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“Are you sure?”

“Positive. I came to tell you the number of sunspots is increasing quickly. A flare is imminent. Then I saw Felix!”

“And many others.”

“How many?”

“Two dozen. Maybe more. A war is brewing.”

“Are they following us?”

“Perhaps.” His jaw ticks. “Or Yagrin’s not really on our side.”

“That’s not it.”

“You don’t know how much of a screwup my brother can be, even on accident.”

I fold my arms. “You shouldn’t talk about him that way. If you want to be frank, the most logical leak in our trio is you. Because I certainly have no love for Beaulah, and I know Yagrin hates that woman.”

“The audacity, that you think you know my brother better than me.”

“You know him, but you don’t see him. Funny, the way he talks, it sounds like he thought that was changing.”

His mouth hardens, and I can feel him tense beside me. Then his shoulders sink. “Look, drop this. None of us are working with Beaulah.” Something like regret glints in his eyes. “I don’t know how Beaulah figured out we’re here. The concierge may have recognized you even though we didn’t give your name. She has eyes everywhere. If they’re here, they’re either planning to follow us when we catch a flare to the Sphere or stop us. We need to adjust our plans.”

My toushana nudges me. “We can damage their numbers…”

His brows crease.

“If they try to follow us when we catch a flare to sun track, neither of us will be able to stop them. There are too many of them. If we want to make out of here with an advantage over Beaulah, we have to do something drastic.”

His expression darkens. “What exactly are you suggesting?”

“We attack them before they attack us or get in our way. We can wait until they’re asleep and do it.”

“You want to raid my own brotherhood? Me, the Dragunheart.”

“Jordan, you said yourself, like Charlie, they’ve chosen their side.”

“We take an oath, sealed in bone and blood, unto death.”

“And yet they are here. Marching for Beaulah to steal the Sphere’s magic.” I hate when he does that. When he gets too scared to actually do something. Our back is up against a wall, can’t he see that? I’m getting to that Sphere before Beaulah. Without dozens of her Draguns following me.

He sighs.

“Have them arrested, send them to the Dragunhead. We have to do something to get rid of some of them. There are three of us!”

His knuckles scrape his jaw. “They’ll deny it. We can’t prove they are here with treasonous intent. Our hands are tied.”

I unleash a cloud of shadows before siphoning it back into myself. “No, they’re not!”

Forty-Nine

Jordan

I storm out of the stairwell. Almost all of the lobby crowd has moved into the dining area. I spot Felix dining with an Unmarked. Eyes follow me through the restaurant, but no one dares say a word.

“Felix. What are you doing here?”