’

Thea raised a brow. ‘This is where practising your reassurances might come in handy.’

‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ Anya replied. ‘Come. I want to show you what that cloak of darkness has allowed us to do here in Naarva…’

Beneath it, the rebel territory had thrived, not least of which in the breathtaking field of golden blooms before her now. The same flowers she’d seen being carried across the quadrangle the day before.

‘What is all this?’ Thea asked Anya, watching as workers cut blooms from their stems and deposited them in baskets.

‘Our greatest weapon,’ Anya replied. ‘Sun orchids… The natural adversary of anything shadow-touched, myself and Talemir included. Drue and her family discovered them years ago and have been working to grow and harvest them ever since.’