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“I thought about it.” He circles us in his ridiculous boots, clip-clopping like this is merely a dance for him. “You’re far more use alive.”

I yank my head up to his smirk.

“Akla did well following you, you see. She reported unusual closeness to not one of my nephews, but both. She says they seem fond of you. You spend considerable time with them.”

He crouches and tips my chin with the end of one of his crude nails. “I want to use that.”

“I won’t—”

He covers my lips with a finger. “Don’t speak rashly without knowing the rules.” He leans in. “If you refuse, your Akilah will be the first to go. If you refuse again, it’ll be the little girl she fought so hard to protect.”

She was protecting Lucetta. I let the tears fall.That’s why she said she was willing.

The high duke sighs. “I do get sentimental over great shows of love.” He stands and returns to his throne with a majestic sweep of his cloak. “Akla!”

Megaera appears with a bow and drags us to our feet with magic; I fight to keep hold of a stirring Akilah while the high duke uses the tip of a steel nail to clean under his fingernails.

As the nave doors close behind us, he muses, “I wonder how long it’ll take them to return, once they hear?”

Anxiety is spilling out of Florentius when he comes to our side. Akilah’s eyes slowly focus on him and she smiles. “Don’t come too close. I’m arealmess today.”

Her head lolls back to my shoulder, and Florentius snatches her wrist to read her pulse.

“I need swiftleaf to treat her,” I say, voice breaking. “I haven’t...”

Magic pours out of him and into her, but his spell is interrupted.

“Enough,” Megaera says. “Get moving.”

At Megaera’s direction, redcloaks drag us to a mouldy boat and we’re dumped on a rocky shore. I look around us, pulse tripling, and laugh. It echoes off damp rocks and toad-infested water. I keep laughing until there’s no breath left in me.