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I grumble an obscenity and throw the blanket over my head. As hungry as I am from not eating at King Cirrus’s table last night, sleep is more of a priority. Getting in late and staying up thinking about Levi and the prophecy have me spent.

The mattress bows at his weight beside me. His large, comforting hand caresses my shoulder. “Aren’t you curious at all? We waited for years for you to come along and now we’ll know the identity of the other savior. Imagine another person like you out there with First City lineage.”

I sit up, knowing I’ve lost the stay-in-bed fight. “That’s what scares me. What type of person, or creature, comes from the First City? The only ones I’ve seen tried to kill us in Tenny Rocks.”

He stands and walks to his desk, picking up a piece of paper. “It is written. There’s not much we can do to change it. You have us, and we’ll do everything in our power to protect you. But we can’t guide the hands of fate. We can’t change your destiny.”

“Give me the damn croissant.” I slide my feet over the side of the bed, let them touch the cold floor, and shiver. The insurmountable mountain I must climb keeps growing—Supes who want to kill me and a prophesied mutant fighting buddy. Worst of all, my best friend is dead. I hate waking up on the wrong side of the bed, but it’s getting to be too much.

After stuffing the roll into my mouth, I pad down the stairs behind Bastian to join the others. I’ve already removed the prophecy from my corset, and I hold it in my hand. Grayson and Evie sit in the living room with mugs of coffee. They stop their conversation when we appear.

Grayson smiles. It’s way too chipper for my tired head. “Looks like it was a rough night.”

Evie shoots him a warning glare before looking at me. “Is that the prophecy?”

I hold the paper in my hand out to her, not wanting the responsibility of reading it. With its fae magic, it’s practically burning a hole in my palm. “Do you think we should read the first half?” I only heard it the time Levi recited it out loud from memory.

“Got it here.” Grayson lifts an open book from the side table next to his chair and runs his fingers along the words.

Bastian and I sit at the table.

“Two cities loom above us all,

one veiled in beauty, and the other darkness.

Both hold death within their walls.

For those saved by Mahogany’s gaze

dance among the fairy rings and a fire’s blaze.

The great wilderness protects the hidden.

Two will rise from the cities’ walls—young and brave and true.

Their sacrifice will save us all

and end the evil reign

of both great cities.”

Evie unfolds the parchment, her hands shaking. Unlike me, those raised in the wilderness have waited years for this. Her eyes flick from Bastian to Grayson to me.

“A seamstress born and raised

among the privileged few.

Abandoned by her father.

Orphaned by her mother.

She’ll learn to fight with

grace and ease, facing friend and foe.

An orphaned son of power

taken well before his time.