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Glancing over her shoulder, Magda saw the jacket the assassin discarded, wrapped in vines. She approached it, tearing it from the thorns and examining it. On the inside of the jacket was an embroidered insignia of a beast.

“We can’t let her get away,” Magda said assertively.

“How will we find her?” Kiran asked.

Magda flashed the inside of the jacket to the two princesses.

Ishani froze. “The Marauders.”

“That doesn’t make sense though,” Magda muttered. “The assassins that came after me were Ilusaurian. Now they’re Flaustran?”

“They could easily be taking on disguises,” Ishani said. “Or, Claude realized sending assassins in his kingdom’s attire was a poor choice, and so he sent these disguised as Flaustrans.”

“We’ll do it together,” Magda told Ishani.

Ishani nodded, before giving her sister a hug, and saying that she would order fifteen of her men to not take a single eye off of Kiran. Until Ishani came back to the palace, they were ordered to stay locked in a bunker on the second floor.

“Fine, I’ll go hide. But promise me nothing will happen to you,” said Kiran.

“I promise. I’ll come back here, and we’ll bury mom properly.”

Kiran held back tears, turning her face away from Magda as she dashed out of the room.

Ishani approached Magda. “Up for another adventure to Vex’s hideout?”

“Another?” Magda question.

“Don’t be so naive. I know you killed Vex.”

“How did you even find out—” Magda started, but Ishani cut her off.

“You’re gonna have to keep up if you’re one of the three remaining guardians left in the world.”

The words stung, but Magda changed the subject, “How do you know the assassin will be there?”

“I don’t. But where else should we start looking?”

“Fair point. But first I need to talk to someone, and for that to happen, I need you to release someone from jail. His name is Ravi Kalal. The officers just locked him up a few hours ago even though he didn’t commit any major crimes.”

“The boy that you hang out with all over the city? Sentencing is now Kiran’s decision as the reigning guardian,” Ishani shrugged.

“That doesn’t matter,” said Magda, “As a guardian, I outrank you.”

“Princess, I think I’m a much better partner to take on a mission to hunt down an assassin.”

“What, jealous much?”

“Not really. Are you sleeping together?”

Magda’s face flushed bright red. She didn’t have to answer to Ishani…in fact, she didn’t have to answer to anyone. “That’s none of your business.”

“By the guardians, it’s not that big of a deal. Tell me.”

“In Azurem, you only talk about those things with people you’re close to.”

“Well, we’ll be spending a lot of time together from now on,” said Ishani with a twinkle in her eye.

“What makes you think that?” asked Magda.