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“Different,” she murmurs, finding some borage on my table to help against my pain. “You could go south, to Iskaldir; learn from my systra. You’d besafethere.”

Safe, but useless. “I won’t let them hurt you,” I say. “Don’t worry.”

“But I care about you, too.”

Ignoring the sharp throbbing in my back and ribs, I wrap my arms around her. “I’ll lead them to the farmlands and lay low there. Read nighttime stories to Lucetta for me, alright?”

She starts crying, and I feel a sharp pang of guilt. But right now, luminists are prowling our courtyards. I must leave here, and take the tithiscar with me.

“How will you get out?” Mother sniffs.

“I can help with that.” The deep voice is followed by the quick shift of the curtain and Silvius rising from the bed. He tosses the violet oak coffer lazily, catching it with practised ease.

My mother gasps, her gaze darting to the tithiscar; her hand shoots to her chest as she stumbles backward, her voice squeaky with disbelief. “You—you have a— Arcane Sovereign help us—”

She sways and crumples.

I barely catch her before she hits the floor. Silvius quickly helps me settle her on the bed; her eyes ping open but at Silvius’s deep “My apologies,” she promptly faints again.

I call up a calming spell, but I don’t have time to give it to her. A shadow passes the back window, accompanied by a chime from the luminist’s bell. Silvius’s grip on my wrist is surprisingly steady for someone just woken from the brink of death. “Time to go,” he says, voice low.

I barely have time to draw a breath as he thrusts us through the door and a swirl of air wraps around us. “What—”

“Cael!” I turn to Akilah running towards me, fear in her eye as she sees Silvius holding me around the waist.

“I have to,” I gasp.

She throws herself around my legs. “Not without me.”

Wind whips around us; with a lurch, Silvius sweeps us upwards, into the starry night.

He settles us carefully onto an old dirt road bathed in moonlight. Farmland meets mountains in the distance. All is quiet, except for the whisper of grass bowing towards us in a breeze. Akilah lurches away, shaken, happy to be on solid ground, and Silvius chuckles with a grin that makes my breath catch.

“I’ll take you to the eparchess here,” he says, gesturing toward the silhouette of a grand manor in the near distance. “You’ll be safe with her.”

The dome of a luminarium close by has me hesitating. “Are you sure?”

“Quite.” He touches his belt, where the tithiscar is fastened safe. “I’ll return this, and they’ll calm their hunt.”

He moves towards the manor, gaze flashing over me as Akilah shuffles a few feet behind, scanning for potential threats.

I flatten my hair. “Is it a big mess after that?”

Silvius laughs. “I’ve been staring. My apologies... I’m indebted to you, ah...?”

“Amuletos. Caelus.”

“Amuletos.” At the manor gates, he pauses; I bump into his arm and quickly pull back, but the air between us feels sharper. “Stay here,” he murmurs. “I’ll speak with her first.”

Akilah prods me between the shoulders when he’s gone. “Will he be your next Maskios?”

“What does that mean?” I whisper, my pulse ticking wildly at the mere mention.

She laughs, and I elbow her into silence when Silvius returns with a tall woman whose insightful eyes seem to scan me like a picture.

“They just need to lie low a while,” Silvius says as he makes introductions.

“You’ve never brought me strays before,” she murmurs.